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Uploaded: Friday, November 16, 2012, 9:17 AM
Lytton Gardens reprimanded over care of patients
State health officials call for correction after facility fails to provide prompt assistance
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by Sue Dremann
Palo Alto Weekly Staff
The California Department of Health and Human Services is requiring Lytton Gardens Skilled Nursing Facility in downtown Palo Alto to retrain and monitor its staff after an investigation found staff took as long as one hour to respond when a resident asked for help getting to the bathroom.
The long wait violates a state requirement regarding "the dignity and respect of individuality," an Oct. 31 report stated.
Investigators, acting on a patient's complaint, went to the 145-bed facility on Webster Street on Aug. 13 and found it failed to ensure that the call light, which patients press when they need help, was answered promptly.
Lytton Gardens officials have now filed a corrective plan with the state and promise to closely monitor staff, who have been instructed to respond quickly to calls.
Although the state was acting on a single complaint, some Lytton Gardens patients and their families have told the Weekly that staff frequently ignored call buttons. Some people said they either experienced or saw patients who were left in their own waste for hours, leaving them in discomfort and feeling ashamed.
The issue investigated by the state first came to the Weekly's attention in late August. A patient was admitted to the skilled-nursing facility in July with difficulty walking, muscle weakness and a history of stroke. She was lucid, not cognitively impaired, and was able to readily communicate, according to a state report.
The patient told the investigator that on her first night at Lytton Gardens she waited for 10 to 15 minutes before anyone answered her call light, and she was in some discomfort. The investigator, based on her observations, interviews and record review, concluded that patients were waiting up to an hour for help, according to the report.
A certified nursing assistant also allegedly told the patient to yell for help if the call light was not answered right away. The facility's director of nursing told the investigator she had looked into the complaint the next day, but she could not substantiate it because the patient was not able to identify the nursing assistant. She counseled the nursing assistant who was in charge of the patient that evening, she said.
During an inspection at 4 p.m. on Aug. 16, the investigator observed call lights were being answered in "a reasonable time" of one to five minutes. A 2003 facility policy about call lights directs nurses and assistants to "answer the resident's call as soon as possible," the investigator stated.
The investigation only pertained to the single complaint, and the entire facility was not reviewed, the report noted.
But other residents and family members of patients said the problem was more pervasive.
Liseli Walan said her mother had to wait more than an hour after pressing the call button. Walan said during visits to her mother she observed multiple call lights that were activated outside of rooms and stayed on for 20 to 30 minutes. At one point she became so fed up with seeing the calls unanswered that she went into a room to help a patient get her dentures to the sink, she said.
Her mother became so frustrated with waiting to be helped from her wheelchair to her bed that she tried to move herself and risked a fall, Walan said.
On one occasion, Walan said she saw a patient with Parkinson's disease slip down in her wheelchair onto the floor. Walan said she pressed a call button, but no one came. The patient was finally helped after a 12-year-old boy visiting a relative sought out an assistant to help get the woman back into the chair, she said.
Walan's mother is no longer at Lytton, she said.
"You're in a compassionate position," she said, referring to Lytton Gardens staff. "This is people you're dealing with; this is not data entry."
The daughter of one resident, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said earlier this week that her mother's roommate was left sitting on her bed pan and was hollering for help. The roommate waited for a long time until her pleas were finally addressed, "Maryann" said.
The nursing assistant insisted to Maryann that the roommate had already been removed from the bedpan.
"You're not on your bedpan -- oh, I guess you are," the nursing assistant finally said after coming in to see the patient, according to Maryann.
"People are sitting in their own dirty diapers. People are turning their lights on, and nobody is answering them," Maryann said.
Staff also used harsh paper towels to clean the patients and did not put ointment on their bottoms, she said. Patients who were able to get to the bathroom on time were brought out of the toilet and put to bed without washing their hands or being given hand sanitizer, she said she observed. She added that she plans to file a complaint with the state.
One patient spoke to the Weekly by phone in late August while at the facility.
