Brookdale West St Paul

Good thing about this facility is that it is easy for residents with Dementia to navigate around then the huge 4 level memory care facilities. The bad thing is it has not been remodeled since the fifties. The circular hallways are very narrow so residents moving around with walkers have a hard time passing each other which causes conflict between mobile residents.

This facility has had constant staff turnover even management staff. In the two years my Mother-in-law lived there until her death in January, 2019. I have not found Brookdale to live up to their advertising. They do not have housekeeping as you would expect cleaning. My mother-in-laws room was very unsanitary and I don’t mean trash not emptied or furniture not dusted. I believe this was the situation because Brookdale would not hire a specific housekeeper they expect the direct care staff to take care of the cleaning. Can you imagine leaving your two year old child unsupervised while you clean several rooms? This is probably why rooms are unsanitary because the residents need care and the staff priority is residents not room cleaning. Outings are practically non existent but they advertise it. The backyard patio is kind of a joke. They have flower gardens but not really maintained because the residents can’t take care of it and you can’t have direct care staff do it but again it is advertised to be a bonus.

Direct care staff was always changing so it was hard to get a feel of how well they knew your loved one and how well they were trained. Communication between direct care staff and management seemed to lack consistency. This was true with management communication with family members. If you didn’t pester the upper management like nursing staff you would never find anything out about you’re loved one. Direct care people would say things are fine and then nursing would give you a whole different answer.

My Mother-in-law was not an easy person to deal with I admit but nursing staff seemed not able to take care of her they wanted the family to take care of her even though they claim, they are trained in many aspects of the stages of Dementia. The real problem was they don’t have enough staff to handle unruly behavior. They kept only the most minimal staff that the law allows. This is a national company which charges for everything but they don’t go above and beyond what is truly needed. The head of nursing I found wasn’t willing to put in the time to help staff. They had problems with my mother-in-law but when we were at the facility the nurse in charge never approached us to explain anything or what they were doing with her. She did not appear to have any compassion about what any of us were going through. Even in my mother-in- law’s last week of life this nurse did not monitor her condition and add or fix some things. We had hospice care for her so I think this nurse let them worry about her unless they told her what do do. Hospice is not there all the time so they need help to let them know what is happening but I don’t think there was a lot of communication unless hospice would ask. The family was there often during that last week of life and the head of nursing was in the building and never came into the room to check on her or even talk with the family. At one time my mother-in-law was drowning in fluid of which there was medicine for her but we the family had to clear it out so and have her rotated in her bed so she was more comfortable. We called hospice for help and they ordered more meds and the head nurse told her med passers to give it to her after getting a call from hospice but she never came in herself to check if things were better. She was in the building. To this day we have never gotten any condolences from this person. It was obvious this nurse didn’t want to deal with my mother-in-law because of her previous behaviors and the extra work she probably caused. The direct care staff could only do what management would let them do so I don’t blame them. I blame this corporation and how they handle their staffing and communication.

Lastly, don’t believe the advertising on this facility because they can’t fulfill all the things they advertise. Partly because of the clientele they are dealing with and partly because they don’t have the staff to do it. Management wise and direct care service and specialty services such as cooking and meal planning to recreational services. Unfortunately this is not exclusive to this facility because we have had to deal with many facilities in the last ten years because of 3 family members needing the same services. What a shame, but this information does not take this facility off the hook just because other facilities are the same. Hopefully, at least upper management is more caring.

by Deb Pribyl, Feb 2019