Extended care and rehab facilities

[mtangelsfan]

Please make sure you hold theses places accountable.  Since nobody is allowed to visit these places lack it.  My dad had surgery two weeks ago.  After three days the put him into rehab for occupational and physical therapy.  I left to go visit him Friday and spoke to him while traveling and he was lucid and clear.  By Sunday we found out that he was near death and brought him to his home.  He died three hours later.  We had even asked to see him on FaceTime and they said they couldn’t.  They did not clean his face, he had bed sores so he hadn’t been given either of the therapies.  His catheter was too tight so he was in tremendous pain.

[tdawg87]

Dude. I'm so sorry man. This is awful. 

[St1ck]

Sorry to hear that MT. My condolences. 

[mtangelsfan]

Thanks, I don’t think I have ever been this angry in my 55 years

[St1ck]

3 minutes ago, mtangelsfan said:

Thanks, I don’t think I have ever been this angry in my 55 years

You have every right to be. Maybe you should share your story with a local newspaper reporter.

[mtangelsfan]

12 minutes ago, st1ckboy said:

You have every right to be. Maybe you should share your story with a local newspaper reporter.

I think we are going to take a more aggressive route 

[Slegnaac]

Sorry to hear about your Dad.  I agree that "Skilled" Nursing Facilities or SNF are not a place you want to be, unless you have someone there every day watching out for your best interest.  

[Slegnaac]

5 minutes ago, mtangelsfan said:

I think we are going to take a more aggressive route 

I think that you can get public information about what sort of track record they have with code violations, etc.

I did some searches on the facility that my MIL was in a few years ago.  My wife was very happy when Medicare ran out and we were able to get her out of there.

[tdawg87]

9 minutes ago, mtangelsfan said:

I think we are going to take a more aggressive route 

I know a guy

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

Sorry for your loss. A friends mom ended up in one and didn’t leave. The facility ended up getting sued for their mistakes. Understandably proving they were in the wrong was the most important thing to the friend. 

[DCAngelsFan]

So sorry, man - it's hard to lose someone under the best circumstances, but when something like this happens, when they die because people you trusted screwed up, it's hard not be be enraged. 

I can't tell you the number of mistakes, accidents, and errors that happened to my wife, just one disaster leading to the next, leading to months of terrible suffering, then finally, her death.

Of course, no one ever admits they were mistakes, they just "happened", like spontaneously.  

My condolences to you and your family.  

[Redondo]

So sorry to hear that.

Send my best your way.

[eligrba]

49 minutes ago, mtangelsfan said:

Please make sure you hold theses places accountable.  Since nobody is allowed to visit these places lack it.  My dad had surgery two weeks ago.  After three days the put him into rehab for occupational and physical therapy.  I left to go visit him Friday and spoke to him while traveling and he was lucid and clear.  By Sunday we found out that he was near death and brought him to his home.  He died three hours later.  We had even asked to see him on FaceTime and they said they couldn’t.  They did not clean his face, he had bed sores so he hadn’t been given either of the therapies.  His catheter was too tight so he was in tremendous pain.

Speechless....

My condolences to you and your family.

 

[JAHV76]

Sorry for your loss it couldn’t hurt to talk with an attorney for a free consultation on the circumstances that happened.

[Keener]

 Both heartbreaking and infuriating. Sorry for your loss.

[mtangelsfan]

1 hour ago, JAHV76 said:

Sorry for your loss it couldn’t hurt to talk with an attorney for a free consultation on the circumstances that happened.

Agree

[Justin]

I am sorry for your loss. Did he actually die on Father's Day? That is awful and unfair and your anger is warranted. A "more aggressive route" not only will (hopefully) be punitive, but could very well save the life of someone else's father down the road. 

 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I have no words. You have my sincere sympathy.

As a member of the medical profession, it angers me that people in my profession, who have taken an oath to care for others and to do no harm, could engage in such blatant negligence. I have worked in a rehabilitation facility (I worked for HealthSouth back in the day), and nothing like this would have been allowed to happen in my facility. 

