Medical Care – a consumer’s perspective-Brookdale ( Skilled Nursing)

Part One– https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/the-ratings-of-medical-facilities-series-it-begins/

Part Two- https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2019/04/09/medical-care-from-a-consumers-perspective-ohio/

Part Three- https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2019/04/22/medical-care-a-consumers-prospective-mercy-health-lorain/

Part Four – https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/medical-care-a-consumers-perspective-mercy-health-lorain-2/

Part Five – https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2019/05/27/medical-care-a-consumers-perspective-cleveland-clinic-rehab-hospital/

This time when we were told we would have to  make plans for my  husband to  leave the Cleveland Clinic Rehabilitation Hospital ( after 19 days) were were given a list with  54 skilled nursing facilities but more time in which to  make a decision.

The case worker at Cleveland Clinic Rehab Hosp. printed out a list of 54  facilities within a 25 mile radius, with  ratings from Medicare .gov Nursing Home Compare .

As you  can see page one  with  the closest to  home ( as I  already  had checked them out) were crossed off.  “One” of  the complaints I  have of Medicare in their ratings , in our situation, was we needed  physical therapy  and rehabilitation and although  “staffing” was rated, Health  inspections and Quality   were rated  there was not a rating for the “caliber” of rehab and therapists.

 

I would like to  point out that at Brookdale  aka  WESTLAKE VILLAGE CARE CENTER 28540, village Drive Westlake Ohio 44145 , the rehab therapy  and therapists were excellent. I  wish  I could say  the same for  90  percent of their aides.

20 of the 54 facilities were listed in their staffing  by Medicare as “much  below or below average”, even when their overall rating was above average or much  above average – very  confusing .

The star system given my  Medicare was also  misleading ( Brookdale) – Westlake Village was given a 5  out of 5  star , comforting to  me when we chose this facility  and also  the staffing as “above average” – I don’t know who at Medicare rates these facilities but this was not in any  way  a 5 star facility unless the bar is set  very  low!!!!

Take a look at the first page ( first photo) of the report of the 5 facilities  4 received 4 out of 5 stars but each  of them has a rating of below average for staffing.  and one Lake Pointe Health  Care a 1.

NOTE: you  really  have to  do  your homework and that is hard when you  are having to  choose a facility  for a loved one during a traumatic time. I thought I  had done my  homework with  this facility. Since my  husband was in the University  Hospital system, as were all his doctors, I  checked and  Brookdale  had access to  either the Cleveland Clinic System and for us a doctor with  University  Hospitals.  It had taken me weeks of being “out of our system to  get him back into  UH.

I was happy  in our choice having done as much  research  as I  could , ratings , recommendations etc.  looking on line . https://www.brookdale.com/en/communities/brookdale-westlake-village.html?cid=yext

The trip from the Cleveland Clinic Rehabilitation Hospital via “transport” was again a fiasco  of waiting  and  miscommunication as to  what sort of transport was needed.

Although  I had had problems at the Cleveland Clinic they  had been addressed  for the most part quickly  and efficiently , however we left on a sour note and with  “personal belongings in a large bag”.

Due to  the tension dealing with  Doc Martens  transport I didn’t realize that along with  my  husband carried by  one of the administrative staff to  the ambulance was  the lift pads and sling pad  from both  his bed and  wheelchairs  and various items .

 

The  lift pads/sling pads ( plastic)  we discovered later ,when I  looked into  the closet at Brookdale where the bag had been placed as personal effects   had fecal matter attached, bad enough  but considering this was also  contaminated with  C’diff  most worrying and dangerous in my  laypersons opinion.

Here we were bringing into  another facility  contaminated matter!!! This practice of transporting these items  should not occur , after all you  don’t know where they  have been.

This was not a good start to  our stay  and within 4 days I  was ready  to  pull my  husband out of this 5 star establishment ……. TO  BE CONTINUED…..

 

 

June 3rd – archeology of sorts- Chris Ritchey

Oh! the pond, what a pain I am having  with pumps , tubing and fish eating birds and animals. I have spent a small fortune on equipment this spring.  The winter weeks,  after your Dad was in the hospital, your brother-in law had to  stop  by a few times a week in the days of “polar vortex” to  make sure we kept a hole in the ice.  Just when I  thought I  had everything sorted last week , nets in place , aerators , new pump  and  filter system hooked up, and the waterfalls pump working and bringing at least me some  peace and happiness as I  watched the water cascading down the falls, of course, the waterfalls pump   stopped working.

 

Now nothing is easy  in this house, I could no  longer find the same pump , the tubing was too big, too small, and this pump  didn’t fit the old filter system. I tried as best I  could to  clean the filters every two  days and that is a horrible job. Why ??? because   your Ghost Koi needs air and clean water,  from  over forty  fish  we are down to  17 including “The Ghost”. Due to  my  diligence of filter cleaning every  couple of days the water is crystal clear. The offending pump  had to  be taken out and replaced. Heron apparently  don’t like ripples so making sure the water ripples means three pumps functioning .

 

I shut everything down and gingerly   balanced precariously  on the edge. The water was so  still and clear  I, for once, could see the very  bottom of the pond. The Ghost Koi loomed large – 10  years of eating and being king of the pond, he has grown to  a formidable size. As I  teetered and wobbled trying to  reach the old pump  under the falls, the thought crossed my  mind,

I  might end up  joining him… death  by  “pond life”,

he wasn’t actually  endearing me to  him in that moment and then I saw a glint of gold lying on the bottom.

I strained to  see what was shining up  at me and then I  realized it was a pair of your aviator sunglasses, you  too had been searching for the Koi that last summer ( a much  smaller little fish) and had dropped your  glasses  and there they  were still- where they  had fallen. A reminder of why I need to  protect and maintain the pond so  my  last Mother’s Day  gift from you  continues..the Ghost Koi…..

Those glasses  and ones like them that hid you  eyes from us when you  would hear the bad news the Doctors would tell  hiding tears  and pain.  Those same glasses that brought my  tears flowing once more a reminder of a life too short. and a son lost.

 

I suppose when we are gone and he pond is filled in will someone, in a time to  come, may dig the space   they might wonder how a pair of aviator glasses came to  be 4  foot underground and the story  behind them… a curiosity  for the future…… the missing of you, our love   and memories that should have been  can sometime cripple………