Penfield Place

Concerned Daughter

Penfield Place - does not even deserve a one star rating. After watching my vibrant mother become ill and end up in three different hospitals, 2 Rehab facilities and one assisted living place, I no longer have any faith or trust in the medical profession. From the doctors to the nurses it was apparent many were there just to collect a paycheck. They reluctantly did their jobs and not with heart and kindness as you would expect from those in the this profession. They were all the same in how they operated, the lack of communication among the staff to the bad attitudes from so many of the nurses and aides. .From Rochester General, Strong, Highland, St. Anns, Legacy to Penfield Place. With Penfield Place being the absolute worst of them all. I completely understand that the CNAs or Aides are underpaid for the job they do. They chose this profession so do your job with care. However, nurses and doctors are paid well especially with so many nurses choosing the traveling nurse route because of the increase in pay. They all deserve to be paid accordingly but if the system does not work that way, does not mean you do a mediocre job to match a mediocre pay.. Do not be fooled by the nice building sitting up on a hill in a pretty wooded setting. Penfield Place is nothing like that once you enter the dingy, depressing place in need of a good cleaning. The attitude and actions of the staff matched this depressing setting. The majority of the staff at Penfield Place were just plain lazy barely doing their intended job of taking care of the patients. During the day my mother had one aide that took care of her and she was fairly attentive. However she did not like any family present as she wanted to be in total control and not listen to what my mother needed. Please never leave your elderly family member alone for long in this place or choose a different facility. She would get my mother up and ready to have breakfast and then for rehab. By 2PM as her shift was ending she always wanted to put her back in bed. That was too early and often my mother did not want to go back to bed. When my mother would express wanting to stay sitting, the aide would make her feel guilty for not listening to her. I was surprised the first time I heard her manipulating my mother into going back to bed and if I wan not present my mother would have ended up back in bed. They do not provide one of those reclining chairs so we brought one in for my mother to use. When you are trying to regain your strength laying in bed for hours on end is unhealthy. PT/OT discouraged laying around in bed and encouraged getting up every now and then, and to sit in a chair for each meal. There was a dinning room but they would not let her use it to eat her meals. Such a disconnect in communication among the PT/OT staff and the rest of Penfield Place staff. Speaking of unhealthy the food was despicable. It is over processed slop. Even the staff bringing the food would comment on how they would not eat that junk. Although they used more unprintable words to describe it. So why is it so hard to provide these elderly patients a decent, nutritious meal. When a resident of this place needs assistance to be cleaned up or go to the bathroom they need to use the call button. The wait time before someone even peeks their head in the room is way too long and often I would witness a 30 minute or longer wait. So I would walk out to the nurses station, hear the buzzer alert ringing and see the nurses or CNAs either just sitting there or watching TV not springing into action until they noticed they were being watched. The most neglect happens in the evening after the early shift is over and the late afternoon/evening shift takes over and there is no real supervision during that time. I cannot tell you how many early morning distress calls we received from my mother about how horribly she was treated through the night. Calling for an assistance when she was in pain or needing to be cleaned up. They may appear in the room, ask what she needed then leave shutting the door and not coming back. No one entering the room until the day shift started. Again I was present at the time when they enter the room, see what she needed and then walk out shutting the door. Or I would be there later in the day only to find her door shut. When I asked about it she didn’t know why they shut it and had been waiting awhile for someone to assist her. I heard other families complain about the same things. Why shut the door? They are isolated enough as it is. When bringing our concerns through the appropriate channels their response was the staff needed re-education. That’s not good enough as nothing was done in the meantime and the neglect and rough treatment continued to go on. Eventually my mother became severely ill in this place. They discouraged going to the hospital and ignored us when we said she needed more aggressive medical attention. My mother was able to understand everything and make her own decisions but they scared her into not wanting to go to emergency. Finally days later as she continued to decline an ambulance was called to bring her to Emergency. The paramedic was shocked at how ill she was. At that point it didn’t matter, her body had shut down and all we could do was make her comfortable. This story is not unique, it happens every day. I was shocked at how much worse the neglect and discrimination against the elderly really was, along with the uncleanliness of the facilities. We would walk into the room to see a garbage can overflowing with soiled bed linens, a glove thrown on the floor, pill cups or other garbage that had fallen on the floor and not picked up. Or worse feces on the floor or toilet that no one bother to clean up. Not acceptable. Sadly there may not be any choice for some people but what I don’t understand is why there isn’t more regulation and more oversight to watch what is going on in these facilities. If you can keep your loved one home with you or in a small apartment do that. That’s all we were trying to do is get my mother to a point to bring her home. We were discouraged from doing that as well and often got a sales pitch to keep her where she was. More money in their pockets. We were poorly advised by Penfield Place as to the best course of action for my mother. Penfield Place is part of the Hurlburt Communities. Even though my experience is with this one in particular, I would not trust any of them.