"Iris" had contracted an intestinal infection and was in a diaper due to persistent diarrhea, she said. She frequently employed the call button, but she was sometimes left for two to three hours without a diaper change, she said.
"You dare not bother them during their dinner hour or from 7 to 10 p.m. during the Olympics," she said. "The assistants would say, 'Your nurse is busy now.'"
She said the staff was always pleasant, but she would press the call button and a young nursing assistant would come in and turn it off. The assistants would say they told her attendant to come in, but she would have to press the button again and again.
"It shouldn't be a disgrace, but it is, to be left in your waste," she said.
"The poor nurses are harried and flustered. They are begging you to wait and they will be in soon. The nurses say, 'I'm so sorry. I have eight patients today.' They are doing their best," she said.
But Ivy Adjivon, senior director of health services, said Lytton Gardens has a nursing assistant-to-patient ratio that is better than the state requirement. The state requires each staff member to supply 3.2 hours of care per patient per day. Lytton Gardens provides 3.8 hours of staff care per patient per day, she said.
Lytton Gardens submitted its corrective-action plan to the state on Oct. 29, which was accepted. In it, administrators acknowledged that although the patient mentioned in the complaint no longer lives at Lytton Gardens, "all residents have the potential to be affected by the same practice."
The director of nursing services held meetings with nursing assistants and nurses regarding call-light compliance on Oct. 26, 28 and 29. Department directors were to be re-educated about the call-light policy on Oct. 31. Daily rounds will be conducted to monitor staff response time to answering the lights by the director of staff development. And nursing supervisors will remind nursing assistants and staff at the start of shifts about the policy of answering the lights.
A call-light study will be conducted monthly by the director of nursing service to ensure policy is being followed, and department directors will interview patients to make sure they are comfortable with the call-light responses, among other monitoring procedures.
Dee Ann Campbell, senior vice president of Episcopal Senior Communities, the parent company of Lytton Gardens, said the company takes complaints seriously and works to correct the problems. A plan of correction is an important piece of remedying a problem, but communication is also important on a regular basis, she said.
The correction plan "is not a one-time reminder," she said.
Ralph Montano, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, said nursing homes are inspected about every nine to 15 months, but investigators go in more frequently when there are complaints. Some complaints are deemed unsubstantiated, but that doesn't mean the violation didn't occur, just that at the time of inspection, no proof could be found, he said.
He said it is important to file complaints with the department whenever someone sees something occurring that is concerning. Complaints have been filed by residents, nurses and patients' families. The department's ombudsman can be called toll-free at 800-554-0353. All reports are anonymous, he said.
"We conduct thousands of on-site inspections each year. These are the kinds of complaints we are here to respond to," he said.
Since the Affordable Care Act, the state now posts complaint information about each facility on its website at www.cdph.ca.gov. Click on "health information" and "health facility consumer information."
Related materials:
• State investigates, fines local skilled-nursing facilities
• Top complaints about skilled-nursing facilitiesAre you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Marvin Lee, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 11:34 am Shame on them and on Palo Alto for not insisting on quality care. We have used the facility in the past and never had any problems like this.
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Posted by moi, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 11:40 am No one has commented yet? Hard to believe. Get some of my fellow donkey fans to come over here.
This is a horrifying story. I could tell you others about a different facility, but I'll keep the dirt to myself.
BTW, is Lytton Gardens for profit? If I missed that in the article, sorry.
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Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 11:56 am Hello ... hello ... wake up ! ;-)
Every one of these places is like this. They hire the cheapest most desperate labor and then overwork them to the point I wonder how any of these places run. If they people make the slightest mistake they are reprimanded or fired, sometimes personally held responsible. Most of us in jobs get breaks and do not have to really work hard every minute of every day ... not so with the caregivers in places like Lytton Gardens and elsewhere. They do a great job, even though it is an impossible one and deserve a hand, or some understanding even when they sometimes fail. It is often the management trying to eke profit or good stats for themselves and their bonuses. The penultimate economic justice issue in a way is these kind of lower skilled service sector jobs. And now, as a country we want to make it even harder for them with this euphemistic "austerity" nonsense.
