1 Star User Review
My father was a patient at Mt. Olympus Rehabilitation Facility in 2012 on two separate occasions and under no circumstances would I ever allow him to return there as a patient. The quality of his care was very uneven and it is disturbing to see such high ratings for this facility. Staff were friendly but too often the smiles and friendliness were distractions, covering extreme incompetency. To wit:
1. He was transferred from the VA hospital with a prescription. After the first week I questioned whether he was receiving it so I asked the med nurse who checked the chart, discovered that I was correct, that the medication was in fact on the cart, but was unopened.
2. My father was admitted to Mt. Olympus with an order from the VA doctors to receive oxygen at night. The tank and tubes were next to his bed, but as I said good-night to him about three weeks into his stay, I questioned if it was being turned on. It was not. I asked the nursing staff and his aides about this on several occasions and received assurances he would be connected that evening. Finally, after I made a point of staying with him until he was going to bed, I wound up following a nurse throughout the entire building as he searched for the missing ingredient -- a special (distilled?) water. The nurse discovered Mt. Olympus didn't have any on-site. A few days later, my father finally began to receive the oxygen he had been missing for nearly one month.
3. Again, after about one month, I was in my father's room when the Occupational therapist arrived. On that visit, I discovered that not one person had helped him to brush his teeth! The evidence was clear -- his toothbrush and paste were unopened. Yet it was a bacterial infection in his mouth that had caused his admittance to the hospital in the first place! I made an appointment with the head of nursing who at first refused to believe this had happened. However, when I told her about the unopened toothbrush and paste and the confirmation of the occupational therapist, she relented and said that "as I might understand," often the aides simply didn't like to do that job, but she would bring it up to them.
4. One evening my husband was sitting with my father when an aide came in to give him medications. My husband asked what they were and she said he was receiving his daily dose of stool softener. Yet my father had been suffering from severe diarrhea for more than 48 hours and was on anti-diarrhea medication. Does any one ever stop to think or read a patient's chart? Apparently not.
In the end it was a call from a nurse who "confidentially" told me to get him out of this facility! In less than 24 hours we had him out of there.
5. Finally, I regularly checked with the billing department about what expenses we were incurring. They assured me they were in regular communication with his insurance company (a medicare supplement) and the VA benefits department to monitor what his stay and care would cost. At some point I was told my father had met all deductibles and his bills would now be completely covered. About three months after his discharge, he received a bill for $1700 because his insurance had denied all the claims.
Is Mt. Olympus the worst facility of its kind in the Salt Lake Valley? Probably not, but if it can receive this many positive reviews, the state of healthcare for seniors is more alarming than I imagined and the future for those of us who will one day become patients is frightening.
Interesting that this site will not allow me to give Zero Stars and in order to post my review it has to be a One Star rating. Where is the minus Star option???