BRIA of Elmwood Park

Carlota

My brother is in BRIA of Elmwood Park. He has dementia, and he's going to be there for a little over a month. Our experience has not been great. When you first walk in, there is security. You have to be buzzed in and it is a location that makes sure that he can't get out of the building. When you arrive on the first floor, it's a beautiful entrance. You take the elevator to the second floor, to where my brother is, to where the memory care patients are, and it's very dark. It's too hot in there. The air-conditioning doesn't work. There was an incident where I went to visit my brother one day and there was a gentleman patient, and he was walking around without pants. I went to the nurse and I said why is that happening and she said, "He does that and we're trying to work on him." He walked around like that for a good couple of hours. I went to the manager. I complained about it. Eventually, he did go put his pants on. It's not the first time it happened. If he was my parent or my family member, I would be very upset about that because it's humiliating to him and I was very upset because my family member was there. The majority of the time, the food is delicious. They serve him three meals a day and he eats everything. I've witnessed dinner and lunch and eight out of ten times, the food is really good, but one time they served him a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner and a small bowl of fruit, and that just didn't seem like a good dinner to me. Sometimes, his dinner is like a full plate of protein, and vegetables, a full meal, two or three things on his plate, plus a salad. Sometimes, it's just a grilled cheese sandwich, so I don't understand the logic in that. I was not happy about that. They can't go outside. There's no outside. There's no patio or a porch or anything where the residents can go outside unless they smoke cigarettes and then they get to go outside four times a day supervised by a staff member. That seems so ridiculous to me that going outside and getting fresh air is very healthy for you, but the only people who get to go outside are the ones who smoke cigarettes, which is an unhealthy habit. The other thing is the bedsheets are paper thin and all the beds and the pillows have to have plastic on them, so you're pretty much in a room that's too hot because the air-conditioning doesn't work, there are no fans and you're pretty much sleeping on plastic or rubber. It's not a very comfortable accommodation. I have had their food and it's inconsistent. Sometimes it's delicious and sometimes it's not. You get what you pay for pretty much.

Nicholas

My mother was in Elmwood Care before. She was transferred from that facility into the one she is in now. The layout was OK. I had to walk up a lot of stairs to get to the front door, but it was a decent looking facility. The staff was terrible. There were CNAs yelling and cursing at each other down the hallway. They were yelling at the top of their lungs on the third floor that my mom was on and all those residents could hear that. They had no dining area on the third floor. The food was average. They have a salon and a reading room where residents can go and read books and magazines. They had poor management running that facility and they did nothing to fix the problems especially the CNAs yelling and cursing at each other and also at the residents too.

caring daughter118362050

Elmwood Care is good and in an older building. They had average rooms and kept the handicapped at one end of the building. The staff was very courteous and very accommodating. I witnessed a CNA feeding a resident. The activities were average.

Greatly Concerned

My nephew was a patient in this facility for about 3 weeks. The care that was provided was terrible. They claim to be a skilled nursing facility, but they are not. He had a surgerical wound that was still draining, and they had no receptacle for the drainage. It took them days to order one, which caused him to become sick due to the build up of the fluid coming out of the wound. Nursing staff did not care about what he was going through. Very unprofessional staff. Would not recommend this place to ANYONE!!!!!

Tee2

My mother was a patient at Elmwood Care from 11/2010 until her death 6/2012, due to their negligence. My mother was transferred from her bed to a shower chair by a Bed Maker. The individual did not have experience perience with handling patients. My mother's trach tube was dislogdged from her throat, this caused mucus to build and within 48 hours my mother passed away.