Mount St Francis Nursing Center

The facility immediately impressed with the beautiful grounds, veranda and the friendliness of the other residences.The nursing staff immediately became part of the family. When I was there I often felt like my Grandmother was the only person being cared for.She was always dressed in street clothes before breakfast and had her teeth brushed, make up and lipstick on. They made sure she had here hair done once a week and nails clipped and polished at the same time.I was able to spend the nights with her the first week until she got comfortable with the environment. She didn't want to have to be at a home, but I think she quickly realized that she have much more community there than she did at her apartment. She was 93 when she moved in and passed away at 96. I take comfort in knowing her quality of life was the best it could be her last few years.

At first, I was very impressed with the care my mother was receiving. The grounds are lovely and a great place to walk around, enjoying the trees, grass and the many deer, grazing. My mother was then forced to move down to a different floor (she was a Medicaid patient, and they are all 2nd class citizens). I didn't object to the different room, but was very unhappy with the staff on the first floor. I frequently found her alone (NOT OK) sitting in her wheelchair, even though there were strict instructions regarding the danger of her falling. I thought her 2nd floor CNAs were awesome, but I was less pleased with the 1st floor staff. I kept getting conflicting information from them, and in was difficult to get a straight answer. The social worker who visited was polite, but not overly helpful. The daytime activities bored my mother silly, but I guess that's to be expected with dementia. I often found her room to be mostly clean, but the shared bathroom (toilet) was always so grungy that I used the staff bathroom. Food at Mount St. Francis appeared to be varied and nourishing; I can't vouch for the taste, but residents appeared to be eating, at least, a little. The kitchen/dining room staff were always very polite and helpful, but my mother couldn't eat on her own, and there never seemed to be sufficient staff to feed residents who needed help - that was very frustrating. They also kept taking her to Sunday mass, even though she wasn't Catholic, but I guess that's the way things are at a Catholic-owned facility. I think, as nursing homes go, this is probably one of the nicer ones. The CNAs, nurses and attendants were always very polite and willing to help. I think they were overworked and frustrated over the lack of communication; I seemed to know more than them about what was going on. My mother died at Mount St. Francis six months ago. The staff was very respectful and caring, as we had to go through the difficult process of making the necessary arrangements.