I decided to review my husband’s nursing home here so it remains live and can be found. This has been on my mind for months and I couldn’t get it together. It is on YELP and GOOGLE; I am going to indicate there that the review will remain on my blog. The more I think about the experience of observing a declining person morph into a stranger, the more agitated I get. Corporate, for profit nursing homes just want a person in the bed generating money and considering they got my husband’s entire social security and pension they got plenty.

Now, maybe I can move on to something else.

My husband lived at The Grand, Whitestone for more than 3 years.

The Good:

1. Wonderful receptionist/phone people
2. cheerful building entry,
3. no odor upon entering in the building,
4. alert notch nursing and medical staff: they were on top of my husband’s serious health issues,
5. kind aides who worked hard and performed the most difficult of tasks,
6. my husband was always clean,
7. he thought the food was good,
8. social worker was concerned and kind,
9. recreation supervisor tried to provide stimulation,
10. dietician worked with me,
11. rehabilitative staff worked hard and included my input

Areas That Need Improvement:

1. As you go up the chain of command, the ability to communicate gets weaker: Either weeks can go by before one could get a reply to a call or email, or you have to contact again and again, or you get ghosted. I often felt like I was “yessed” to death,
2. Impossible to speak with a doctor: constant turnover, never available,
3. Staff working in hallways can be overly loud and boisterous,
4. Poor ability to complete important paperwork in timely fashion for claims,
5. Cramped rooms: Husband began in a room for two and was eventually moved to a room with 3 other people: his only light source was from fluorescent, he never saw the sun again. His bed was situated right next to bathroom and was constantly bumped by another patient’s wheelchair.
6. Patients often dressed in someone else’s clothes.
7. Sensitivity training when a patient dies and family is notified

ISSUE:
My husband entered with my small carry-on luggage filled with photos, books, clothing. He had shoes and a jacket. All of this went “missing” after he passed. Despite messages and emails to both the admin at The Grand and to corporate, I never received a follow-up. Instead, I was given a large carton of a few of my husband’s belongings mixed in with other people’s clothes: Imagine finding someone else’s: ONE shoe, a boot for a broken foot, tattered shirts and pants. It was shocking and mortifying. Admin promised to personally look for the missing things and call back. Never happened. That is not the way to handle such a sensitive situation. Perhaps a letter of apology? Token remuneration? I suggested they put in a claim via calls and email to the admin and corporate, to reimburse me, at least for my luggage. I was ghosted. Again.

For-profit facilities such as this could be more highly rated if sensitivity to patients and family was improved. I would be more than happy to elaborate.

📌The series starts here:
Part 1: And The Band Played On … a mother’s life, a daughter’s journey
(becomes the husband journey)

The previous post is here

The next post is here