SanStone Health and Rehabilitation, Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, Dr. Larry Joe Russell, Family Medical Center, 510 Balsam Rd. Hendersonville Nc.
The battle began in the fall of 2011. I did not begin this journey, looking for a fight, I began it looking for peace. The fight was brought to me, it was brought to me by the people listed above. These people are ruthless business owners, who have no regard for human life. The only thing that they care about is money.
On the outside, the facilities they run appear to be well maintained. The grass is cut, flowers planted, fresh mulch, and nice little split rail fences. The entryways have planters and rocking chairs and a front porch kind of feel. You've probably driven by them, or others like them, without even noticing them. That's what they want, to not be noticed.
If you ever have a reason to go inside, be prepared. The furniture in the common areas kind of goes along with the outside. Then you go into one of the rooms, that's where you see what they really are. The paint on the walls has scratches in it and is dirty. The furniture that is crammed into the small rooms, is cheap and old. There are two small hospital beds and hospital chairs, separated by a curtain. In Mom's room there was a small tv with an antennae, there was a window on the other side of the room, looking out on a one hole putting green.
The wheelchairs do not have foot rests, this lets the patients use their legs to move throughout the building. If not, they would spend their days sitting in their rooms in the wheelchairs, waiting for someone to push them. Rest assured, the staff levels are way to low to push patients anywhere they don't absolutely have to go. They will make sure the patient is able to get to the therapy room, even if they are not able to participate in therapy. This generates income for them above and beyond room and board.
Most patients are not there for the view, the furniture, or the landscaping. They are there for nursing care. Ironically, that is the where the problem is. These homes run with dangerously low staff levels. They staff heavily during the day, when people are visiting their loved ones. At night they cut down to next to nothing, sometimes having only one nurse to cover several halls. care. I have not found anything in writing, that says they are required to have any particular ratio, of staff to patients . When something goes wrong at night, the staff is inadequate to handle it. That's when people die.
The staff levels are so low, that they start waking patients as early as 4:00 am. They have to do this in order to distribute medicine, and preform required tasks, before the end of their shift . This is the only time some patients see a nurse all day. The CNA's are the ones that assist with toileting, showering, dressing and other routine tasks.
On one visit, my brother asked Mom, what he could do for her before he left. Mom replied that she would really love to have a shower. She said it had been several days, and she was getting kind of "rank". My brother then went out in search of someone. He found a CNA, and asked her if Mom could get a shower. The CNA, promised my brother, that she would get to Mom, but she had six others in front of her. Even with incontinence issues, and potential skin breakdown, we could only find evidence of three showers, and one sponge bath. This is over a period of fifteen days.
You could argue, that the family should have noticed these issues during Mom's stay. In our defense, when you are going through something like this, life is in turmoil. You are forced with making decisions, that you are not prepared to make. Do you have your own Mom, the family leader, declared incompetent. That was Mom's biggest fear, that she would not be in charge of her own life.
Looking back, with the knowledge that we have now, I think any one of us would have taken that step. At the time, there were plenty of other issues to deal with. Where was mom going to stay, that would be best for her recovery. What arrangements needed to be made for medical equipment at home, what therapy would be necessary, the list never ends. Then you take into consideration, that Mom was not sick. She was simply there to get her strength back, with the help of the therapists.
At one point, we had issues with Hendersonville Health an Rehabilitation, and complained about some of the issues listed. There was a family meeting scheduled, with the administration. My brother and oldest sister attended the meeting. They were told at that time, that Mom had reached her goals, and would be discharged on November 3' 2011. There was little to no mention of the issues, and the family was so glad that she was coming home, that's what mattered most.
My advice to everyone, is to have a person that you trust as your medical power of attorney. This is extremely important during treatment. It is also the only way to obtain any kind of information from the facility, in the event of death.
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