My Mom moved into The Ridge in the end of May 2023. She was 96 and in the late stages of…read moreAlzheimer,severely deaf ,had almost completely stopped eating. We asked the Executive Director if they were comfortable with Hospice coming in, if and when the time would be necessary. We were told absolutely. After she had been there, approximately 3-4 days, she had a fall(she had been having many falls at her previous place) she appeared to have to broken her hip. We requested to have Hospice come in to see if she was appropriate, they agreed she was.The consensus was she was too old to take her to the hospital,so Hospice would treat her there with pain medicine and anti-anxiety medications, along with a fall pad along side the bed on the floor.On my first visit there, I found piles of dirty bed linens,dirty clothes all over the floors,a dirty plate & fork in a dresser drawer, overflowing trash cans,a mohair blanket behind the recliner chair, stuffed in the corner, dirty bathroom ,etc. And the worst of all...the fall mat was UNDER the bed !!!
When I went to kiss my Mom hello ,she was in so much pain, she howled out indicating her anxiety and complete confusion. It took me a few minutes to locate an aid .Finally two aids came in, and then proceeded to transfer from her bed to a wheelchair by her UNDERWEAR.They hiked her by her underwear on each side all the up her rear end !!! The screams that were coming from my Mom were so unbelievable, that they will haunt me forever. The pain this must have caused my Mom with a broken hip ,I can't even imagine. She was absolute dead weight.They repeated this procedure 3 more times ,culminating with her nightgown and underwear hiked up her back and rear end.I demanded a nurse come in and tell me what was going on. They were not following the protocol that hospice had ordered, they had no explanation for the condition of the room and she could not explain why the aids moved my Mom in the manner that they did.She did tell me they are suppose to use a Gait Belt when moving a Resident.
I was going to speak with the Director but she was gone for the day. The next day was basically a repeat except, the staff did not respond for close to 1/2 hour when the bed alarm went off and again when I pulled the bedside wall alarm cord, no one came at all !!I later discovered the alarm system had not been working for a week.
My family and I came to understand that the staff there were not giving our Mom her pain medication or the anxiety med. as prescribed by Hospice, because, they felt" She wouldn't eat, her breathing may become too shallow and we know better than the doctor". No matter how many times the Hospice nurse ,Social Worker and manager went out there to educate them, they wouldn't budge. All they wanted to do was force her to eat, cause her to howl in pain and take money from her.
There was one particular LPN who seem to take particular pride in telling us on a Sunday morning ," I've given her NO medicine since Friday".
I learned that the Executive Director was leaving her job, which led me to believe she most likely could have cared less about anything that was happening at The Ridge.
Our Mom couldn't understand due to her Alzheimers why we were doing this to her, why we were causing her to be in pain, why we were we keeping her here?
We tried to see if we could move her, there was no other facility nearby to take her to. I finally had an idea about bringing in a Private Nurse. Which fortunately the Social Worker with Hospice knew of a wonderful one.She called her immediately, and she was there at The Ridge within 4 hours.
Her and one other nurse were like true Angels, coming in and administrating kind ,loving care to our Mom. Bathing her,changing her when she needed it and most importantly finally releasing her of pain. The irony of this is, she did not need much of the pain medicine to be comfortable, she just needed it on a regular schedule as Hospice had written it in the first place.
Our Mom passed away 2 days after we brought in the Private Nurses. My sister was there and Mom gently stopped breathing. It was a very peaceful, quiet leaving, exactly like her. She was a nurse, an OBGYN nurse. She was a wonderful Mom and person.Our biggest regret was taking her to The Ridge.
I would never,ever bring someone I loved to live there.
PS I would give it no stars, but you have too.