Heath Springs Residential Care

Why no pictures of the actual facility on your page? is it because of the filth? You allow people to sit alone in their room for weeks not noticing that they are dehydrated and fever ridden with abscesses due to no movement. Oh, no one knew there was no movement because no one cared to check on their patient or whoever was responsible decided to say it was someone else's responsibility. No calls to the family, no calls to 911 for medical care that was obviously necessary due to the lack of care leading to death. Hope every staff member at this facility sleeps well at night because you never know when your loved ones may end up in a position to need care. Hope you have better luck than my family did. Don't toss and turn to much when the time comes and you remember that what comes around goes around.

My mother was a resident at Heath Springs Residential Center and initially she had an excellent, experienced caregiver of the elderly. Her name is [name removed] and she kept my mother bathed and dressed nicely. [Name removed] has quite a handle on the whole spectrum of dealing with the elderly, their visitors and is genuine and very approachable. As time went by there were some changes and a younger, unprofessional girl started helping my mother. She got involved in discussions about her personal life and personal issues about my son that I had discussed with my mother. She gave her opinion and advice to my mother over a period of six weeks. This led to my mother talking about issues that were untrue and about discussions she had with this girl every time I went to visit until I became upset with my mother. During the last visit I had with my mother at Heath Springs, I told my mother the visit was upsetting and that I was leaving. Before I could leave on my own this person ran me off. (I was also upset that my mother had a terrible stench that at an earlier visit other staff and I had smelled at the nurses' station. After spraying air freshener and investigating, it turned out to be another resident that was in a room outside of the hallway). I told the girl that I was upset and I had already decided to leave. I was searching my purse for my keys and she told me that if did not leave she was calling the police to have me arrested and I was not to come back because there was going to be an investigation. She also accused me of throwing a bag at my mother which I made her back off when I told her she was telling a flat out lie. She also referred to a comforter that I had bought for my mother as "that old thing" when I asked if it would be put back on her bed. So instead of agreeing that I make the visit short, she ran me off, threatened to have me arrested and attacked me personally. (Now practically all of the clothes and pajamas I bought for my mother would go missing shortly after I gave them to her. I had always asked nicely if they could be recovered but this is something that some of the staff do not want to do. But I did ask if they would please look for them.) Before I left I had a member of the staff call the administrator and I told her what had happened and that I wanted to know when I would be able to visit my mother since this person had spoken about an investigation. She said she understood why I became upset when I explained what was being said and she informed me that she would let me know when I could return. I called several times and spoke to the administrator once and spoke about the member of her staff that that was having inappropriate conversations about her personal life as well as filling my mother's head with ideas about my son. She said she would look into it. When I called other times, staff said they would let the administrator know I had called. Some of the staff are understanding but not this girl. She had inappropriate conversations with my mother about her personal life and gave opinions about my son which my mother would repeat to me every time I visited. Then she was inappropriate with me during my last visit in which she was ultimately the cause of the conflict. She even got on the phone and yelled at me one of the times when I spoke with other staff about what had happened, how my mother was doing and when I could visit her. This went on for 4 months. The last time I called I told a staff member that I was referred to who was helping my mother at the time that their attitude was very uncaring and that at my mother's age she may not even recognize me if I was not allowed to see her soon. (In addition, I was the only visitor she had.) She agreed and I told her that the first person I had spoken to that day again said that she would let the administrator know that I had called. A while later and still no word from Heath Springs, I received news that my mother was in the hospital and you can bet I called the administrator and told her it was on them if she did not recognize me when I got to the hospital. Sadly, when I finally saw my mother who had been admitted due to a bladder infection, she was already being given morphine just to make her comfortable. (I had also left a bidet for her at my last visit because I feared this would happen but was not even told if it was put on her toilet when I asked.) So yes these people punish you and the resident if you have a difficult visit with your loved one. I let the administrator know that my behavior did not warrant such a severe punishment and I asked just how long had she planned on punishing both my mother and me. She said she was never told about my calls and I told her she needed to talk to her staff and that the girl who was at the root of this had even gotten on the phone with me one of the times I had called. This conversation happened over a course of several phone conversations because she hung up on me and then threatened to have me arrested for phone harassment and in the end yelled, "Your mother is not here any more!!". Note: I visited Heath Springs Residential Center almost weekly for six months and the administrator never bothered to introduce herself to me although I would walk by and smile at her while she was in her office. That is, if the door was not closed. Also, there were very few visitors. Now how could these people let this slide by after seeing my mother on a daily basis and knowing that I had visited her weekly for the past six months and knowing how my mother had asked daily if this was the day I was coming? Also only a handful of the residents have visitors. It makes me wonder if other people are run off. Everyone knows that the elderly "can" be demanding and difficult at times and that their loved ones are only human. But keep in mind this person was putting her nose in my immediate family business and having my mother say things to me on my last 6 or 7 visits that were unnecessary and untrue and ultimately should not have been discussed with an 88 year old woman with dementia. To me this was a major incident in this facility. They had banned a daughter and a mother from seeing each other. Was there really an investigation or did the girl just make it up while she was mishandling the situation? ...No one bothered to follow up about my calls about when I could resume visiting her when they saw my mother every day!!! With this horrific story being told, I do feel that they may be understaffed and it may be that the clinical staff has to keep up with the housekeeping and therefore the facility is not as clean as it should be and it may be why residents' belongings are constantly misplaced. But there is no excuse for that girl's behavior and their lack of communication that ultimately turned into extreme and cruel punishment for my mother and me. The last thing my mother said to me was that she did not want them to not let me visit her. So you can see they punished both of us in an uncaring and severe way. This is something I will never forget. I just hope the burden of this incident will become less heavy over time. One last comment. During the visit prior to the incident I did notice that there were 2 or 3 residents with bruised faces and one with a broken arm. (I had been visiting regularly for six months and this seemed unusual.) The residents with bruised faces had apparently fallen out of their beds as about a week earlier my mother had fallen out of her bed. There were other female residents that usually dressed nicely with makeup and had styled hair that were ragged looking and did not look as alert as usual to the point that they did not speak to me. My mother did not have a long pair of pants to put on during one visit which made her agitated and hard to deal with. And as mentioned earlier the fact that a resident that was in the roo

