I would not recommend Southland Care Center at 606 Simmons Street, Dublin GA! Please read our experience before choosing this facility. It pays to be informed. My father had a severe stroke and we chose this facility based on what we’d heard of their rehab team. He is going to require intense therapy, and we were focused on the best facility possible for the in-patient rehab. The care that he got, or should we say didn’t get, prior to therapy beginning, was enough to make us move him to a different location. I will briefly describe the events that led to our moving him here, but if you would like more detailed information feel free to message me. He was transferred to this facility on a Friday afternoon. At the time, we asked about bedside rails because he was deemed a fall risk at FPH. His legs have been amputated, and he has no use of the left side of his body because of the stroke. He can move the right side of his body and has had some confusion. This makes him prone to fall from his bed. Sometimes, he thinks he can get up and walk. We left trusting that they would be attaching the rails. When my mom arrived Saturday morning, his head and shoulders were hanging off of the bed and he was yelling (the call button was not where he could reach it). My mom dropped her things and ran to him to support his head and shoulders and try to keep him from falling. After she began yelling, someone final came to help her. We again asked for rails and felt confident that they would be attached since this event had happened. However, they were never attached Saturday. When I got back from being out of town Sunday morning, I went to visit him. This is when we realized the huge mistake we had made in trusting this facility. First, the nurse, Kris Knight (not sure if that’s spelled correctly), came an hour or two after we notified her to give him two Tylenol for some back pain he was having. Before I could stop her, she popped the two whole Tylenol in his mouth. My dad has weakened throat muscles from his stroke and has difficulty swallowing because of this. Therefore, he has to have all pills crushed and given to him in applesauce or something similar. I tried to explain this to her, and as I watched him struggle to get them down, she informed me that he had not had any trouble taking his medicine that morning. In fact, he had taken all of them at one time…Need I point out he could have choked to death on them!! Furthermore, she started to give him regular water to wash them down. I was able to stop her prior to this mistake. Due to my dad’s weakened swallowing, all liquids have to be thickened. If not thickened, he could aspirate. This means liquid could get into his lungs. This can cause pneumonia or worse. Her reply was, “that’s right, I keep forgetting!” While this nurse was in the room I went ahead and mentioned the lack of bed rails. She stated to me that a request would have to be filled out and maintenance would have to put them on Monday. I asked, and I quote, “So what happens if my dad falls out of his bed and breaks a hip between now and Monday?” Her exact words to me were, “he will go to the hospital.” As you can imagine, I was pretty upset by this point. After asking to speak to the director and director of nursing and being told, “They weren’t there,” I was finally able to find out the head person that was there. I expressed my concerns and he along with some human resource person was able to get a fall mat placed on the floor and rails attached to the bed. I was also told that the incident had been written up and would be given to the director. If things had stopped there and his care had gotten better, I would not be writing this now…I believe in giving second chances and I assumed that the care would improve since they knew he had family members that watched out for him. Unfortunately, his care did not improve. The very next day (Monday), we expected to hear something from the director to account for the poor care that we had witnessed. To this day, we have not heard from anyone regarding it. In fact, I had to stop another nurse from giving him his pills whole and giving him regular liquid without thickening it. In addition, we found out something else that jeopardized his care and rehab further. He was taking a medication at the hospital that was helping with his recovery and rehab. When we asked about it Friday, Southland told us that they had to get the prescription directly from the hospital and get it filled. He was not given the medication Friday, Saturday, or Sunday despite us continually asking about it. We just kept hearing they had to get the prescription. On Monday afternoon a nurse came in and informed us that they got the prescription from dad’s hospital packet and would be getting it filled. After I questioned her further, I found out the hospital packet was the one that he had arrived Southland with on Friday. They had the prescription the entire time and had just “overlooked it.” Because of this pitiful care, I watched my dad wither away more and more each day. He went from making gradual improvement in the hospital to looking as if he would pass away at any moment. With all the things they admittedly messed up on, I can only imagine the things they possibly did behind our backs. I will add that while I would never use this facility again, there were a few competent people there. In fact, Teresa Horne, was a very nice nurse that did her best to help. I feel that the rehab team is a good team. However, we never really had the opportunity to find out. Please, please consider all the options before picking this facility. I am not writing this for any kind of gain on my part. I just would hate for someone to suffer or possibly even die because I never spoke up!
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 01:37:48 +0000
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