Several years ago our mother and father were in this home. Me being a Senior Advocate for many years, I kept close eye on my mom and her care. She was a stroke victim and couldn't communicate with the nurses or us.
Before we placed our parents in this home, the Admitance person, Sister Michaeline Vomund promised us that if or when they ran out of money, and had to go to Medicare and Medicaid, she would stay in the same room and nothing would change. I made her promise me that that was the truth. Well, as soon as mom's finances ran out the moved mom to the other end of the building in the "Medicare Wing". Needless to say, I was hopping mad.
The nurse told me that that is how everyong is treated.
I told them what we were promised and by whom. I also asked to see her medical records and found out that they were only taking mom's blood pressure once a day and even skipped a few days when the Doctor's orders were to take the B/P 3 times per day.
There were many other problems so bad that I asked a Ombusdman to sit in on my complaints about Mom's care.
They also refused to show the chart of their inspections. I told them that that was something that they had to do by law. Eventually I did get them to post their inspections, which were not good at all. I figured that since they did not want to post them, they must be bad.
One time since Mom could not communicate she had been having a male visitor visit her room in the middle of the night. He came into her room in a wheel chair and always scared her. One evening she got up and pushed the patient back out in the hall and in the process she fell and broke her hip. The Home did nothing to help her with the cost when it was clearly their fault by not monitoring the rooms and halls as night.
I have gone through 2 different Ombudsman courses. I am also an educated woman holding 2 Master's degrees, one being in Gerontology.
I was assigned to Garden View as my first assignment after asking not to be placed there. I took the assignment and went to the Home for my orintation. I noticed before the Director and I started talking there was a call light beeping. I was there for about 45 Minutes and the light continually beeped relentlessly, no stopping.
After my tour the Director asked me, "Now what would you have to report that you saw during our interview. I told her that that light had beeped the entire time that I was there and I would report that. I could see that she was very offended that I could actually see something wrong and go after it. Well, I got the shock of my life when I got home.
The Ombudsman Director said that Garden View called and said that I had done something, I forget what, and they asked me if I did indeed do what they had accused me of. I had to reply. "Of course not"
What had happened is that the Director remembered how I watched over my Mother and there fore felt threatened by my presence. I gave up the Ombudsman Volunteer work and have often wondered how these elderly ate abused day after day.
Of course, most family members do not know how their loved one might be being abused simply because they trust the caregivers. Unless one is trained and observant, they might be surprised what is going on or not going on.
