STOP! If your loved one cannot speak for themselves, this is not the facility for you!…read moreIf you are like me right now, you have been given choices to make. Do yourself a favor and take a tour before leaving your family member. There are some kind overworked aides who are doing their best. However, the facility is run down and there are some improvements that need to be done. For example, in Matthew wing, the air conditioning unit was not working. A fan was brought in by another patient. My husband had a fall risk bracelet from the hospital. The facility did not take preventative measures to keep my husband safe until he fell out of the bed. The next day they put some mats on the floor. He actually got worse after a week in this facility, was dehydrated and looked worse than when he got there. If it is all you can afford, be present every day because the facility needs all the help they can get. My husband was left with a diaper. They did not follow the same medical procedures as the hospital. So when you think you are going to a better place from the hospital, think again because he was sent back to the hospital thank G-d!

My Dad enjoyed residing in Independent Living at the Vi. But after a fall in his apartment led to…read morehis permanent residency in their care (rehabilitation) center, it was a terrible way to live for his last year. He went from a beautiful fully equipped residence to a tiny semi-private room where he could not even subscribe to his own cable TV. Not even a storage area for him to use, as provided in the Independent and Assisted Living residences. The staff there is friendly but terribly short-handed. Once he was finished with his prescribed rehab paid by medicare, the only exercise available in the gym was approximately $45 an hour. And when we tried twice to sign him up, our requests were ignored. A nurses aide walked with him two or three times a week for about 10 minutes, that was all the moving around he got to do. The doctors who work there are a joke. Maybe if one of them, or a nurse, had put a stethoscope to my father's chest, they might have suspected the pneumonia that wound up killing him a few weeks later.

This is for the Vi at Lakeside Rehab Center…read more Last year my mother went to V and it was a good experience. Of course last year she only had a broken hip so it was straightforward home in 6 weeks. I even wrote a glowing letter at how wonderful the people were, the food was great and my only complaint really was that they didn't answer the Bells during meal times. This time was the most horrible experience ever. I was stunned to see how much the care had fallen in one year. The food was horrible, the administration is worse than horrible and my mother, who could walk up and down stairs, walk 120 ft round trip to go to the bathroom, get herself to bed and up in the morning and could shower herself had to be brought home on a stretcher. Now 10 days later she still can't walk. Why, because when she got there she had gout and the doctor and PA refused to treat it. At first I thought they didn't believe her and they absolutely refused to call me to get my mother's medical history with gout. I had to go over their heads to her rheumatologist in order to get her started on a Medrol pack which is prednisone. By then we were 9 days in with no treatment and the Medrol pack only worked while she was taking the prednisone. I fired the doctor and PA . The second PA knew right away that it was gout and ordered a second round of prednisone . Again while she was on the prednisone she started to walk again but as soon as she was off the medication she was in serious trouble again. I contend that had they treated the gout initially and not waited so long she would not have had to be on oxygen , she would not have had to endure that pain , she would not have had to be confined to bed. They simply did not care. Because she was confined to bed, she was left in her own stool for hours resulting in her first raging UTI. In addition to that they screwed around with her Carvedilol calling it a "hold parameter" which many facilities do. However what they were doing was having her miss entire doses because they didn't know what they were doing. That's dangerous. They were supposed to take her blood pressure and if the systolic was under a hundred they were supposed to hold the dose. They were supposed to come back and do her blood pressure again until it was over the hundred mark systolic and then give her the Carvedilol. I actually had an LPN ask me if she should give my mother the Carvedilol. Don't you think she should have known what a whole parameter was? And when I found this out and questioned it they suddenly came back in to take the blood pressure several times until they could give her the meds. I was Furious. Because they didn't treat the gout she got fluid on her lungs and had to be on oxygen and Lasix. To add insult to injury she ended up with yet another raging UTI from being left in her own stool for hours. She ended up being isolated and given an IV antibiotic. We were told everyone that walked into the room needed to be wearing a gown , gloves , a mask . No one did this . Not the director of nursing, the assistant director of nursing, the aids, the maintenance guys, or housekeeping. In fact after isolating her they took her out of the room to go weigh her . So why was she isolated? Let's add one more thing. She started to get a precious sore on her tailbone. The wound person walked in the door didn't get anywhere near my mother and said just give her the pink stuff she'll be fine. Then they sent in they're dermatologist and he said it was just flaking skin. She had to wait till she got home for me to clear that up. Certainly sitting in your own waist will break your skin down but no one seemed to care. This stay at V was torturous. They sent an able-bodied woman home on a stretcher because of their incompetence. Never ever again will my mother go to Vi. It was a horrible horrible experience and my mother has still not recovered from that incompetence.

