Needless to say this has been an eye opening week for me. Some of what I've seen just proves to me that the care at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation is as bad as I always thought it was.
I've seen the call lights on down the hallway, and not a nurse in sight. I witnessed a patient in a wheel chair, with one arm bandaged up and useless, drag a walker the entire length of the hall.This was done with two nurses standing there watching as they talked. I've seen them move patients with and without the help of the lift, depending whether they can get someone to assist with the lift.
Yesterday I had to go down one of the other halls to get to the "big rehab room", the smell of urine and feces was so strong I held my breath. When I arrived, there were five or six patients and maybe four therapists. One gentleman was complaining that someone had just wheeled him there and left. He told one of the employees he had been in there for an hour and a half. I would assume that if you move all the residents to rehab or the dining room, they are easier to watch and less staff is needed.
I began this journey with one goal, and that was to spend time with a fellow church member who is dying. I was able to look past a lot of what I had seen, until it directly affected my friend.
I have seen him go a whole week without a shower. One day he was not given a shower because the heat was out in the shower room. The other day I finally reached my limit. As my friend was wheeled in after therapy, they left him in his wheelchair. While we were talking, his bladder released and his clothes got wet. He asked me to push the call button for a nurse to clean him and help him to bed. I pushed the button, and after five minutes I went outside the room to see if the light was on and if anyone was around. The light was on so I walked to the nurses station and there was one nurse there. I told her what had happened and she told me to push the call button. I told her that I had already done that and she just told me that the nurse would help when she came by. I went back into the room and waited with him. Finally after 20 minutes of sitting in urine soaked pants, two nurses showed up, they changed him and assisted him to bed. This was the first time I had ever seen them use the lift on him. It usually sits at the end of the hall against the wall.
I cant even imagine what happens to ones pride and self worth when treated this way. The nurses are so busy that they seem to resent you asking for anything. I have met a few nurses and cna's that seemed to have some compassion left, but they are few and far between. All of my visits were in the daytime hours between two and three, I cant even imagine how much worse it must be at night.
My experience with nursing homes reminds me of the way they portray mental institutions in old black and white movies.
I went there with the hope that things were not as bad as I remembered during Mom's stay. Unfortunatley I was dissappointed to see they were as bad or worse than I remembered from 2011. The problem is obvious, they do not have enough staff to provide the services needed by the residents. The staff that is there is overworked, and it shows in their attitude towards the patients.
SanStone, our passion makes us different, thats what they advertise. The truth is that their passion is the same as almost all the other nursing home groups, lots of money!!
I wonder how Dr. Larry Joe Russell, Christopher Sprenger and Michael Deloach would feel if they had to sit in their own urine for twenty minutes. I wonder how long they would go without a shower because they had no heat in their bathrooms?
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