Catholic Health Group

The day my mother was admitted to St Martha's,there was an issue of cold air blowing down on her when I was tucking her in bed for the night. I hadnt realized prior to admission/nor been informed that Mom's room & three others were on one thermostat, which was down the hall. The cold air coming from a down vent was reported, but not fixed, so I finally had to pull a kitchen chair down & back, to stand on while I turned the vents up. Granted, my mom's room did also have two wall radiators, but my mother couldn't operate them, let alone remember they were there. Yet,despite repeatedly asking staff to monitor her room temperature,her room was freezing cold or extremely hot on every visit. Then, there was having to deal with a certain caregiver who barked instructions concerning 'floor rules', never gone over @ say, a floor orientation, when a resident moves in? One evening, while I was about to sit Mom with another new resident for dinner, I was shocked by an angry look & finger pointing across the small room to a seat I began to sit my mom with another new resident for dinner, a nasty point of a finger to a seat o pushed up against the wall by the table & a fire hydrant on the wall @ head leve, and a,"She sits there!"barked @ us, so, now I knew rule #1: My mom had an assigned diningroom seat. Another 'rule' I learned in just as an abrupt/rude fashion was, "family members are not allowed in &/or to have a conversation with another family member anywhere near the diningroom. told in an arrogant fashion to leave when I was talking to another family member near the diningroom, They had so many rules and yet had claimed that the residents were to feel 'at home'. There wasn't anything in the refrigerator for Mom to drink between meals. Same old cartons of prune juice, that a dining staff memmber said that they brought to the dementia floor, because no one on the independent living side was drinking them. Oh, and there were quarts of diet sprite. No water, juice, etc. If Mom liked lemonade, I was told to buy it myself. When I questioned residents being adequately hydrated, kitchen staff said that floor caregivers had order sheets to order anything needed to stock their refrigerators, but when I questioned the caregivers, they denied this. Stated that they could only order meals and argued that, besides, "their residents are adequately hydrated, between meal beverages, water with medications & an occasional snack during an activity. (Upon removing Mom from St Martha's, labwork showed her to be, in fact, dehydrated, and she required Potassium supplements) Another stressor, was never getting an answer when I called with a question to her floor. Then, their advertised "beautiful courtyard" still had not been cleaned up for the season by mid-July when I removed Mom. The only birdbath, had a broken, crumbling top top. There was a garden workstation, but the sink was filled with the muddy water with leaves from winter. Birdfeeders, as well as past-season flower pots, sat empty or contained dead plants, including the ones surrounding a Mother Mary statue. My mother's hair didn't get washed for five weeks, even though I had signed her up for weekly beauty shop appointments. The list goes on & on, but the most upsetting incident was when staff called to tell me my mom was acting out, but refused to let me speak to her, to calm her down, stating "dementia residents are not allowed on their phones". Staff, from head administrator to caregivers, not only did not respond to my requests on behalf of my mother, but were defensive & argumentative with me. A 'very'disturbing experience indeed'is how I would describe St. Martha's Villa. It's been four months since we left St Martha's, but I'm still experiencing problems, due to the haphazard way in which they ordered medications. My mother's insurance company is trying to charge us the cash price, $59.69, for two tablets, because St Martha's didn't get the required prior authorization first. I have called the financial manager twice to post date the prior auth, which should resolve the issue. She says that head administrator needs to do it & states that she has sent an email to her both times, but it appears that she's refusing to comply. I also just called the financial director's suppervisor, as well as the facility's director last week, but no respose. I have paid Mom's portion of the bill, but the pharmacy states it has been since June, so it is going to collection & my credit as co-signer on the account will be affected for their negligence.