I am visiting my friend and he has been experiencing much better care and so far has been more…read morecomfortable overall.

A man experiences severe back pain, so bad that he cannot get out of his truck or walk and calls…read more911. EMTs pick him up & give fentanyl on the way to JFK Main ER. He arrives at the ER & vitals are taken. According to the medical records, the pain "started at work after heavy lifting". The man never got out of his truck, never made this statement. (Record also states he is a "current every day smoker". The man has never smoked a cigarette in his life.) They send him for a CT scan, which just shows some degenerative changes". The nurse sticks a lidocaine patch on his back. Then no one comes to see him. A nurse walks by & a family member asks has anyone taken his BP recently. Her reply,"Did you ask him?", meaning the patient. What kind of snarky response is that??? The ER was not busy, but the patient, with the fentanyl wearing off, is now extremely uncomfortable. The ER physician, Dr. S comes in to tell the patient he's being discharged. The family member tells the doctor that the patient complained of urgency & painful urination that morning. The doctor tells them to go have his prostate checked. NO LABS WERE DONE. A simple urinalysis would've shown that the patient had a UTI. There was tenderness in the right lower back area. But Dr. S ignores this and sends the man home. T - temperature (normal) I - Infection (painful urination) M - Mental Decline (patient was anxious & "tired" by discharge) E - Extremely Ill (patient felt the worse he's felt in his life with severe pain) TIME - the signs of SEPSIS. In fact, during the Severe Sepsis Screening, male RN SG, documented YES on the heart rate, which was 128 on admission, & 127 on discharge. DO NOT GO TO THE ER at JFK MAIN. Some pee in a cup. Just a simple CBC. These tests were never done & would've shown that this man had sepsis. Instead, he was discharged. By the head of the ER. After only an hour being home, the man was taken by his family to their local hospital where immediately a sepsis alert was called. An E coli infection from the urinary system... He was admitted & started immediately on IV antibiotics. Remained in the hospital, where they also discovered a mass on the patient's bladder. Cancer. A complaint against Dr. S was filed with the FL DOH. But HCA has a lot of money & great lawyers. Nothing is on record about the complete oversight by Dr. S. He gets to practice emergency medicine forever. This hospital was once known to be the best cardiac hospital in PBC. Since HCA took over, it is not #1 anymore. Even their top cardiothoracic surgeon got the heck out of there. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID.

Affordable and amazing caregivers and staff. They worked directly with our insurance and handled…read moreeverything.

The management and staff at Excellent Care Home Care have been amazing. I was in dire need of a…read moregreat home care specialist for my grandmother and on short notice, the manager, Angie came in for an interview and helped get everything set up. Angie found us a great home care specialist in Karen and all of my questions/concerns have been met so far. I really feel that theres an open line of communication so if I ever have any questions or need to adjust care, it can be done so easily. I value the compassion and professionalism I have been shown and thank everyone at Excellent Care Home Care.

lost my father because of the negligence of the staff at Select Specialty Hospital. He went in…read moretalking, alert, and recovering from diverticulitis surgery -- only needing help learning to manage his wound vac and ostomy bag. On Mother's Day, I walked in to find him gasping for air. The nurse told me "he's fine, he's been like that for two hours." He was not fine -- he was in respiratory distress and ultimately suffered an anoxic brain injury that led to his death. My sister, an ER nurse 1,800 miles away, had to direct the code team through FaceTime because they didn't know what to do. The hospital later altered records 17 times after the incident. There was no accountability because Florida's "Free Kill Law" prevents families from suing if their parent is unmarried or has no dependents. Please think twice before trusting this facility with your loved one -- what happened to my father should never happen to anyone.

This review is probably unique because I am the patient. This is my firsthand account. I came to…read morethis hospital very sick. I was at JFK, where I coded and was on many machines. I had issues with my breathing and I was too weak to work with therapy. I came to Select to get better. While I was here I had a respiratory crisis and needing a tracheostomy and a ventilator. I had to be seen by doctors everyday and taken care of in the ICU for a couple of weeks. Little by little I began to improve and breath more on my own. I started working with physical, occupational and speech therapy. It took a couple of months and this place helped me get back to my life. I am able to walk, talk and eat on my own again. I get to home now and I am thankful for that. There are so many people I want to thank for making a difference in my stay. Almost all the nurses were fantastic. Kelly & Katie made me feel like I was a family member and Demi, Magdal and Daphnee were always on point. The respiratory therapists helped me to get back to breathing.... Terrill and Phillippe were some of my favorite RTs. Eddie In Physical therapy helped me to get up walking again. It became a routine to get coffee myself with PT once I was walking... fyi, Sarah Makes the Best coffee. There are so many other people who made an impact on my stay that I am thankful for. Select is the place to go if you value your life.

