Richmond Place

Date: August 27, 2015 Subject: Brookdale Clare Bridge Lexington

For 10 months, my mother had reasonably comfortable care at Brookdale?s Clare Bridge Lexington facility and had adapted to the environment and staff.

Recently, a new married man has joined the facility (May 2015 timeframe). One staff member pulled us aside and informed us that the newly arrived man had taken a liking to our mother. She said that they would keep an eye on the situation. Since that time, the situation has deteriorated to the kissing of hands, cheeks, and finally on the mouth. We have seen the man kiss our mother and at least one other lady in the facility on the mouth. In the second case, we saw that the man instigated the action. In this case, we did see a staff member separate the couple. It was implied by one staff member that this behavior goes on often within the facility. Our family does not agree with the policies within Clare Bridge. We think that the recent situation has contributed to my mother becoming physically ill (vomiting, diarrhea, and a bronchial infection all within a one-month timeframe). My mother, like others, has a difficulty fighting off germs and the resulting infections. We think that the passing of saliva between the residents is passing germs from one resident to the next. This reminds us of the stories of airborne Tuberculosis passing thru institutions of the past.

The locking up of soap does not help either. Apparently, Brookdale has instilled a policy of locking all such materials up, due to some cases of human ingestion. Contrary to Brookdale?s claims, the staff is not always with the patients when they go to the bathroom. We have seen one patient relieve themselves on the carpet in the bedroom of a different patient. The staff did clean the carpet by gloved hand, but how clean is this? The patient did not know where they were at, and was not the problem. We do not feel that this is a healthy environment for our mother.

We met with Clare Bridge management twice. Our simple request was to keep the male patient and my mother apart. The first time, management agreed to keep the two residents apart at our request. Then they requested a second meeting a week later, only to tell us that they would not keep them separate, due to patient rights. At this crossroads, we decided we had to move our mother immediately.

Patients do have rights. However, when the patients are handicapped to the extreme that family members are managing the patient?s care and finances, the patients are managed behind a continuously locked door at an institution like Clare Bridge, and unknown staff members are managing their lives to the level of bathing and bathroom assist, the patient-rights logic seems to ring hollow.

My mother has expressed her rights as well. She has stated that she does not feel that she fits into this circle of people, she does not know why she has been paired with this man, and that she would like to get away from the scenario. We tried to invoke some level of sanity by participating in the two aforementioned meetings. We failed with Brookdale Clare Bridge Lexington management. The rights topic deserves some discussion. It seems like the man in this case has gained significant rights; full freedom to kiss anyone he wishes. But more importantly, it seems like Brookdale is exercising its right to get paid for not doing its job. This was further shown, when we informed them that we were departing. They asked if we were moving to a competitor?s facility. We identified that we were. Therefore, it was their policy to charge us another monthly residency fee of $5500, since we did not give them a month?s advance notice per the contract. We were in so much of a hurry to get our mother out, that we did not want her to suffer another 30 days in this environment. So ask yourself, did my mother retain her rights? In our opinion, the Lexington facility has issues. Our mother drinks milk like a youngster. Even though we asked the staff to provide her with milk, it was very rare that we could confirm this happened. Generally, it was water or juice. Once when she was feeling nauseous, we had to go to the main facility just to retrieve a Sprite to settle her stomach. Clare Bridge seems to be too understaffed to manage the situation. On one occurrence, we had to wait approximately 10-15 minutes just to exit the locked front door; there were only two staff people in the facility at this time. Turnover has been relentless since our first association with Brookdale. I encourage researching families to look at the employee reviews found online to see what their thoughts have been about Brookdale (Glassdoor.com). As a public firm, one can also see information online about the financial status of Brookdale Senior Living (Yahoo Finance, BigCharts.com, and SEC Filings). How these numbers relate to patient care, personal staff livelihood, and the retention of the staff members is not clear. The researcher should draw their own conclusions.

Finally, when the time comes that their loved ones need to be confined to an institution like Brookdale Clare Bridge Lexington, I hope managers M & A think hard as to where they locate their family member. Ask your family today for their opinion of how they would like to be treated tomorrow.

Sincerely, Family Member

by Louann Samuels, Sep 2015