It is good that someone is overseeing these places, but institutionally it is impossible to really make these places much better. They do about the best they can, and you are lucky if you do not have major problems.
That's my opinion based on a relative being in a nursing home setting for over 5 years now, and being on their Family Council during that time and hearing people's complaints.
Common complaints are the cheapest food ingredients ... they actually service hot dogs calling them healthy? The other one, maybe the most common one is the laundry is always messed up. They make a bit point of labeling everything when the patient arrives, and then it goes crazy from there. And slow reaction is another common complaint too. I have heard of many occasions of > 1 hour response time. One lady's demented mother took to using the trash can of her room because no one would come to help her.
They are earnest and do the best they can, and I do not mean to be critical, but trying to do masses of laundry with quick turnaround for generally older people with problems going to the bathroom or health issues is a major task, and impossible task without sufficient time and resources.
I guess the bottom line is - do not think anything is improving institutionally because one nursing home is fined and makes the papers.
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Posted by horselady, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm So much for the statement that Palo Altans would never let something like this happen!
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Posted by Gisele, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 12:32 pm I do not think that any of these places are trustworthy, which ius why you simply cannot just dump your elders in them!
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Posted by frank, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 12:38 pm Should shut it down. My mom was there b4, i pulled her out and tranferred her to another facility. Nurses were no where around, my mom waited forty five minutes after ringing call button. I found all the nurses in break room gossiping and ignoring their patients. I want that place shutdown now!!
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Posted by the_punnisher, a resident of Mountain View, on Nov 16, 2012 at 12:42 pm
the_punnisher is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online " But Ivy Adjivon, senior director of health services, said Lytton Gardens has a nursing assistant-to-patient ratio that is better than the state requirement. The state requires each staff member to supply 3.2 hours of care per patient per day. Lytton Gardens provides 3.8 hours of staff care per patient per day, she said. "
Lies, damned Lies and Statistics!
The only care would be AT NIGHT WHEN THE PATIENT IS SLEEPING!!!
After my second stroke, I was supposed to stay at a similar care facility in MV for 2-3 weeks to get PT & OT. I lasted FOUR DAYS and only that amount because the PEOPLE WAREHOUSE WOULD NOT CALL IN A DOCTOR OVER THE WEEKEND!!!
I had seen a similar situation appear at my " people warehouse ". The PT room looked like an afterthought, patients got the minimum shower 2 times a week and nurse calls when they got answered were at the half hour forty five minutes wait times.
Back to my parent's house and the REACH program and back to my house once I " graduated " again. My father experienced the same conditions when he was hospitalized.
You have a problem called " warehousing " the elderly and handicapped. Better fix it.
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Posted by Nora Charles, a resident of Stanford, on Nov 16, 2012 at 4:32 pm Shameful. And you know it's happening in such places all over the country.
The U.S. really needs to start spending money to improve the lives of our citizens at home.
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Posted by Ducatigirl, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 5:34 pm Sounds like these places need to be inspected on a surprise basis, frequently. Keep the employees in constant fear of an inspection so they never let the quality slip or get lazy. As it is, they know that inspections are rare, so they slack off a lot.
I had a similar experience four years ago when I had a knee replacement at Stanford Hospital. Then, they blamed it on the nursing shortage. Does Lytton Gardens use the same excuse? Seeing as all the nursing schools are so full that they turn away applicants, I find it hard to buy the nursing shortage excuse.
I hope the state fines the hell out of this place and closes it down.
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Posted by neighbor, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 7:59 pm These facilities are so important and necessary at times so they MUST be better monitored! I agree with the idea to have more frequent inspections without advance notice. I have known caring persons who worked at such facilities but it isn't universal. Theft can be another problem (note: we have no experience with the facility in this story)
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Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2012 at 8:44 pm > Ducatigirl
> I hope the state fines the hell out of this place and closes it down.
