Blowing the Whistle on My Husband's Nursing Home

The purpose of my blog's first post was to share a tip for caretakers which was a link to an excellent online resource I found to locate quality nursing homes.  Unfortunately, they all have waiting lists.  I started the blog by sharing a little bit of my husband John's history.  I gave the reader a choice of reading the history or skipping ahead to the tip.

I discussed Lincoln Park Care Center, the nursing home where John has been living for the last 2 years and shared pictures of John's meals, and al one before and after my complaints.  The after wasn't much better. Here is a picture of a meal I didn't share yet (two upside down hot dogs, corn and some kind of potato).
 

Using the new resource, I found out Lincoln Park Care Center is a 2 star nursing home, although they have told me many times that it is a 5 star nursing home.

 
For this post, I would like to share something that happened this past week that was very upsetting because I'm sure it happens to many other residents.  I'll then share what happened next which is why I called this post, "Blowing the Whistle on Lincoln Park Care Center."   The following may only be interesting to people who have experienced something like this, and may also give them hope that there is something they can do!

I have to start with problems we had over the summer that led to the current topic.  John had developed symptoms of a urinary tract infection but after 6 weeks of me finally begging that a urologist appointment be made for John, and after being told many times that he didn’t have an infection, I finally demanded that someone listen since we've been together for over 31 years so I know when something is wrong. 
 

I had been proven right several times since John has been there, and what really gets to me is they continually play a message you hear when you are calling and are on hold which says something like, "the same level of care extends to the guests' families because we recognize them as an important part of the healing process."  The message also uses the words warm, inviting environment, comfort, quality and luxury but none of these are words I would use when describing this facility.
  
 



This is most of John's living space.

This is the bottom of his bed and the rest.

Here is a picture of John today in his one-third share of the room.  As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! 



The message goes on to say they have a wide range of activities that motivate and stimulate residents.  All John does all day is watch TV and go outside 3 times a day to smoke.  He uses the walker to get up, and since his stroke 2 weeks ago, he has been mostly in a wheelchair. 
 

Here is a room where residents go to watch TV. This room was redecorated last year.  There wasn't a couch for 6 months and the residents came and stood there but the TV wasn't ever on.  Look at the size of the room and the seating in it.  The couch is so low that residents have a hard time sitting down.


Anyway, back to the story.  An appointment was finally made with a urologist, and after several tests that took another month, it turned out John’s bladder was almost completely blocked by his prostate, and he had to have prostate surgery.  As a result of the surgery, a biopsy was taken that showed the beginning stages of prostate cancer.  Many appointments were scheduled: shots to lower John’s testosterone, a CT scan to insert gold pellets near John's prostate, another CT scan to locate the pellets so a tattoo could be placed where John would then have 44 daily radiation treatments. 
 

On Tuesday, November 11th, John was to have the first CT scan to insert the gold pellets. This procedure required general anesthesia and had been scheduled for quite some time.  Because John is a diabetic and keeps snacks in his room, and because he gets up extremely early, I was afraid he would forget and eat or drink after midnight.  I called to remind the nurses taking care of John during the 3 shifts prior to the procedure reminding them John was "NPO" and asking them to remind John not to eat or drink. 

I didn’t feel confident John would get the message because when John previously had the prostate surgery, no one told him he couldn’t eat or drink except for me, and the nurse was “supposedly” written up.  Sadly, that wasn’t the first time I was told someone was written up.  I have no proof of this and since the same things continue to happen, I don’t really believe it.  Thank goodness I had called John repeatedly the night before to remind him.  An aide went with John by ambulance to have the surgery, and my mother and I met John there and made sure he didn’t eat or drink before the procedure.