Everything went well. Staff excellent. Made you feel good. I'm telling you this is the place to…read morego if you need anything pertaining to your eyes. Excellent. Thank you Akers Kasten!

I like the Christian perspective of this agency. Although our permanent caretakers did not end up…read morecoming from this agency, we were very impressed by the owner and administration. They look at their work as not just a business, but as a ministry. They even give teddie bears to their patients! I recommended them to a friend and she is very happy with the agency. In the beginning, there was a lot of turnover for her until they found the right match and someone who was more steady. Guess that's par for the course in this line of work.

This agency helped us with their nurses and therapists but also helped us with finding reliable…read moreresources in the area for supplies and other things we will need in the future.

Over the past year, my father's physical and mental (dementia) declined fairly precipitously. My…read moresister and I lived far from Vero and we were concerned about our father having no family in the area, yet needing care (and caring). We were blessed to then have Caron D'Ambruso (of Active Home Health) enter our lives. Initially is started with Caron helping clean and dress my father's skin cancer wounds which he had not been properly tending to. Not only Caron provide care for his wounds, she demonstrated a compassion and a caring for him as a person, something he desperately needed in his poor physical and isolated condition. Despite my father's decline, he was highly intelligent and a former trail lawyer who could be a bit of a "curmudgeon" and not easily trust people. Caron's loving and caring style, combined with her high intellect (she is a Harvard graduate), quickly earned her a special place in my father's life. He respected her greatly and lit up when she would visit to care for him. She wasn't just providing care for his physical wounds, but also his emotional ones. And that is because she actually cares for the people she is treating. Knowing that his two daughters lived in other states and cities, Caron provided us with updates and shared insights about his condition and care that he needed. This was instrumental in our knowing what additional resources and doctors he needed. On the morning I flew down to see my father and take him to a new neurologist for memory issues, my father collapsed in his apartment with a stroke. After landing, I called him on my drive to Vero Beach and he did not answer the phone. I called Caron and expressed my concern, and asked her to let me know if she saw my father in the common areas of the facility. I was about an hour away in the car and was anxious. Caron took it upon herself to go to his apartment. When she knocked, she could hear his small dog barking, but no one answered. Caron sought security who helped her enter his apartment and they found him on the floor in dried blood and urine. Caron immediately tended to him and called for an ambulance via 911. The paramedics arrived and Caron called me to let me know what had happened. I re-routed my rental car to the hospital. My Dad had to be in the hospital and then a rehab facility for over three weeks. During this treatment period, Caron visited my Dad on her personal time in both the hospital and rehab facility. She helped bring changes of clothing and other items he needed. Given my father's stroke and his lack of proximity to family, my sister and I decided that we needed to move him back to his hometown of Fort Lauderdale once he was released. This would get him closer to family and friends which he clearly needed. The saddest part of this decision was that Dad would lose his nurse and caring friend, Caron. It was a big loss indeed. Needless to say, Caron was a Godsend to my father and family. She continues to occasionally check in to see how he is recovering. We miss Caron and hope that others who are in the Vero Beach area are fortunate to have her care, and the other great caretakers at Home Health Care.

I am honored and privileged to work with Andrea Alberti, the CEO and Founder of Horizon Care…read moreServices. Andrea and her staff have become like family making it a pleasure to collaborate with them. The patient care provided by Horizon Care Services is top-notch. Recently, Home Health Care News published an excellent article highlighting the professional, uniqueness and outstanding care offered by Horizon Care Services.

Horizon is the worst agency ever. The RN called DCF and knowingly filed a false report claiming…read morethat my mother was guilty of self-neglect. The DCF officer came out and said it was a baseless complaint and closed out the case. This action on Horizon's part shows a complete disregard for the well-being of my mother as well as the caregiver who was unjustly fired as a result. I terminated service and went with a different company. The owner of the company sent me an email stating that she supported the RN's decision to file a false report and didn't see anything illegal about it.