That is short-sighted, immature and unintelligent! Shutting this facility down just makes it worse for the other already stressed facilities. Where else are people in this situation going to live that their Palo Alto relatives can visit them? And visiting and being hands on is the key.
The solution is better management, and more staff. You can train people all you want but the folks working there put up with more, more stress and pardon the expression, more crap, in a day than any resident of Palo Alto would in a year. Their every move is monitored, and accounted for, and they are paid very low wages.
My Grandmother lived in Lytton Gardens for a long time and ended up dying there. I have gotten quite an education on these places.
Don't fine the facilities, put the managers on a bonus system that cuts starts low and gives them bonuses for not having violations. What ever happened to this country that we reward incompetence so highly as a general rule?
Give some of those rewards or incentives to the workers.
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Posted by Chris Zaharias, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 12:37 am Anon nailed it. The reality is that Lytton is *relatively* good.
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Posted by Relative, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 12:40 am This all surprises me not at all, given my family's experiences.
When my father was in a nursing home (in the East Bay), any time my mother would bring him anything nice or new, it would be "lost" by the next time she visited him. She soon learned that if she brought him ratty old sweaters instead of nice new ones, somehow those would never get "lost".
My autistic sister has been in a succession of state-funded care homes for a few decades now (in the East Bay and North Bay), and several times when visiting my mother she would show signs of physical abuse. She told my mother that "staff hit me" or "staff pushed me down" or some such. When my mother would raise holy @#$%, these staff would be fired, and fortunately she has been in a better placement for the past several years.
The lesson here is that if you have a relative or friend in such a care situation, be sure to visit often and keep tabs on what is going on! Some staff may be caring but overworked, but some are dishonest (maybe the reason they are employed by organizations with little choice in whom they hire due to pay scales and turnover), some are lazy, some have no tolerance for frustrating and demanding patients, and many staff are poorly trained to deal with, say, belligerent clients.
Certainly, better monitoring should be instituted, both by the institution itself (staff assigned to frequent monitoring duties, incentive pay for good service, and perhaps even some cameras installed), and by the state or Feds or an industry accrediting organization.
And certainly, training could be improved.
And it's not just minimum-pay organizations. My last overnight stay in Stanford Hospital was a horror, filled with non-responsive staff (one nurse got into shouting matches with me when I complained of waiting for hours), and also getting meds from the pharmacy delivered several hours late, with many errors uncorrected after three attempts on my part. I think about how bad it could have been had I not been awake and lucid (too bad for them and lucky for me, I was), and had the support of my husband as well.
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Posted by Mayfield Child, a resident of the Green Acres neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 8:40 am OH, the horrors of having to take a hospital stay!! When I was only four years old, I had to concede to having my tonsils out, but it was to be a grand time!! I was to be able to eat a lot of ice cream and jello!!! (My very favorite foods in the whole world!!!!)
Times have changed, over the years I watched as my grandmother was robbed of her false teeth for starters ("misplaced" by staff~never found~) My nephew's clothing was "lost"..I brought him a Paly shirt with Palo Alto in big letters down the sleeves which rendered a huge smile from him~he was a Paly Athlete...(only never to be worn a second time).. Besides the petty theft that went on in these places, I am dreading getting older with the thought that I may end up in a hospital or care facility, at the mercy of strangers who have problems they think are of need of more attention than I.....scary.....very scary thought.
I went to visit my father in law and went to give him a hug when my hand landed on a bump on his back. He told me the nurse made fun of him instead of drawing attention to the doctor over it...that was when I made a visit unannounced and found him slumped over in a wheel chair outside of his room, his neck bent so far down he was in pain and wanted to be put back into his bed but not enough staff around to attend to his need...
