The Lodge at Mills River, Sanstones two star " showplace "

The Lodge at Mills River, a SanStone property. This is a brand new 50 bed nursing home that was opened in November 2015. The Lodge at Mills River was built to take the place of BeyStone Health and Rehabilitaton, in Mountain Home.
Here are some quotes from an article on the Blue Ridge Now website, by one of the owners, Mike Deloach.

*Deloach said The Lodge will serve as SanStone’s “showplace” community, which is why the company is relocating its offices from Biltmore Park to the Mills River facility.
*“We’re one of the smallest — or the smallest — in Western North Carolina,” Duncan said. “Which, I think, gives us a more family-oriented, home-like environment.”
*“That’s the way of the future. That’s what people want,” Deloach said. “We’re trying to create the ‘anti-nursing home’ nursing home.”
 
According to what I've read, this place is like a resort. Vaulted ceilings, wood floors, dark wood furniture and accents, sunrooms and porches. That's not all folks they also have a "café style dining room, coffee and ice cream bar and hair salon! And if that weren't enough to get you signed up, they even have flat screen TV's.

Here is the description copied from the SanStone website :
About Us

The Lodge at Mills River is western NC's newest skilled and rehabilitation center. We celebrate our grand opening on November 17th with the Mills River community.

Striving for excellence, we promise to serve our residents and their families with compassion and integrity during this vital and often overwhelming time of their lives. For all of our professional services, The Lodge is committed to providing experienced care in a cheerful environment that features 38 private rooms, a rehab gym, and spacious common areas.

We invite you to visit our community, meet our dedicated staff, and discover for yourself what makes The Lodge at Mills River a leader in rehabilitation and residential care.

Wow that is quite a place, if you believe what Mike Deloach and the staff have to say. I have prior experience with SanStone, and find it hard to believe anything they say or publish. That said I decided to look them up on Medicare.gov to see their rating. Medicare.gov uses a star rating system, one being the lowest and five the highest. With all the hoopla over The Lodge at Mills River, you would expect a pretty high rating. I mean Mike Deloach himself said this was a " showplace " community. It was no surprise to me to see that they had a two star rating, which is below average!

I am assuming, like all their other facilities, they spend their money on cosmetics, and operate with a minimum staff. Nursing homes need nurses! All of the bells and whistles offered and they still can only rate two stars?

Don't believe a word these profiteers say about what they can do for you. From my experience and interviews with past patients and the families of those who didn't survive a SanStone facility, it is simple economics. It all boils down to one major thing; staffing. Staffing is a major expense in any business, but a very important component , especially in a nursing home. Unlike a restaurant, if you don't like the service, you cant just get up and leave. 

Most of the major travel websites use the star rating as well. I for one will not stay at a hotel that has no more than two stars. No matter what the advertising says I wont eat at a restaurant that doesn't have more than two stars. Yet here is a nursing home that claims to be a " showplace " but only two stars from Medicare.gov. I bet they rarely have an empty bed.

I am posting the link to their review on Medicare.gov so you can see for yourselves.  

 https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/profile.html#profTab=1&ID=345253&Distn=8.5&loc=28792&lat=35.3902982&lng=-82.366887

Taxation without Representation? Who ya gonna call ?

This morning I was watching the news and there was a story about a woman who was arrested and charged with a felony for mistreatment of animals. Seems that this woman was keeping dogs in her house to sell them. The animals were malnourished and the conditions were unsanitary. There were several misdemeanor charges and a charge for felony mistreatment of animals. The woman was arrested and taken to jail.
I have written before about how animals are treated as if they were more valuable than human beings. Examples of similar treatment of the elderly are all over the Medicre.gov nursing home compare website. There are inspections citing nursing homes for unsanitary conditions, malnourishment, and personal hygiene issues. There are stories of sexual abuse, physical abuse , theft and emotional abuse. These are real stories about real people, not animals. The punishment for these actions is usually just " reeducation " of the staff, and on rare occasions a small monetary penalty.
The woman who did these things to her animals is in jail, and the nursing homes are being "reeducated". Just doesn't seem right.
The main difference in the two situations is that the nursing homes have enough money and influence to avoid accountability. The other is that it is easier for people to like a cute little puppy, than an older person who is frustrated and not always pleasant. The same people who would let a nursing home patient lie in their own waste, would probably go home and clean up after the puppy had an "accident" without a second thought.
You could argue that animals have no say in where they live, but the elderly in nursing homes have to take whatever bed that is available. They have little if any more choice that that little puppy. Most would rather not rely on anyone else to take care of them, they simply have no choice. If you have ever been in a nursing home, I would venture to say that you would not make a choice to live there.
People in nursing homes are there because they need more care than can be provided at home. We trust that they are being cared for in a "regulated" facility. We expect that they are being fed, bathed, assisted to the bathroom if needed, and personal hygiene is being taken care of.
Medicare.gov posts the results of their inspections on their website, and they would suggest something different. These nursing homes and the Doctors are being paid for providing the proper care, and yet they are constantly cited for the failure to do just that. The taxpaying citizens are financing the substandard care, often times at inflated costs. The government is not doing their job to make sure we are getting what we pay for.
I have been to the register of deeds office in the Henderson County Courthouse and reviewed books of death certificates, Specifically Dr. Larry Joe Russell. It is amazing how many of the good doctors "patients" are dying from a "failure to thrive". These are patients in nursing homes, people that are being cared for 24/7, by a "professional" staff. How could so many be failing to thrive?
Should Dr. Russell and his staff , and the staff at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation be arrested or felony mistreatment of human beings? Is it sufficient that they are simply " reeducated " or fined a meager amount for this mistreatment. Do they really need to be reeducated to make sure that people are fed, bathed, clothed, and medicated properly?
The NCDHSR is the agency that inspects these facilities, and on inspection days their arrival is announced before the inspection begins. This gives the staff time to rush around fixing anything that they might get written up for. The investigators or " surveyors " usually have a nursing background, or something similar. They already know when they walk in the door what kind of things are going on in these places. It is obvious that much of the deficiencies are so prevalent that they don't even seem to matter.
The NCDHSR is a branch of the NCDHHS, which is headed by Dr. Aldona Wos, who was appointed by Governor Pat McCrory. The NCDHHS is a branch of the DHHS, a federal agency headed by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who under questionable circumstances replaced Kathleen Sebelius in late 2014.
I have personally contacted each branch of the DHHS, State and Federal, all the way to the top. I have written to Governor Pat McCrory three separate times and have never received a reply. I have reached out to Senators and Congressmen with little to no response. As a citizen of the State of North Carolina and the United States of America, I am entitled to representation. As citizens we need to stand up for representation of the people. Elected officials are representing the corporations and their friends who have serious money invested in these places.
I will continue to write about these injustices till I am heard. I would welcome comments or opinions from anyone reading these posts. I'm sure of the 8,500 plus people reading this someone must have something to say. Stand up and fight for your representation, you are paying for it!!!