Violations Close Sacramento Nursing Home

This article just makes me sick. Why is the facility not just shut down or why doesn't the state come in and take over replacing the staff with qualified workers?
These are elderly that are being abused and for the state to say they are "monitoring" the situation, is inexcusable!
The reason this abuse goes on daily is because no one cares about their elderly. Family doesn't visit, so abuse goes undetected. Most of the staff is paid minimum wage and they treat the residents accordingly. They just don't care about their job and neglect the residents. They don't put much effort into responding to the needs of the residents.
You think this doesn't happen. Start visiting someone regularly at a facility and you'll see. The residents that get good care are the ones that have regular visitors.

I have a family member their now and I'm not shocked by the developments at the care home.

I HIGHLY doubt they have invested much money into staffing. While everyone who works there seems competent they just don't have enough staff working for the number of rooms and people. You walk around the hall ways and many times you don't see any staff members, at all.

I've been in dozens of other care homes over the years due to family members growing older and I KNOW what a correct level of staffing looks like. This is NOT an issue of "just missing staff" as they duck into a room to care for the needs of a person or anything along those lines.

Of course, I don't expect to see a person in the door of every room but I also don't expect to walk into the place to see my grandparent and walk down hallways and NEVER see any staff, at all. Oh sure, each "nursing hub" at the end tend to be staffed but I don't see people ducking in and out rooms. Sometimes (not always) it's like a bad B grade movie of a deserted hospital.

I'm sure the place can post numbers that show a staff to resident ratio of so and so % etc.. "Well with in legal" blah blah blah..

bottom line, they are very, very understaffed. By contrast the last nursing home my grandparent was at, also in sacramento, had a flury of activity in any given area. Would pass maybe 5+ people down any hallway, at any time of day or night..

From walking in the front door to reaching my grandparents room I would say hi to around 6+ people. Last time I saw my grandparent at the arden home I think I passed 2, maybe.. That's even counting the end of the hallway hubs I passed.

As I said, the staff I have meet seem nice and I think they are compassionate to the needs of the residents in their care, they just don't have enough help.

While I'm not sure the place needs to be closed down, I will have a discussion with other family members about moving my grandparent else where. The problem is of course one of cost and finding a Medicare place with an open bed to transfer.

I am sickened, I just can't get past the part that the foot fell off... OMG... this place should be taken by the state or county and staffed or shut down!!

This is not a shock at all. While working as both an EMT and a Paramedic for ten years, I have witnessed these so-called Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) first hand and let me tell you, they do not close enough of them. I have personally filled out numerous CPS reports on different ones. There are many issues, but they mostly stem from the RN's and LVN's that are hired there...many fresh here from the Phillipines and barely able to speak English and the MCI ghetto rats who always are "just getting there and don't know anything" about the patient.

Once, when working for a private ambulance co., the charge nurse at a certain SNF across the street from UCDMC got pissed after I noticed the "cell-mate" of a patient I had transported to a Dr. appointment was stroking out and I called 911. According to this RN, she had been that way for 6 hours. The RNwas upet I called because Fire allegedly treats her like an idiot. So, to avoid that, she let this woman suffer 6+ hours having a mjor stroke.

Ask any medic and you willhear tons of similar tales. DAILY.

I would ather suck-start a .45 than EVER be placed in one of those modern day death camps.

American Infidel wrote:

This is not a shock at all. While working as both an EMT and a Paramedic for ten years, I have witnessed these so-called Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) first hand and let me tell you, they do not close enough of them. I have personally filled out numerous CPS reports on different ones. There are many issues, but they mostly stem from the RN's and LVN's that are hired there...many fresh here from the Phillipines and barely able to speak English and the MCI ghetto rats who always are "just getting there and don't know anything" about the patient.
Once, when working for a private ambulance co., the charge nurse at a certain SNF across the street from UCDMC got pissed after I noticed the "cell-mate" of a patient I had transported to a Dr. appointment was stroking out and I called 911. According to this RN, she had been that way for 6 hours. The RNwas upet I called because Fire allegedly treats her like an idiot. So, to avoid that, she let this woman suffer 6+ hours having a mjor stroke.
Ask any medic and you willhear tons of similar tales. DAILY.
I would ather suck-start a .45 than EVER be placed in one of those modern day death camps.

