Sterling House of Longmont

I worked here for 9 months, and finally left because I was not willing
to watch 1 more resident die a painful death because a few QMAPS,
decided to withhold pain medication for hospice residents. QMAPS are
not allowed to make those decisions but they did. They would not
even call hospice to discuss why they felt the medications should not
be given. This has been reported to the state by at least 4 people.
FOOD: filthy kitchen, bugs, mice and the most of the residents
complain about how bad the food tastes. Constantly running out of
coffee,juices, creamer, etc changing decaf for regular.
LAUNDRY: no matter the size of the load that needs to be washed it is
all put in one load, whites, darks, it doesn't matter. Clothes don't get
clean. STAFF: 2 people on duty during the evening and overnight
shifts for a place that has 40+ ROOMS. We have a list of nightly
duties, the only resident care for over night shift was bed check every
2 hrs. the rest of our time was spent cleaning. This is crazy. Many
residents would get up and wander, maybe frightened, maybe just
having a bad dream, maybe sick etc. I wanted to work there because
I went to work there thinking I'd be doing caregiving. No time for that
to busy cleaning so we could get more residents. They have had at
least 10 people leave in the time I was there.
CLEANLINESS: People would have food, vomit etc on their carpets for
weeks before it would get shampooed. People had cats there, and
rooms smelled so bad you could hardly stand to go in. Bathrooms
would have feces on the toilets where residents tried to clean
themselves but couldn't.
SAFETY: One resident loved being outside, except she didn't always
realize when to come in and she suffered heat stroke more than once.
She also went for a walk and was gone for several hours before
anyone noticed. We had many falls, we had residents that threatened
both staff and other residents.

— shelley fox, Jul 2012