My neighbor was taken out of a home care facility when he slipped on the slick hardwood flooring in his room and had to go to Kaiser hospital..while there, the County came and moved all his belongings, put his home up for sale, all without his knowledge as he became under the Public Guardian's office because he had no relatives to look out for him...I went to visit him in the hospital and found him tied up to the bed, he "wanted to go home"....he died shortly after that, I believe from depression, of being taken out of his comfort zone. The County had no one to help him cook and clean and it was decided that he should go to a home care facility and they could sell his house, that way saving money from sending in or paying for someone to live with him. That was the horror story, again, from older people not being taken care of...with or without a light above their room door...LET THE LIGHT SHINE ALL THE TIME~ SHAME SHAME on the way elderly people are treated......so vulnerable even more when their health deteriorates and they are having to BEG for assistance...
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Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 10:44 am Mayfield Child, did you advocate regularly for your grandfather? Were you on the Family Council or similar body for the nursing home? DId you accept being your grandfather's proxy as he got older? Did you grandfather name a person to be his power of attorney in health and financial matters? Did he do any estate planning? Did you or another relative find out for him what would need to be done to care for him as he declined? If not, then how is it that you expect the state with a limited budget and way too many people to manage to do a better job than you?
And I bet you are busy writing about how bad the government is and how taxes are too high too, right? And how the free-market, or the gold-standard will solve all these problems??
I have gone to every Family Council meeting since my relative has been in the nursing home ... not Lytton Gardens by the way. It is rare for anyone to attend these meeting but myself and one other guy. Maybe someone with a very critical issue, but then they are gone. We have had maybe 4 people show up once or twice in the last year ... out of 26 or so bi-weekly meetings. There is a group, CANHR, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), a statewide nonprofit 501(c)(3) advocacy organization, has been dedicated to improving the choices, care and quality of life for California’s long term care consumers. Did you find them? Did you use or contribute to them?
The staff of the nursing home says that maybe 10% of residents even get visitors.
One of the good things about Lytton Gardens is that they are local to downtown so their visitation rates are probably higher than normal. I know if my relative where there I would be able to visit and check much more often.
We really as a country have to get over this idea that we can carp and bitch and moan in an online chat room and think we are solving our problems while leaving them up to a government that we also just love to criticize, but without any facts or better ideas as to how to do things.
Scratch the surface of something of these claims in an objective manner and all kinds of things can be learned. One thing is that the experience of having to care for older people for the already stressed families out there today can break a family down and destroy it. People who would be functioning at a high level in business or employment are often taken out of circulation to care for relatives, or without health care insurance themselves if they cannot afford it.
Just having someone sign in and "kitchen sink" these issues without qualification or a point is not very helpful and does not really convey to the casual reader who might want to know more what the realities are.
If people care about this issue I would recommend getting in touch with CANHR, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, ask for some literature, donate your time or money. The system is over-stressed and so for most residents this means the squeaky wheel gets the grease - that is just the way it is. No one has bad-will in these places. You take a look at their jobs and you can see no one would want to put up with this kind of job for the low wages, job burnout and very hard work.
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Posted by neighbor, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 10:55 am It strikes me there is a real need for emphasis on eldercare facilities from politicians -- it is not a politically "sexy" topic at all, but if any of you are connected to any politicians, please note this should be a priority. Many of us regular, non-politicially-connected folks have felt helpless at times when dealing with eldercare situations in the hospital, assistant living,and it is a complicated "problem." Still, there are some steps that can be taken, shine a light on all the problems and issues, including staff turnover due to low pay, low prestige; find a way to build attractive facilities where people will be proud to live and work. I know some are far better than others - I have been in them enough to know.
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Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 11:58 am >> It strikes me there is a real need for emphasis on eldercare facilities from politicians
I agree, there is.
There is a need to refresh people's understanding of why the social programs we have in place are there and what they actually do.
The US and other intelligent, (in the past), governments and think tank equivalents started to realize the deficit not having these programs caused in the country. The long term and negative feedback loops that occur when we leave people, families and even towns to fend for themselves in a social environment dominated by the rich and powerful or pure business interests.
The world tends towards the Hobbsian.