Like last time, John was taken to the facility with an aide by ambulance.  I was delayed and ran into some traffic, and ended up taking two wrong turns.  I got there a few minutes after John and he had already drank a half a cup of coffee.  The doctor was upset and said this happens all the time with nursing homes, and although he didn’t want to, he gave John a local so all of his upcoming appointments wouldn’t have to be rescheduled.  John felt everything and was in a bit of pain but at least we’re still on schedule.   I asked the aide if she was told John was having anesthesia and she said no.  I told her I wasn’t mad at her but at Lincoln Park Care Center staff for not telling her.

From the time I asked the aide if she know about John getting anesthesia until John got into the ambulance to leave, she was on her cell phone in the lobby of the building or outside so I don’t know who she was talking to but I assumed it was Lincoln Park Care Center staff.   When John was getting ready to go in the ambulance, the aide said that she wanted me to know that it wasn’t her fault or Lincoln Park Care Center’s fault.  She told me what I felt was a made up "story" because she hadn't said anything about it before.  She said she asked the facility if John was having anesthesia and they said no.  She was argumentative and I asked her what had changed that she was so mad at me when she was so nice before.  She stated she works for Lincoln Park Care Center, and she was going to defend them.  I told her that was ridiculous because even her story were true, if she was told that John was having anesthesia, she would not have asked if he could have coffee.

After the ambulance left, I went back inside and spoke to the surgical technician that was at the front desk when John arrived.  She told me that a woman came up to her and asked, “if someone is not going to sleep, can they drink coffee, and she said yes.”  She didn’t question who the woman was talking about, and perhaps she should have, but again, if the aide knew John was having anesthesia, she wouldn’t have asked in the first place.  The surgical technician also said that Lincoln Park Care Center is notorious for sending patients who had eaten or drank and had to have appointments rescheduled.  

I was supposed to go to work but I was so mad I went to Lincoln Park and ended up there for hours talking to the supervisor, a social worker and finally the administrator.  They all already had already heard “the story” which made me suspicious because if it were true, why did everyone know about it in less than the 20 minutes it took me to get there.  But “the story”, in fact, had gotten worse since I was told it was the facility that gave John the coffee.  I told everyone that Lincoln Park Care Center is responsible for John when he is out of their facility, just as they have told me that I am responsible for John when he goes anywhere with me. 

 

After everything I said, they didn’t see anything wrong with what happened and were certainly not going to admit it if they did.  I said that if someone didn’t at least admit that the aide should have been told, I would have no choice but to make a complaint.  I also stated that in addition to recently doing extensive research on nursing homes, I am also taking a Social Media in Society course and learning how social media is important to businesses because they can see what people are saying about them.  I said that I had started posting all of this on the internet, specifically on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

 

They didn't seem worried and nothing was resolved so the next day, I wrote an email to the COO of the nursing home and laid out all of the facts above. I said that I already wrote about Lincoln Park Care Center on Sunday on my blog (www.ckrostek.blogspot.com ) before what happened yesterday or it would have been much worse, and that I asked my 472 friends on Facebook to circulate it to all of their friends, and so on. I told her people responded immediately with prayers and advice.  

1988

Thanksgiving Day, 2013

I am posting pictures of John and me: one from about 27 years ago, right before we got married; one from last Thanksgiving at my sister Jackie's house in Pennsylvania; and one from this afternoon because I want to make this more real and personal.





 

Yesterday, 11/16/14



 

 

I said that if someone at Lincoln Park Care Center takes me seriously and I felt that John’s welfare wasn’t in jeopardy, I would take everything down and listen to what they had to say.  I then asked why it was that I could not get anyone to see that there are problems here that should be addressed?

After sending the email, I received a phone call within 20 minutes from the Administrator asking me to take everything down and they would listen to me.  He apologized and said we would talk.  I got another call a few minutes later and again the next morning.  It seems they are trying in a small way but there are many more important issues I haven't even begun to talk about in this post that need to be addressed.

I took everything down and posted on Facebook the reason I was removing the blog post so soon.  I had over 25 comments that I was doing the right thing, and many people said that I shouldn't take anything down until I saw changes were being made.

Since nothing is resolved, so I took everyone's advice.  What do you think?