Mom’s Daughter

Penfield Place is an old and run down facility. Once inside you cannot escape the sickening urine odor that permeates the entire facility. Worn, dirty rugs, gloomy and dark resident rooms. Very worn furniture. Little fresh air circulating throughout the facility. The food is poor. Who feeds the elderly chipped beef and chicken nuggets? Or extremely sour, unsweetened canned apricots? An abundance of cheap, processed foods. My family member lost a significant amount of weight while in this facility because the food was inedible. Evening nurses and CNAs are not supervised. The director told me they were considering hiring a night supervisor. That did not occur while my family member was a resident. My family member was mistreated during the late evening hours and we addressed the matter with the director of nursing twice before it was resolved. In the late evening the nurses and CNAs are gathered in a lounge either sleeping or watching TV. They are not continually attending to the residents, We know this for certain because we stayed overnight on several occasions to ensure our family member was safe. Don’t be fooled by the suburban location of the facility. It’s not better because it’s in Penfield. Care for your family member will be sub-par. Don’t risk putting your loved one in this grungy facility staffed by people who are completely disconnected from and indifferent to the residents.

mmod8

Clean, attentive, caring place. I'm surprised by some of the other reviews but perhaps they changed management since then. My mom has been in rehab at Penfield Place for over a month, and from day one I was surprised and impressed by the true caring by the nurses, CNA and therapists, social worker, and other staff; the attention and quick response time; and overall care for my mom. I visited her every day, often more than once a day, and not once did I find her sitting in a wet bed (so common at many senior care places), or not appropriately dressed for the time of day, or otherwise not cared for. Mom is largely incontinent, and she was always clean and dry, as well as her bedding. The physical and occupational therapists are excellent; nurses knowledgeable and caring; and the CNAs and other staff are all excellent in their work. To reach Mom's wing, I had to walk down the LTC wings, and unfailingly, every time I walked down the halls (and I came at different times throughout each week, including late at night), there were staff taking care of the permanent residents, talking to them by name, encouraging them and helping them. I was impressed. Continually. We had a horrible experience 2+ years ago at another facility (I won't say the name, but the initials are AM), it was so bad I filed a complaint about that facility. Penfield Place is a breath of fresh air, a total 180 from that other place. Thank you, everyone at Penfield Place, for making my mom's and my experience so wonderful and reinstilling our faith that there are people out there who actually care for the elderly and want to help them live their final years with dignity.

roc_caregiver

Ignored the calls for help from my very much in pain grandmother. Ignored that she was to be given pain meds on a schedule. Every time I arrived she was crying out loudly in pain, I could hear her down the hall and so could they and they ignored her. Took a hospice nurse coming in to get them to give any proper care and even then it wasn't enough. Gave her solid food she not only couldn't eat but was a choking hazard over and over, not correcting their mistake. Took out her hearing aid and misplaced it temporarily, giving her no way to hear anything. Made a very difficult time needlessly traumatic. The employees seem to want to do a good job but there are not enough of them to begin to cover it and/or they are not trained properly.

justin22

This place is a joke, find another nursing home. Horrible staff, with horrible attitudes. They neglect residents for hours on end, leave them in wheelchairs all day long in wet undergarments and also overnight in bed with soiled or wet undergarments. They hide their horrible service well.

Leonard213846

Penfield Place was closer to us, so we can get there anytime we wanted to. They have on site activities, like bingo and music, and provide three meals a day. They usually provide transportation, but they have a doctor right there at the home and a visting priest. They have different functions. They have laundry and meals and bring my mother her snacks. The staff is very helpful. They help her go into the bathroom, and if she needs assistance, she just presses the button.