By having services and institutions that take care of people many aspects of society and civilization are buttressed and advanced, and yet somehow for the short term profit and power of the few, a few who have been dominated by even a smaller few's mistakes and crimes, our whole society has paid the price and even gone into debt to a system that does not work optimally and which as obstructed even the understanding of what we used to be about and working towards in this country.
The current elder care system is another way to play into the isolate and deconstruct our society instead of fortifying it in a healthy way. We put aging, death and dying into a package that most are programmed very negatively to avoid and deride and steer clear of, when this is in some way going to touch all of us.
You don't have any inkling of this aspect of the world when you are younger, and most do not until they see their parents distantly having to deal with it with their parents. By the time it hits any one person they often end up like Mayfield above, bitter, confused and fragmented in term of what they can do or how they can be effective - and that is often easily taken and aimed at the government by the same abusive powers that profit by deconstructing society in the first place.
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Posted by Ducatigirl, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Ducatigirl is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online It takes a very special person, it is true, to work well in a senior care home. But the kind of nurses and other employees hired in these institutions are not usually the right kind of people to be doing this job.
My grandfather died in one of these places. It was humiliating for him to be straitjacketed into a wheelchair (because he could not stomach another lunch with orange jello) and then be force-fed food he hated. This infront of his children and grandchildren! What did they do to him when we were NOT there?
I also had a cousin who became mentally retarded as a result of meningitis at age three.
When we visited her, she was dirty and had food up her nose . She was blind and deaf, could not feed herself, and they treated her as if she were sub-human. It cost my uncle a fortune, and he had four other children to support, too. Again, how did they treat her when we were NOT there? It was bad when we were there.
These places do not get inspected frequently enough, and family members do not visit enough, otherwise ther would not be such egregious violations.
My grandmother could not drive, nor could my uncle's wife. A lot of people, esp women did not drive in those days. Today, people have no real excuse for not visiting their elderly in Lytton Gardens if they live in PA. But obviously, not enough do, otherwise how did the staff have the opportunity to commit all these violations?
Are there not new facilities being built to accomodate the aging boomers who will now stress that system as they have stressed the other systems they have moved through in their lifetimes? Surely the powers that be have been aware of this for years, and there has been opportunity and plenty of warning that eldercare would be a high growth industry soon, due to the sheer number of boomers.
As someone else said earlier, you cannot just dump your elderly in these places and hope they will be okay.
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Posted by Ahmay, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 4:57 pm Shamed for those kids who just dumped their love ones in the nursing home with out doing their thorough investigation and just quick to blame nursing home staff. If you are so good why don't you take care of your love ones in need instead of putting them in the nursing home. You guys should realized that working in this kind of institution is not a easy job. Since,Lytton Garden is located in downtown Palo Alto residents and family member they have a right to curse out staff and be little them sometimes because they leave in a rich neighborhood. Think people...If you are so good why don't you build your own nursing home or take care of your love ones..
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Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 17, 2012 at 6:07 pm > Shamed for those kids who just dumped their love ones in the nursing home with out doing their thorough investigation and just quick to blame nursing home staff.
Have you ever been through this? How do you know that is what is happening? You should not say anything based on your preconceived ideas and morality or familial loyalty or out of ignorance willfull or otherwise. There are layers on layers of this stuff that are hard to separate out. Don't judge people until you walk in their shoes, and even them you never know, they may have different feet that you do.
It is really pointless to concern oneself with blame, let along blame based on hypocrisy.
The majority of Americans voted for or allowed us to drift into this situation of indebtedness and forced austerity presumably because they do not want to pay for other people they consider a bother or beneath them, this is the kind of thing that happens when people do not think deeply about what the effects of their actions and opinions are and act in what they think is their short term self-interest.
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Posted by neighbor, a resident of another community, on Nov 17, 2012 at 6:59 pm ANON -- this nursing home problem has very little to do with politics, and it has been going on forever.
During the Reagan administration, my father was in 3 different nursing homes as we tried to find excellent care. It doesn't exist. My father had end-stage Alzheimer's and could no longer be cared for at home. We had done our best for 11 years at home.
