Envoy of Westover Hills

My dad unfortunately was transferred to this place. He had end-stage Alzheimers. He was at the Envoy for two week and each day I visited him, he was markedly worse. I think Envoy hastened him to his death. When I first arrived, none of the staff seemed to know where he was. We found him, eventually, doubled over in a wheelchair, near the nurse's station. I suppose they overlooked him. We learned that they were billing Medicaid for "physical therapy" sessions for him daily. He was very ill, bedridden, unable to walk, talk, follow commands, etc. This "physical therapy" was, to say the least, not in his best interests: he was dying, and clearly just wanted to be left alone in bed. No, the staff would get him up to these sessions, or wheel him to the dining room. The place smelled of urine, but most do. It was not in very good repair. His room on the "good," floor (not the long-term care floor on the second floor, that was locked away). His room was dingy and the walls had holes in the drywall. Each day we would see a severe decline. He was pocketing food. Every day, we would visit, and he had a large mass of pocketed food in his cheek. We would have to clear this out ourselves as the staff obviously did not notice, or did not care. I believe he aspirated some of their pink, pureed 'food' and he developed pneumonia and died the third day I visited. We had to beg the doctor to give him morphine, first after tracking him down, as it was the weekend, and they have NO DOCTORS IN THE BUILDING during weekends. So, we had to wait a day for the "special order" for palliative medication, and even after the order was given, it took the staff two hours to deliver the morphine shot. He was obviously suffering and in pain: his face was strangely contorted, and though he could not talk, he whimpered like a baby. We unforntunately had to put him here, as there were no other beds anywhere in Richmond. Believe me, we did not wish it, but there was no other option. So, we had to fight the staff not to give any more unnecessary PT, meds, and tracking down the social worker was hard. I had the feeling she was avoiding us. Oh, the staff is very 'jovial,' but I'd rather have COMPETENCE and CARE over JOKESTERS any day when it comes to healthcare. If I could give this place a negative rating I would. My sister-in-law referred to it as a 'depressing sh*thole' - pretty apt description. The patients are elderly and obviously low income, but this does not mean they have to live their last days in hell. Most of the short-term patients smoke and though smoking isn't permitted inside, they'd allow residents to sit inside the dining room beside the open door and smoke. This place has a 1/5 star rating by the DHHS of Richmond as of 5/12. No big surprise there.

My Great Aunt is on a lockdown unit in the facility. Although the facility Is not presented as upscale on the outside, the staff on the inside definitely are! Each time that I visit, they are always laughing and joking with her. She is not too fond of having assistance with her bath and always has a few choice words when the staff tries to help! They are required to report instances such as this. When I receive the phone call, they never seem displeased with her. Instead, they just laugh and find the humor in her sarcastic comments. Considering that she lived with me at one point, I also find great humor in it! The activities that can be performed are somewhat limited on this unit due to the mental capacity of some of the elderly patients, which is why I was very surprised to walk in on an afternoon bingo game. To my surprise, this was actually well received by the patients and for those that could not participate as well, staff assisted. This is a great facility and I am pleased with the care that my Great Aunt receives!

This is the worst facility that I have ever visited. My great-great uncle was a patient. The smell was horrible, I could only stay there about 5 or 10 minutes because the smell was affecting my stomach. The halls were dark and gloomy and there were patients just sitting in the hall in their wheelchair...it was pretty sad. When we finally made it to my great-great uncle's room, he was sharing it with like 3 other patients. The room was only big enough to accomodate 2 patients comfortably, but the cramped 4 people in the room. I would NEVER recommend this facility to anyone, I would have given them a -5 stars...but I did not have the option