I've been a nurse for seven years, and have worked in a SNF twice, for a total of one year between both. The problem that I have found is less the nurses (I will grant you that these types of facilities attract some truly stupid people) than the administration. The administration is responsible for maintaining staffing levels, and it is these staffing levels that are directly proportional to the quality of care that a patient will recieve. The last SNF that I worked at (and quit after 6 months) was attempting to keep the facility staffed with 5 CNAs and 3 nurses for 150 patients. On the wing I was working on I had eight diabetics and seven g-tubes out of the fifty patients that I was assigned to care for. The reality is that there is simply too much work that can be done in an eight hour shift. I was coming in one hour early to prepare as the day shift would leave crap undone (came in once with a patient pissing AROUND her foley, only to be told that "nights had been instructed the day prior to change the foley, but since they did not it would wait until nights CAME BACK... I changed it and had a sample sent into the lab before my shift started, and this level of stuff undone was not unusual), and was invariably there one to two hours after the shift "ended" charting. The CNA's on the other hand were working with a ratio of 30:1, and that is simply impossible... things just don't get done, and I do not place the blame with the staff that is working the floor. Rather, it was the administration that caused those problems, and it was the administration that allowed those problems to persist. The nurses (myself among them) BEGGED the DON to hire on another nurse and more CNA's to help cover, but the answer was always "things will get better, just give us a chance". I guess I'm just not patient enough, because after being told this twice, myself and three other nurses quit. If the administrator and DON of the facility had made responsible decisions based on patient needs, rather than based on facility profits that facility would have been a decent place to work (it was a SNF so you know you would be busting your hump, but it would have been tollerable).

THIS IS WHY PEOPLE WHO MUST PUT THEIR RELATIVES IN A FACILITY WATCH AS YOU ARE THE EARS AND THE EYES. I also think that it is the responsibility
of the staff to be whistle blowers as if bad care continues, the place will be shut down anyway so nothing ventured , nothing gained. kudos to the state health dept.

Shot it down! What are they "monitoring?" People are dying and suffering unnecessarily in there and no one cares, they just "monitor."

a5150driver wrote:

I am sickened, I just can't get past the part that the foot fell off... OMG... this place should be taken by the state or county and staffed or shut down!!

Agreed! Well said.

This type of situation is extremely sad. When looking for a home for your elderly relatives, you must treat it as if you were looking for a daycare for your child. You must look very carefully, make multiple visits prior to having them admitted. You cannot just put them in the first home you come across. This takes some responsibility from the family members, know what needs to be known about these places.

Responsibility wrote:

This type of situation is extremely sad. When looking for a home for your elderly relatives, you must treat it as if you were looking for a daycare for your child. You must look very carefully, make multiple visits prior to having them admitted. You cannot just put them in the first home you come across. This takes some responsibility from the family members, know what needs to be known about these places.

The questions you should ask:
How many nurses will you have on each shift, and what do you do if you don't?

How many CNA's do you have on each shift, and what do you do if you don't?

How did you do on your last state survey? What deficiencies were found, and how were they corrected?

What were the last 3 complaints that the state responded to? How was were they resolved?

How often do you inservice your CNA's, and what was taught at the last one

Things to notice:
Does it smell like piss

What are the residents doing?

How many nurses are hanging out at the nurses station (not charting, just sitting)... are there any call lights going off?

Show up at meal time, do they have enough staff to take care of feeding the residents AND to take care of any "incidents" that come up?

My grandfatherwas in this facility until the day he died. They placed him there at 80 years old because my grandma couldnt do it by herself. He was not there for rehabilitation...he was there to be taken care of comfortably. One nurse was always telling him to get out of bed and walk around...do you want to leave your family?you have to fight...GET UP....she yelled at him in front of his whole family. I copmlained and asked for her to no longer work in his room. He died within the week....so i guess if he would have just taken that walk she was insisting on mabye it would have turned out differently.... NOT....SHUT THE MF DOWN!!!!!!!!!!

Why did it take 20 violations and 3 deaths to have an agency take action? I really have grown quite tired of hearing that some agency "knew there was a problem" but no action was taken.

My mother was in that facility until the day she passed. My sister's and I have had several very bad experiences with this facility. Quality care NO! Run around when we questioned staff yes(Head nurse and staff on duty at that time. Recived a phone call when she was sick or something else was going on sometimes. I would like update on this situation if that if possible. Need someone to speak out. My sisters' and I can tell our story.

what is the name of the facility?