He died in what was supposed to be a modern, humane, clean and upscale facility. He was neglected horribly. These places are scandalous money-grubbers, are woefully understaffed...and many of the staff are untrained, some have criminal records.
This has been going on forever. It is not a simple political issue -- it is so much larger than that.
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Posted by Former worker @ Abilities United, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 18, 2012 at 12:11 am Thanks Anon for telling the truth from the workers point of view. I used to work for the Adult Day Program over at Abilities United.
If you think Lytton Gardens is bad you should see the dog and pony show over at Abilities United (Adult Day Program). I remember the talking points meetings we had before the funders drop-ins . All the director cared about was her salary, the clients care was the highest priority on paper not in practice.
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Posted by susan, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Nov 18, 2012 at 8:05 am I am a RN and worked over 35 years in long term care. Finally got burned out because the corporations that own these facilities will not allow sufficient help to take care of the patients. More RN's, LVN's and aides are desperately needed to take care of ever sicker patients but it will never happen. The facilities get slapped with light fines when deficiencies are found and nothing changes. The solution .....don't get old!!!
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Posted by Anna, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Nov 18, 2012 at 9:58 pm My mother had to be in Lytton Gardens after some surgery, and she couldn't WAIT to get out. I wasn't very impressed with the situation there. A friend, who had a stroke and was partially paralized, fell out of his bed in the night and lay on the floor for hours, because no one checked on him. I hope I never have to go there.
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Posted by Roger, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Nov 20, 2012 at 8:53 pm I have occasion to work in a professional capacity with the staff at Lytton Gardens. Staff on the 3rd floor, the memory unit is good. There are activities for the residents and some actually thrive there. Second floor is HORRIBLE. Staff from the charge nurse on down have an attitude, they resent having to engage with outside professionals who come in to work with their residents. Rudy and Myra are exceptionally rude when I try to get information about a particular resident.
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Posted by Lyn, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Nov 28, 2012 at 1:08 pm I have never written in here before, but feel like I must chime in now.
My father passed away at Lytton Gardens 2 years after being a resident for 4 months. Despite this being the most terrible time in my life (only child to care for 3 children, 3rd a newborn, my mom also going through terminal cancer, and my single/childless aunt suffering from a fall/dementia), I was grateful for Lytton Gardens. My dad planned to die at home, but considering the circumstances, this was the best we could do. I researched and visited innumerable facilities, and felt lucky to get a bed for my father there.
No, the food wasn't good. No, the facility wasn't new. No, there is no dignity in dying a miserable, painful death. But, yes, I believe he got the best care he could. His CNA genuinely cared for him as did his nurses. (Wow, did they have tough jobs!) Even the patient coordinators checked in on him regularly. Perhaps this was because my mom or I were ALWAYS there. I was his full time advocate. I made sure he rarely went more than an hour or 2 without someone being with him. I packed the big kids off to school, and took the baby to Lytton to feed him breakfast. Then I'd leave for an hour to take the baby to the park or mommy/me class or my mom to her doctor appointments. Then I'd come back for a few hours over lunch. Then I'd leave to pick up my big kids from school, and make sure my mom would be arriving for the late afternoon through dinner. After I fed my kids, I'd go back over to spend a couple evening hours and tuck him in for the night.
Bottom line, I made sure he had the best care he could, because I was there. It was a horribly stressful, exhausting, and emotional time in my life, but I couldn't bear to just leave him there. I don't know whether he got better care than the other patients there--I did see some call lights on and would notify the nurses when I did--but I know his needs were met. And I was happy enough with his care, despite his terrible health.
I feel bad that all these complaints about care facilities IN GENERAL are reflecting poorly on Lytton Gardens. It is one of the best places around. In fact, for rehab and PT, it is THE place that Stanford nurses/doctors go. There were 3 Stanford nurses on our floor during the time my dad stayed. They all said they waited for a bed opening at Lytton to schedule their knee or hip surgeries.
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