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My mother's in a NH due to mobility issues - I can no longer transfer her myself because she isn't strong enough to use a sit-to-stand. She got there two days before Illinois locked down NH's to visitors in March.


So many problems with the NH, I can't list them all in one post but will touch on the main ones.


1) She doesn't have a wheelchair that fits her properly (seat being too high cuts into the backs of her legs and makes them swell and she has wounds from the circulation problems).


2) Her bed leans to one side because it's broken. Gravity causes her to slide to that side and pins her against the siderail. They don't answer the light to reposition her (or say they don''t have a helper so they can't do it), and her arm goes numb. Multiple employees have complained about it being broken, management just says they don't have another one so deal with it.


3) Daily wound care is not being done - last week she went three days in a row without getting dressings changed. Ombudsman is pretty much useless, but he did say that not doing dressing changes was a form of neglect and reported it to the state. State investigator came out over the weekend and of course the nurse put on a show, changing the dressings in front of the investigator and doing it in a way totally different than usual - the proper way! Nurse told mom they only have time to do it that way when the state is there.


Mom eats breakfast in bed every day, and many days doesn't get out of bed because they either didn't have a clean hoyer sling available or don't have two CNA's available to transfer her. She generally has to beg, or I have to call and complain, to get out of bed before lunch. When I was on the phone with her earlier, she said she'd put her light on and asked to get back in bed because the recliner they had her in (which doesn't fit her properly either) was hurting her backside and legs, and also because she was wet. CNA told her that she was not allowed to put her back in bed until after dinner and that she'd send the nurse in to discuss it. Nurse came in while we were on the phone, very belligerent, telling her she could not go back to bed because the administrator's new rule was that she couldn't eat in bed anymore. The recliner doesn't sit her up as straight as the bed does, and they can't get the tray over her in the recliner, they have to just put it on the side of the chair which makes it hard for her to eat. She has no medical issues making her any type of choking risk. Nurse very nastily told her if she goes back to bed, she just won't get to eat dinner. Meanwhile she is sitting in urine. They were two hours late with her pain medication last dose, and her legs are cramping from being in the same position in the recliner for so long.


I've asked nicely, complained politely, then complained more forcefully in voice mails to DON and administrator - neither ever answer the phone - about all of this except today's issue. Mom's perfectly competent mentally, but they never come to see her or call her back when she leaves messages for them. This smacks of retaliation for the ombudsman sending the state out to investigate. From what the employees tell us, the state is out there investigating complaints every few weeks and management is ticked.


We've had to fight to get her out to specialist appointments and to the dentist (she had pain from three bad teeth from June until last week!). Her specialists are appalled. She's not getting PT even though her private health insurance will pay for it. They are not allowing her to have her own pcp - saying everyone there has to use their medical director as their pcp and he's useless and downright dangerous! They try to force her to use products she's allergic to, try to give her the wrong meds quite frequently, etc. She's been in short-term rehab before many times and never had a facility be as controlling and incompetent as this one.


What else can I do? It's heartbreaking and stressful.

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Just an update to the original post. One of the nicer nurses spoke to the DON the day after the original incident and they agreed that if Mom was willing to have a CNA watch her eat, then she could eat in bed. Or Mom could sign a liability waiver that they would put in her chart, which she readily agreed to do. Problem is, they never brought her the waiver, and other nurses are not willing to read the chart notes from that nicer nurse regarding the arrangement. Now this afternoon, the DON came in and said they didn't have enough staff to watch everyone eat who wanted to eat in bed, so the new policy is that everyone has to be out of bed to eat. Period. And that they don't have enough staff to take her in and out of bed for each meal, even if she wanted them to (the hoyer transfer is painful for her so she doesn't want to do it 6 times a day!), so she just has to stay in the chair whether she likes it or not. So once again today, they refused to put her back in bed when her legs started cramping after 4-5 hours in the recliner. We've always been told that patients are supposed to be repositioned every few hours to prevent pressure sores - which she's had in the past - but they are not concerned at all about keeping her in the same position in that recliner all day. The DON told her if she didn't like it, she could either just not eat, or she was welcome to go to another facility that was more to her liking. With COVID, facilities aren't giving tours, and frankly, they all lie when you take a tour anyway. This place told me when I toured, oh, if we don't have the kind of equipment she needs, we'll rent it for her. Now they tell me, oh, we don't EVER rent equipment, she has to use what we have in house (like the broken bed!). So I'm feeling major guilt today because I can't just bring her home and care for her here.
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How sad that your mom is having to go through all that crap. It's appalling!!! She deserves so much better. Time to be looking for a nicer facility to place her in. Good luck.
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brendass Oct 2020
Thanks funkygrandma59. Every LTC facility resident deserves better! Most of the nicer places within an hour's drive of us have a waiting list a mile long, or don't want to deal with patients who need a lot of care. They want to cherry-pick the easy money patients, I guess. Mom also uses an insulin pump to manage her diabetes (very well, I might add), and many facilities turn us down because they say it's a liability risk. We've even offered to sign a waiver releasing them of any responsibility for her diabetes care, but it hasn't helped.
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The health department in your state must license nursing homes. I would not hesitate to call them and tell them ombudsmen intervention is not helping and NH actions seem retaliatory.
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brendass Oct 2020
Gladimhere, I'm sorry to reply to you so late, I couldn't get logged in. Illinois Dept. of Public Health does indeed oversee the nursing homes. I filed a formal complaint a number of weeks ago listing quite a few issues that, from reading the complaint inspection reports that are public records online, definitely seemed to be violations of the regulations in Illinois. The inspector called me to go over the complaints - including everything I listed in my original post - and said she'd go out and interview not only my mother, but also other residents with similar mental states and similar health situations so they couldn't tell who the complaint was about. Nobody ever interviewed my mother, and I got a letter saying the complaint had been investigated and the allegations were unfounded. The ombudsman's complaint, on the other hand, did get an inspector out in person, who made it perfectly clear that the complaint was about my mother. Ever since he was out, they have been even more nasty to her.
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This is awful! So sorry. Don’t give up. Keep a record of everything.

