Brooke Grove Rehabilitation & Nursing Center Sandy Spring, Maryland 20860
I have a relative staying there during July 2016 so I had an opportunity to observe the facility first hand.
The hardware is very nice. They offer semi-private rooms covered by Medicare, and private rooms for out-of-pocket charge of $50 per day. The building is well-maintained, clean and quiet. The outdoor garden is pleasant and attracts many residents weather permitting. Each wing has about 10 rooms, with its own dining area. This setting is good for the residents to get to know each other. They have a well-equipped PT facility and daily cultural activities.
However, the management is poor. The staff members are hardly available for extra help (call buttons are left unanswered for a long time). Over the day, many staff mills around. It is difficult for the resident to know whom is responsible for what (so they can ask the right person for help). Plus, many of the staff members do not speak English well, adding to the difficulty to communications. They are always in hurry and can be rough in helping patients to turn in bed or to go to bathroom. Communications with the families is ineffective. There is no single point of contact for the family. For different issues you need to call different people, and those calls and emails are often left unanswered. There are good, responsive staff members. However, there is not a good common practice.
During my relative's stay they dropped the ball a few times. When my relative was discharged from hospital, the doctor wants follow up in two weeks. However, the facility never scheduled it. After repeated calls to the head nurse, the visit was accomplished 5 weeks after discharge. The doctor prescribed pain killer but the family could not find out when and how much it was actually taken (the resident did not have good memory and people at the nursing station could not find record). On a smaller matter, they delivered three pieces of clothing to my relative's room, which does not belong to my relative. We kept sending them back to the nurse station and they kept coming back to the room for three times, before discharge. On an even smaller matter, the hand sanitizer dispenser at the building door is left empty 8 out of 10 times. These incidents show an ineffective operation management.
To summarize, this is a good resource to use if you have a clear mind and can pretty much take care of yourself. If you have to rely on the staff physically or mentally, it would be a risky undertaking.