Northern Mahaska Specialty Care

Shirley

I've been very happy with everything about Northern Mahaska, except when they took me on the tour, they told me that their response time is seven minutes. My mother has got incontinence and she'll press the button and it can be 15 to 20 minutes before they come in. I got in touch with the director of nursing and she told me in Iowa, they can take up to 15 minutes to take care of somebody. They would take her into the bathroom, but they'd leave to go take care of someone else, expecting her to pull the cord, which she can't remember to do because she has dementia. A week ago, she had been on the pot and no one was in there. She didn't pull the cord because she forgot, so she got herself in the wheelchair, got back to her bed, and her knees gave out and she fell. I told them they need to have someone stay with her until she's done. Other than that, it's beautiful, and 90% of the time the food is delicious. The people are very caring and loving. I just feel thay they're very understaffed. They have lots of activities and they have three meals a day with snacks. It's very clean and everybody is very sweet and kind. She is in a large private room.