If you care about your loved ones at all...DO NOT take them to this facility. The one star is for the rehab team, which IS a part of Barnes-Jewish, and they are great. They actually advocate for the patients there and give great care. Otherwise, this facility is now owned by Bethesda. My mom was admitted to this facility after spending over 2 weeks in the ICU with meningitis. She needed to finish a course of IV antibiotics, and this was the only facility that offered that service. My mom was very weak, suffered from severe muscle atrophy, couldn't feed herself, stand, know when she needed to pee, or even tell you the year (just to give you an idea)
First, let me start by saying they are ridiculously understaffed. There's one charge nurse for the entire floor, and good luck getting them to get up and help. Then, the poor LPN's were left with 15 (or more) patients to take care of on their own. There were 1-2 CNA's per hallway to help with meals, changing diapers, bedding, offer water, etc. This is where a majority of patient care falls through the cracks. I'm talking about some of the worst patient care I have ever seen. I work in veterinary critical care, and I've seen dogs get better care than this.
My mom had 1 very very superficial, almost healed, bed sore when she was admitted to that facility. By they time she left almost 2 weeks later, she had a brand new bed sore. This most likely happened because she was not turned properly. For example, on day 1, she went 6 hours in the same position before I began rotating her. The first night, her LPN assured me she'd get turned every 2 hours...when I returned the next morning, she was in the SAME position I had left her 12 hours prior...and she was SOAKED in urine and feces. I wonder if they were properly staffed if that would've happened?
At one point, a CNA asked, to my face, "so I hear you want her to be turned every 2 hours?" -- this was said with an attitude of "how dare you make me do more work" I kindly replied, "well my mom has a bedsore, and that's standard care...rotations every 2 hours" She followed my comment with, "well are you gonna be here to help?"
Now let's talk about her IV antibiotics... First, I had to show all but 2 or 3 LPNs how to use the IV pump to administer her antibiotic. I had to show THEM. Second, the first day she was there, she was given the wrong DOSE of the antibiotic, and several days during her stay, her 2pm dose was not given until 4-6pm. I understand that medications are given within a "window," but nurses from one shift were not giving medications, and nurses that would come on the next shift would have NO idea the drug was missed. My mom received this medication three times a day. Each treatment took twice as long as it should've because it took that long for a nurse to come in and change out the bag, turn off the pump, and disconnect her. I became very familiar with the "silence" button on her fluid pump because the noise would drive my mother to the point of tears.
On top of that, her oral medications were always getting messed up. When you try and ask what medications are being administered, the response was, "the ones she's due for" Turns out, many times they FORGOT my mom's anti-seizure medication, or once again, they were giving her the wrong dose. Or they'd forget a steroid. Or they'd bring in the wrong medication altogether. The worst was when my mom's blood pressure was in the low 100's/high 90's, and I asked the nurse to hold on her blood pressure medications. My mom was acting more confused than usual, and she was also more tired than usual. The nurse said that "only the patient can deny taking any medications" She also tried telling me that my mom's blood pressure had spiked into the 180's the night before -- turns out she was looking at the WRONG chart!!
I could go on for days. I plan on doing that when I report them to the state because that is how scary the care at this facility is. Absolutely NO attention to detail, not enough staffing, and my mom ended up going BACK to the ICU because she went downhill while at this facility.
Oh and it took them 45 minutes to call an ambulance because they had to "copy all of her records first" read more