OVERALL - DIRTY (SANDY FLOORS IN BEDROOMS) NO HURRY TO GET LIQUIDS UP ALTHOUGH ONE RESIDENT HAD SLIPPED AND BROKE HER ARM. STARTED NOTICING WITHIN A SPAN OF A COUPLE OF WEEKS THAT RESIDENTS HAD BRUISES ON THEIR FACES. SEEMED THAT SUDDENLY THEY WERE FALLING OUT OF THEIR BEDS. CLOTHES AND BELONGINGS ARE LOST ALTHOUGH NAME IS WRITTEN ON THEM. (PILLOW IN FEMALE RESIDENTS ROOM WITH MALE NAME ON IT) I INQUIRED ABOUT LOST BEDCLOTHES AND WORKER REPLIED, "THAT OLD THING", ONE OF THE STAFF GAVE INAPPROPRIATE ADVICE CONCERNING A FAMILY MEMBER ASSUMING FAMILY MEMBER IS OF THE SAME SEXUAL ORIENTATION AS SHE WHICH CAUSED ISSUES WITH FAMILY MEMBER SINCE RESIDENT REPEATED IT. IF THERE IS AN UPSET WITH RESIDENT, STAFF TAKES IT UPON THEMSELVES TO ENSURE FAMILY MEMBER CAN NEVER VISIT BY NOT TELLING THE SUPERVISOR FAMILY MEMBER HAS ASKED. (STAFF TOLD LIES ABOUT SITUATION AND ABOUT OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISITING) FAMILY MEMBER WREAKED OF URINE AS OTHER RESIDENTS HAVE. RESIDENT'S ODOR COULD BE SMELLED 8 FEET AWAY.

I have a family member here and she is VERY UNHAPPY!! The bathrooms are always dirty when I go and this is at different times. It is NOTHING LIKE the serene place the advertisement makes it out to be!!!! My sister is here due to frequent falls. She has fallen more since being here than she did living on her own. Once after a fall in the bathroom and returning from the hospital getting 11 staples in her head she could not get any pain medicine or her INSULIN because they had no one there to give her the insulin (major fall hazard). I have seen water on the bathroom floor myself more than once and have taken pictures on my phone of the dirty floors.