Review of Spaulding Nursing & Therapy Center - Brighton

2 Star User Review

Apparently it's better than most for long-term patients, but I don't recommend this facility for post-surgical patients. I was transferred from New England Baptist Hospital four days after a difficult knee replacement conversion, and stayed a week.

The problem is that the culture and staffing is geared to a long-stay facility, and actual medical support is difficult to obtain. It's hard to actually get a nurse, or even a n LPN or nursing assistant, to come. They weren't aware of my specific medical orders, and instead followed policies that were "always the way we do it here", like removing my embolism stockings at night, even though my surgeon's orders were for 24/7. They garbled dose instructions when my blood pressure medication was being adjusted, and the staff physician just didn't respond to my requests to stop by. On one serious occasion, a night shift nurse finally listened to my concern, and called the physician at 6 AM. He said my message the day before had never been relayed to him.

One aide refused to help me pull up my embolism stocking, because she thought it was on good enough, and another didn't want to bring me tape to protect my dressing while I showered, because they were "going to change it anyway", so it didn't matter if it got wet. Most patient care is left to aides who are undertrained in patient care, and undersupervised. Their focus is on housekeeping duties, and they're openly resentful of the "extra" work of surgical patients. They complained openly (to her!) when my room mate asked to be assisted to the bathroom, and argued among themselves about whose turn it was to go on break when she needed help. They seemed unaware or unconcerned that patients could hear them as they argued and gossiped through their shifts, often not even speaking to my elderly room mate, who was totally cogent and aware.

Finally, the habit of staff gathering in patient areas to ventilate about their dissatisfaction is somewhat terrifying. Over my lunch, I had to listen to three of them commiserating about how much they hated it when they got the assignment of taking a body down to the morgue by themselves. Apparently, an employee had just refused that task.