[gotbeer]

Condolences.  That is an awful story that shouldn't happen to anyone.  

While it won't help bring him back, I suggest you talk to our local AW.com ambulance chasers.  While you are in a different state, those slimy guys probably know other slimy guys that could help you out.  And would probably be a lot better than picking out a random dude and finding out you picked Cals.  

[T.G.]

That was shocking and maddening to read. I hope you get some justice for your incredible loss. I can't even begin to imagine how angry I would be.

[AngelsLakersFan]

I can't even begin to imagine the level of anger you must have. Just know that it is entirely justified.

[Tank]

my sincerest condolences, mt. I hope you're able to find peace and that there will be justice for you and your family.

my dad was in similar place just over a year ago. he dropped his tv remote on the floor and leaned over to pick it up and fell out of bed, breaking at least one vertebrae in his neck, his nose, and leaving a big gash about his eye. the bed had a protective rail ONLY along the top of his bed and NOT along the side that might have prevented his fall in the first place. just careless by the facility. he died two weeks later. my step mom looked into suing and hired an attorney. a buddy of mine is a judge and he said suing won't amount to anything because it would require a lot of regulatory changes that won't happen because of one single lawsuit. these things happen too often but those that watch over these facilities don't seem to do their due diligence. this is a system that needs serious amounts of overhaul. I wish you better luck than we had getting that justice.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Long term care facilities tend to underpay, and because of this they are usually understaffed, and the staff that they do retain are often not of the highest quality. Even the people who genuinely try to do a good job are overloaded with so much work that they can't keep up with everything. When I first moved to Las Vegas, I initially hired on at an LTC facility, because I needed a job right away, and they hired me on the spot - without even verifying that I had a license. I discovered later that their pay rate was about $4 per hour below the going local rate for RNs. When I arrived, I was the only RN on my shift on a 120-bed unit. I had to handle all of the physician orders and contacts, physician rounds, all medication deliveries, all supply distribution, and all of the family contacts - plus I had to pass meds on a 40-bed hallway because they didn't have enough LPNs on staff to cover all of the med passes. Somewhere in that I had to find time to supervise and support a staff of about 8-10 people (but normally about a third of those positions were vacant). Medical administration wasn't the best either - I worked under three different nursing directors in the 90 days that I worked there (I hung on until I found something else). I gave my best effort to keep up with everything on my unit, although I'm sure that some things got past me because of the sheer volume. One thing that I did was to check frequently on my immobile patients, to make sure that they weren't in the same position every time that I went by, and to perform a skin assessment at least weekly to make sure that they weren't developing pressure points - the first indication that a bedsore is about to develop.

LTC facilities are all about profit, and they try to maximize every dollar - almost always at the expense of the level of care that they deliver. I do not encourage a lawsuit every time that something goes wrong (you can have a bad outcome even if everything is done right), but in this case, these people need to be held accountable. They clearly did not deliver anything approaching adequate care for your father.

Edited June 28, 2020 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Slegnaac]

My experience left me with the impression that while some employees give their best effort, others did not.  One employee never smiled, rarely acknowledge anything we said, and just seemed like they didn't enjoy their job.  Honestly I was afraid to voice any complaints while my Mother-In-Law was in the facility as we were not able to be with her 24/7.  They were lax about having people sign in at the desk, they didn't post the number of employees on staff each day.  The "social" events were inconsistent. 

One positive was the physical therapy was pretty decent.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

5 hours ago, Slegnaac said:

My experience left me with the impression that while some employees give their best effort, others did not.  One employee never smiled, rarely acknowledge anything we said, and just seemed like they didn't enjoy their job.

A lot of them don't. Especially in the LPN and CNA ranks, there is little opportunity outside of facilities of the same type. Most hospitals don't hire LPNs or CNAs, so these people often feel stuck, no matter how much the work environment sucks. They are almost always overworked, because they are covering for vacant positions as well as their own. We hire both in the prison system, and when we have a vacancy we usually have far more people on the applicant list than we can interview.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Vegas Halo Fan