I had issues with a nursing home when mom did rehab too. Fortunately, mom’s issues were resolved.

I wouldn’t hesitate to speak to an attorney on this matter. Do whatever you need to do. You have already gone up the ladder without issues being resolved.

Wishing you and your mom all the best.
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brendass Oct 2020
Sorry - I couldn't log in and had to work that issue out before I could reply to anyone! I did call several law firms and all told me the same thing. Nothing they can do unless Mom is actually injured or killed, at which time they can file a lawsuit. It's no wonder so many NH patients are abused and neglected..... nobody seems to have any authority (or be willing to use it) to do anything to change the situation.
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Keep documenting everything and get a consult with an attorney to find out your options.
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brendass Oct 2020
So sorry for the delayed reply - couldn't log in for awhile there. We are documenting everything, and have called several law firms in the area that specialize in nursing home law and elder law. They all tell us they can't do anything unless/until Mom actually gets hurt or killed. Then they can sue on our behalf and get a settlement. I don't want the money - just for Mom to get decent care.
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Are you documenting all complaints, all things you are seeing in diaries? How are you witnessing all this? Are you allowed to visit whenever you like in covid times. As far as what anyone might tell you, report to state (who usually takes wound care very seriously) and ombudsman, you are doing these things. Is Mom on medicaid? Are there others in the area that will accept her? From all you tell us this place sounds, if we are to believe all you say, almost beyond negligent. Some of this, failure to replace a broken bed and change dressings sounds almost criminal. And all that said, the being reported makes me fearful of them--if they are this bad-- in so far as retaliation. This sounds truly like a nightmare situation in MANY ways. I honestly don't know another resource for you to go to and at this point would I think keep after the ombudsman to help you transfer Mom somewhere else.
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brendass Oct 2020
So sorry for the delayed reply - was having trouble logging in (resolved now). In terms of documenting, Mom is keeping notes on what's been happening and reading them to me periodically so I have a copy on this end. And no, because of COVID, I have not seen her since mid-March (not even on Skype or Zoom - they won't let us). I have been on the phone with her and heard some of the conversations between her and nurses, the DON, etc., and she's clear mentally (no dementia or alzheimer's). Yes, she is on Medicaid. The ombudsman reported the lack of wound care to the state, and the investigator made it abundantly clear the complaint was about her, so when he asked to observe wound care, they not only put on a big show of doing everything perfectly by the book, but only did the dressings on the "good" leg and not the one that's in really bad shape. And the NH management was ticked that the state had been called. I'm trying to convince Mom to let me look elsewhere, but not only are most of the other facilities within 30 minutes of us just as bad or worse, they have all had serious COVID outbreaks and that scares her. In Illinois, they are mandated to report positive tests to the Dept. of Public Health, yet her facility has had at least 6 positives now and the state reporting site (which is updated weekly) does not show them as having ANY. The state inspector called me in response to MY complaint from many weeks ago, and said she would go out to investigate and interview a group of people that would specifically include Mom. Nobody ever interviewed her, and I got a letter saying the matter had been investigated and they couldn't find anything wrong. Seems awfully fishy to me. She's been in short-term rehab a number of times before, and sadly, the facilities that were good to great all have either been sold to big chains and gone downhill fast, or are still good enough to be able to pick and choose the patients they accept. They all want the "easy" patients that are not overweight, don't need a lift with two CNA's to transfer, and who won't question anything, will just shut up and do what they're told. sigh
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