Windsor Health and Rehabilitation Center

Heath2

The initial relocation was somewhat difficult, due in part to the need of relocating to a new city and re-establishing a local primary care doctor and vascular specialist to further oversee her care. On the surface, the facility seemed a bit dated. Because of the circumstances, it was important that my mother have Internet access to help stay in touch with the rest of her family and the outside world, and the lack of Wi-Fi access was disappointing, but we were able to remedy this with the purchase of a cellular Internet service. While my mom was ready to be released from the hospital and begin physical therapy, her leg was not completely healed, and the wound vac and dressing change needed to be changed frequently. There was a fairly thorough intake and assessment by one of the nurses, who turned out to be one the best during my mom's entire stay, a lifesaver I would argue. I was present during the first several dressing changes though and did not receive a lot of confidence that some of the nursing staff had a lot of experience with wound care, or as much concern as they should have had when it began to take a turn for the worse. I would like to have seen more care and due diligence from some of the staff in this area, especially from the staff doctor, who never once looked at her wound with the dressings removed. He could have admitted her to the hospital a week sooner. By the time we were able to see the new local vascular doctor, the wound had degraded to the point that she was immediately admitted to the Salem hospital for surgery to re-open the site, clean it, and perform additional measures to help it heal, which resulted in a 10 day additional stay in the hospital. (The lesson here is know and trust your primary care doctor, do not depend on the house physician.)Upon her return and with better direction from the vascular doctor, things did improve over time with her wound care. The physical therapists were absolutely fantastic: in three months they brought her from barely able to stand to able to transfer, use her walker, and use the facilities by herself, enabling her to transition home. The staff person responsible for helping to schedule rides to doctor appointments with Cherry Left was very helpful and reliable. One of the swing shift nurses really made all of the difference in her overall health and wound care, and the Director assisted us a lot with our relocation and re-establishment after she left. My mom's biggest complaint was with the food; since she was on a diabetic, low-sodium diet, the meals became extremely repetitive. Most of the time they just removed certain items from the plate instead of replacing them with diet-friendly alternatives, leaving her hungry and me concerned about the adequacy of her nutrition. I ended up bringing her healthier meals from outside most evenings for the last month or so of her stay.When a family member needs to stay in a facility like this, or a hospital for that matter, it is critical, in my opinion, that the person have an advocate who helps oversee the person's care and ensures continuity and accountability across all of the different shift changes. It seems that mistakes are made no matter where you go, and every new caregiver needs to learn more about the patient than what can be captured on a chart. That being said, I will say that many of the nursing staff, CNAs, the Director, and especially the physical therapists worked very hard to bring my mother back from an extremely difficult situation, one that many in her situation do not come back from. Their generally warm and friendly demeanor, coupled with my mom's determination to recover, made it possible for her to return home.