Gianna Homes - Sursum Corda

Will Deloney

My loved one lived at Gianna homes for a total of 28 days. From the first day when he walked in on his own 2 feet able to ambulate, eat, and interact. To the last day when he passed away. We moved to Gianna because we were promised low staff to resident ratio, more individualized care, a medication last approach, and a warm loving environment that treated residents like family. While the ratio was as promised, I felt the care and medication approaches were not. Do not believe Gianna’s statements about not wanting to overmedicate. Gianna staff started advocating for medication increases on the very first day! Shortly after, my loved one was a zombie, struggling to interact, open his eyes, swallow, and walk. It was not much longer until he was at end-of-life stages. Gianna doesn’t allow physical restraints in their homes, but they seem to be comfortable with their residents being medically restrained. I don’t know what is worse quite frankly. The staff at Gianna seemed perfectly content continuing to advocate for medication to the point of extreme sedation and unresponsiveness. Even after I expressed my concerns regarding the new medications and the side effects they were having on my loved one. The medication stripped my loved one of any quality of life. All this after being told they don’t like to see residents being overmedicated and that medication is seen as a last resort. Therapeutic methods other than medication were promised as a first resort. Meanwhile I did not hear of any attempts to resolve issues without the use of medication. Often, I found my loved one sitting alone, in the corner, unable to move or open his eyes from sedation. With drool down his cheek and leftover food on his face. He would often have globs of liquid medicine in his mouth from staff trying to give medication while he is unresponsive to verbal commands and touch. I would often find him in this state with no interaction from staff leaving me to advocate for his needs. We felt like outsiders and an inconvenience. This was not the care I was promised. If your loved one likes to do any kind of moving around, I would stay away. Majority of their residents are in wheelchairs or can’t walk independently. Staff were very uncomfortable when my loved one would walk around. In fact, that was one of their reasons for wanting to increase medication! It seemed they would much rather him be sedated so he’s limited to sitting in a chair all day like majority of their residents. In addition, we had multiple instances of Gianna staff not following nurse/doctor’s medication orders. We caught them multiple times about to administer “as needed”, sedating medication when my loved one was already so sedated that he was unresponsive. Luckily, I was there to stop it. Who knows how much extra, unneeded medication was given when I wasn’t there. Staff also weren’t administering medication correctly. Instead of administering sublingually (as stated on the medical order) they were dissolving the meds and shooting them down his throat with a syringe. This is incorrect and can be very dangerous especially if the person cannot swallow as medication can get into the lungs. I believe medication was going into my loved one’s lungs as he would often cough after being given medicine this way. We also had an instance where there was written doctor’s orders to stop a medication, yet staff continued to give the medication for four days! Four days my loved one was given discontinued medication IN ADDITION to the medication that replaced it. The head RN at Gianna then felt the need to lock the medication in a cabinet in her office to prevent staff from continuing to administer it. Apparently, she was not confident enough in her staff to be able to verbally tell them not to give this medication. All of this resulted in prolonged AND additional suffering of our loved one. When my loved one was bedridden at end-of-life stages and finally needed the medication that was locked away, it could not be accessed by staff. This caused a 2.5-hour delay in medicinal relief for my loved one. If that wasn’t bad enough, once the medicine arrived, we finally thought our loved one’s end of life suffering would stop. However, staff were still giving the medicine incorrectly causing it not to be absorbed and take effect. This resulted in even longer delay in medicinal relief. This became clear after calling our main nurse and explaining how they were giving the medication. She informed me that they were doing it incorrectly and had to call the Gianna’s staff to educate them on how to give medication sublingually as written in the medication orders. After the medication was given correctly, positive effects were seen almost immediately. It became clear to me that none of the prior doses absorbed correctly due to incorrect administration. All those extra doses were not needed and were stuck in his stomach not being absorbed. I believe that is what caused him to throw up. Luckily, we were there to alert the staff that he was throwing up. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if we weren’t. We screamed for staffs help and I watched them SLOWLY walk to our room. All this to say there was MORE prolonged unnecessary suffering that took place. These mistakes should never have happened and are not something I would expected from “experienced staff”. Sublingual medication at end-of-life stages is common so I was very surprised this happened. All these events further support my experience of lack of competency and compassion within the staff and lack of proper RN oversight/direction. Medication mistakes are unacceptable and can be life threatening. This was far from the end-of-life experience I wanted for my loved one and family. It certainly was not the experience I expected given what was advertised to me and the price that came along with it. While my loved one was dying, I was focused on monitoring staff making sure they were performing cares properly, giving the right medications, and administering medications correctly. I should have been focusing on enjoying the last few days/hours/minutes I had left with him. Instead, I feel robbed of this time. My loved one lasted a brief 28 days at Gianna homes before passing away. The silver lining here is that my loved one and family didn’t have to suffer through the poor care and experience of this facility for an extended period. Although our stay was brief the damaged caused by this facility was large. If you care for your loved one and the end of life experience you have with them, I recommend you steer clear of this facility.

Kathleen M.

From the day my loved one moved into Gianna’s I had daily communication with my family members who were physically there every day. Through pictures and all forms of communication, it became clear immediately after moving in, that our loved one was being given medication/drugs that put him in a comatose state and was completely unresponsive! My loved lost his appetite, ability to communicate and his motor skills in a matter of days of entering Gianna’s when he had just walked into the place just days earlier. It was visible to me he was losing weight quickly. I witnessed an extreme decline overall decline in him very quickly upon moving into Gianna’s. Save yourself the heartache our family has experienced and do not put your loved one in Gianna’s. Heartbroken family member

Caring110472150

Gianna Homes is a residential care home. The facility is very small. It is very nice. It seemed like a lovely place. I like that it was really home-like and that fact that it was small. It seemed like they really took good care of their residents. However, it wasn't right for my mom because all the residents there were very far along in their dementia. They did have activities but I don't think the people could really participate very much. They seemed like a lovely group of people, but the community just wasn't right for my mom.