When a senior checks into a hospital, the staff there is extremely well-trained to treat the obvious ailments. In some cases though they might miss a problem that is not so obvious. Since they have no history with the patient, the staff may not know about the existing mental condition of the senior. This was the case for my father. Although my father was always a little bit crazy. He’s always been a very rational man. After his stroke and release from the hospital, everything started out fine. Then my father started acting totally crazy. He pulled out his catheter which is equivalent to having a baby with no painkillers. After that he just kept saying that he would have gotten away with it if there had not have been so much blood. He continued to call me by my sister’s name and talk about how much he wanted to go for a drive. When we checked him back into the hospital, he was mostly fined during the day and at night he attacked an orderly and tried to get in a car and drive home. He turned into a kind of caveman whose single focus was to drive home. Since the hospital had no history on his mental status, they must assume that he was just like that. Because a family member was there, we knew that there was another problem. We continue to tell them that this is not normal and after three days of insanity, they finally ran a test to find that he had an infection. After talking to several doctors and nurses, we found that this was a very common problem with senior.
Seniors deal differently with infections. I’ve heard it from several different sources since then that when a older adult gets an infection, it can cause temporary insanity. Most of these infections can be easily treated with antibiotics. The big problem here is that it takes a family member or expert staff to realize that there is an unseen problem that should be tested and medicated. The results of my father’s tests originally came back with the extremely mild elevated white blood count. Still this was enough to make him a psycho fruitcake for about three days. If you are the son or daughter of an aging parent, keep in mind that there is no one better to review and assist in the medical care of family member. I can’t stress this enough. Everyone needs someone not associated with the facility to guarantee the best healthcare. I just hope that when I’m older that I’m still close enough to my son and daughter that they will be able to check on me and make sure that the facility is doing everything right.
Here is a list of the worst of the worse nursing homes across the country according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. These facilities are listed by region.
East Coast
If you have family in Florida at the Key West Convalescent Center, the Palms Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Lauderdale Lakes or the Apollo Health & Rehab Center in St. Petersburg, you may want to move them to a new location. The are 3 homes in Georgia that should be avoided. The Place at Augusta, Shoreham at Marietta and Laurel Baye Healthcare of Lake Lanier in Buford have been sited. In Massachusetts, both Milton Health Care and Cedar Hill Health Care Center in Randolph.are poorly rated. Pennsylvania had 2 homes on the list: The Brighten at Broomall and Ashton Hall Nursing and Rehab. In Connecticut, the worst rated nursing home is the Wethersfield Health Care Center. Washington DC had only one care facility on the warning list. It was the Carolyn Boone Lewis Health Care Center. The Woodley Manor Health & Rehabilitation in Montgomery and the Eastview Health Care Center in Birmingham are the worst 2 nursing homes in Alabama. In Mississippi, keep your eyes on Evergreen Missoula Health & Rehab and the Hinds County Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. The facility in question in Virginia is Ruxton Health of Woodbridge. There were 2 facilities in Louisiana (Plaquemine Caring and the Lake Providence Subacute Rehab). The Overton Park Health Care Center in Memphis, Tennessee is on the bad list. In New York, the Vivian Teal Howard Rehab Center is in question. If you have family in Magnolia Manor or Ridgeview Manor Nursing Facility in Hopkins South Carolina, you may want to move them to another facility.
Mid West and Central Region
Both the Aberdeen Healthcare Center and the Bennett County Hospital and Nursing Home, in Martin are the worst places in South Dakota. The Taylor Care Center is named Texas’s worst nursing home. The Blair House in Burlington, Iowa, the Gooding Rehab & Living Center in Idaho and the Benson’s Nursing Home Inc. in Nashville, Arkansas are the respective worsted facilities for these states. Keep your eyes on the Berkshire Nursing & Rehab Center in Forest Park, Illinois and the Hillcrest Centre for Health and Rehabilitation in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The Atchison Senior Village and Ottawa Retirement Village should also be avoided. Both the Northwest Nursing Center in Oklahoma City and Pawhuska Nursing Home were rated the worst two nursing home in Oklahoma. The Luther Home and Willows Nursing and Rehabilitation are the 2 Wisconsin facilities with the worst track record. Missouri is one of the worst states with 3 different homes in question. The St Elizabeth Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Florissant, the Senior Estates in Kansas City and West Village Manor in Columbia are all poorly rated facilities.
West Coast
There were 2 nursing homes found to have significant problems in Colorado. The Kindred Healthcare & Rehab Center of Northglenn and the Eagle Ridge at Grand Valley are on the “avoid” list. In Washington State, the Evergreen Centralia Health & Rehab, Frontier Rehab & Extended Care in Longview and the Franklin Hills Health & Rehab in Spokane are best to stay away from until they resolve their management problems. California has only one facility on the list and that was the Yuba City Care Center. You wouldn’t think that you would see these kind of problem in Hawaii but the Leahi Hospital, in Honolulu made the bad facility list. As you move inland to Nevada, you will find problems at the Fort Bayard Medical Center, and the Evergreen Mountainview Health in Carson.
If you have family in any of these facilities, there may not be a problem but you should be aware that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service has put these facilities on their watch list. I recommend that you talk to your loved one and if you see any evidence of a problem, move them to a higher-rated facility. If you speak with the residents of these facilities, a majority of them will probably have positive things to say. This list was generated because the facilities have a history of health violations. These violating may only effect a small portion of the residents but there is no point taking chances if you have other options.