Elmwood Care Center

Pinkie57

I was a resident for 5 weeks, from Nov 19- Dec 16 2023. I came after spending one week at Alta Bates Hospital. The facilities are in very poor shape. The ceiling is falling in multiple areas. Large holes with black moldy material can be found in patient rooms and several opened up in the hallway outside of my room. It wasn't raining. Buckets and towels were in use. There was interment hammering going on at all hours. I'm not sure if this was due to the roof issues. Most of the staff were not regular employees, and many, but not all, were lacking skills, initiative, concern, and familiarity with Elmwood. A shout out goes to Tiensin and Dickie, two employees were the absolute best and tried very hard to do their job, keep their cool when disrespected by patients, and keep the casual labor in check. They made me feel cared for, safe, and were professional with little help even when it was bedlam outside my room. Patients screaming obscenities, others wandering, lost, and the roof was caving in. Several patients acress the hall were loud, rude, demanding, and shouting the entire time I was there. They are seriously understaffed which leaves call buttons unresponded to in a timely manner. The breakfast and dinner meals were lacking in taste and quantity. Very small portions and barely palatable. Lunch, on the other hand, was the high point of my day. The menu was inspired, varied, and portions were generous. Presentation and taste showed care and respect for patients. Two weeks into my stay, I tested positive for Covid, a first for me. Within a matter of days, well over 30 patients nearby were positive, some staff and housekeepers were also incapacitated. They tried to limit exposure by moving beds around which was a hot mess. I was near a window but had two different roommates moved in that were unhappy and at times hostile. There was no need to move anyone because the entire wing was quarantined and on lockdown. I was lucky during my stay because I could use the bathroom and didn't need assistance. All three of my roommates required diapers and changing. The care they received was inconsistent, unhurried, and often disrespectful. The rotating staffing from outside, the bottom of the barrel, were doing patient changing. In the end, I was not consulted about discharge strategies. Social Services showed up at 11:00 and told me that I was to leave that day and when could I go. I had no ride arranged and no one to help me get into my second story apartment. They arranged for an Uber after lunch. My meds were to go to the independent pharmacy I had on record. Twice I was told that pharmacy was closed for good, a lie, and they sent my orders to CVS, a nightmare.

Pente

My advice is do not send a family member here. Service is terrible. When my family became ill and returned to the hospital and later had return to the “FEAR” of returning was unbearable . They were so afraid to return. This must tell you something. We were fortunate enough to find another place that he is happy with. Try to retrieve his belongs was as nightmares ! After 2 months of consent calling and stopping by we were told over and over again they to look for his belongs. They continued to get angry with us and treated us with disrespect. Finally we received as small box with a few things but none of the newly purchased items of clothes, blankets and razor were missing. This place is terrible and needs to investigated.

Gurlfriend

DO NOT send your loved ones here for ANY type of care. Many of the staff have a bad attitude and will make you feel as if you are intruding on them if you request something as simple as assistance with cutting your food if you have a broken arm. The rooms are sparse and the medical equipment used for blood pressure monitoring or weigh ins are not professional medical quality. The blood pressure monitor is the same brand that can be purchased at Walgreens, Target, Costco or the Kaiser pharmacy. The nursing staff makes attempts at providing care, but the quality is far from care that will help you recover. Yes, many SNFs have staff that is overworked or they are short handed, but when you have to wait an hour or more for a nurse to respond to a buzzer to request pain medication? The food is subpar - served cold and food unrecognizable as food. Breakfast was brought and strange looking flat waffle(?) was on the plate with a pale grey undercooked sausage and grits. The flat waffle could not be cut due to the broken arm. When assistance was requested to cut the flat waffle the person bringing the food (?) replied “ Yeh, I know about your arm.” The waffle was then picked up with her bare hands and was torn into pieces and thrown back on the plate. No one deserves to be treated that way. When a transfer request was made, staff members would come into the room and say that the concerns are true, but no matter where you go, you will have the same experience. Whatever you do, do not go to Elmwood for any type of rehabilitation or nursing. You are revenue, a dollar amount. They will attempt to manipulate you to stay with false promises of speaking to the staff to initiate changes that never occur. I am not one that writes reviews, however I feel I’m this case people need to be warned.

ballet

I was there for 4 weeks following major surgery. Very noisy, day and night. At night staff would walk in to take care of my roommate and speak in loud voices. I never had a decent night's sleep. Food is totally DISGUSTING. I rarely ate a meal a full meal. Breakfast was the best meal. Ex: scrambled eggs on a raw English muffin. I'm on a salt free diet. Everything was over salted. Not even cottage cheese instead of a meal. Many nights, I went to bed hungry. I lost 20 lbs. in 4 weeks. I wouldn't recommend this place.

Veronicaoneill611

My mother is treated at Elmwood. I can say which I have never said this is an old Rinky Dink Dump. The staff had NO IDEA she my mom was there first off. I cAme from out of town where I live to find out what was going on with my mom and they knew nothing. My mother can't talk or stay awake long enough to tell me. They didn't give her any meds until a day and a half after she got there. Anytime we needed something there was NO ONE to help and when someone did come they looked like they didn't want to help. I was there from 3-9 and no one came in to ask her if she needed anything and she cannot tell you if she's hurt or needs anything because she is out of it I cannot wait to take her out of here. And let me just say this. I never leave reviews and am not really a complainer so go figure ????

Relative070456

My mom went to Elmwood Care Center for about 10 days. There were pluses and minuses to it. I really liked the friendly staff and felt like they really cared about the patients, but I had some issues with the place because it seemed they were rather unorganized. When my mom was being transferred over there, I was given a bag of medication from Kaiser and told as soon as I got in there that I needed to find the nursing staff because they were the only ones allowed to give her the medication. I went around trying to find a nursing staff member, and when I talked to somebody, they looked blankly at me like they didn’t know what I was talking about. The other thing was they told me if anything happened to my mom, they will notify me immediately but anytime there was a change, they didn’t notify me. When they transferred her from the facility back to the hospital, they didn’t notify me. The only reason why I knew about it was that my mother called me and said she thought they were going to transfer her back to Kaiser. The room was really nice, but it was very noisy in there. My mom actually started to decline not because she wasn’t getting good care there but because she wasn’t getting enough sleep and it was real hard on her.