Hospice of Citrus County

Mia1

My Grandfather spent some time at this facility before he passed away in September. The facility is very beautiful. He enjoyed the meals as much as possible and the kitchen staff took time out to come in and speak with him daily. He was Italian American and really enjoyed the interaction with the food service department. The counselors were helpful and reassuring.And they made themselves available frequently.However, the nursing staff were not very helpful in educating family members about my Grandfather's condition. They were very blunt about the fact that he was dying, which some family members did realize.And they were not treating family members very kindly. More like an annoyance. Also, they were very pushy trying to give my Grandfather pain medication every time he made a peep. I had to go in and tell them on several occasions to stop overmedicating him as he was not actually in pain, but it was his habit to moan and groan and make a big noise all the time, even in his sleep. His body began to shut down faster as a result of the medications being given. The family wanted as much time to visit with him as possible, the nursing staff seemed irritated with our presence. My Grandfather asked several times for the bathroom. Although he couldn't bear weight, the nursing staff insisted on getting him out of bed to the bedside commode, even though I requested they use the bedpan. They asked m my father and me to help lift him. My father explained that he could not help as he had major heart surgery last year and isn't able to lift more than 20 pounds. The nurse was very rude to my father. She pushed and tried to bully him to help. He could not and she did her best to shame him. Meanwhile my Grandfather was in quite a precarious position, half on the bed, half on the bedside commode. I have some medical knowledge and the staff were not receptive to my input as they commented that they didn't need me to tell them how to do their jobs. The general attitude that our family felt was that the staff wanted rid of Grandpa as soon as possible. And if we would not allow them to overmedicate him to death, we should just take him home. All in all it was a poor experience.