Autumn Lake Healthcare at Waugh Chapel

Yvonne Ellis

My experience at Autumn Lake Waugh Chapel was mostly a very positive one. I was fortunately not there under Covid isolation. There were a few minor hiccups when first came to the facility but they were able to get fixed with the assistance of Guest Services. My rehab team was great!! I have to give them a huge shout out for all of their help. My GNAs/Nurses were very good; again after a few hiccups when I first came. I had to go back out to the hospital but I chose to come back to the facility because of the great care that the staff provided to me. I would recommend this place to anyone.

Provider Response

Go somewhere else

Believe all of the negative reviews. An elderly family member was recently placed at Autumn Lake for rehab after leaving Anne Arundel Hospital where she had been treated for a week with weakness related to a reaction to medication and dehydration. The hospital said this place was the only available option, because our family member tested positive for Covid just before she was to be released to another rehab that did not accept Covid positive patients, even though she was asymptomatic. Our family member has early stage dementia and needs reminders to stay hydrated, and, because of her recent weakness, needed assistance to go to the bathroom. She wears Depends as a precaution, but is not incontinent. For the past couple of years she has been around family every day and and family continued to stay with her each day in the hospital. We learned just before she was sent via ambulance to Autumn Lake that family would be completely barred from visiting her at AL because of her Covid status, even though we were all vaccinated (as was she) and would wear masks. Mind you, this was not the height of the pandemic when there were no vaccines. This was more than two years after. Our loved one was dropped off by ambulance late at night and we weren't even allowed to peek in her room and see how she was settling in and say good night. There wasn't even the option of waving through a window as she was placed in a room on a high floor. We were falsely told just before her admission by a senior staff member that the facility had iPads to allow Covid patients to communicate with family, but learned after she was admitted that they did not have them. The only option we were given to communicate was via our family member's cellphone, room phone, or a call to the nurse's station. Because of our family member's dementia, she was not often able to find her phones, so we mostly called to check in on her via the nurse's station, where some staff were kind and helpful. Some were not. One aide said that if our family member could not get help to the bathroom in time, she could just go in her Depends. After two days of trying to reach our family member via her room phone and her cellphone and not getting through, and receiving failed promises of returned calls from the nurse's station, family members showed up at the facility and had to literally argue with staff to get to see our loved one in person. The staff were condescending and accused the family of having an attitude when we were simply concerned about the well-being of our elderly family member who was placed in isolation in a state of dementia, after being cared for by loving family for several years. None of the senior staff showed any empathy but suddenly used the term "compassionate care" as a last ditch concession to allow brief visits from family, following our voiced concerns. We found our loved one in terrible shape, extremely dehydrated and worse than she was when she left the hospital. I suspect that this review, like the others, will be followed by a vague plea to "call our facility" to discuss this situation, but that plea is meaningless. We tried to discuss this situation with the staff at all levels and did not see evidence of concern. We moved our loved one to a different facility and her health improved. I shudder to think what might have happened if we kept her at Autumn Lake.

Provider Response

angry1068556

Run except for occupational therapist, and a couple nurses. If they can’t handle the work to benefit the patients trying to do rehab; don’t accept them. Let them go to a rehab that will actually be in it for the patient’s recovery and not how much $ they can get

Provider Response

baseball22

This place is horrendous. They barely answer the phone and if the receptionist does answer, the nurses don’t. My family member had to wait 30 plus mins after requesting medication or help going to the bathroom. Hours go by waiting on doctors to answer an on call request. The food is TERRIBLE. The only good thing is the techs.

EThompson

A great place, the building was very clean and smelled fresh, the administration and other staff were welcoming, thanks to them my family was happy.

47595e

My mother was in lockdown due to covid, so they said, even though she had been vaccinated months before. No visitors. I never once reached any staff on the phone. As I live out of state this was my only option otherwise I would have gone there. If they didn't call me I had no way to contact anyone there. I tried for weeks to speak to someone after my mother's cell phone quit working. No one ever answers a phone and no one ever returns messages left. I finally told the front desk that I was going to call the Anne Arundel County Police to do a welfare check on my mother. Within two minutes my phone was ringing. I was in contact with a nurse and my mother. How about that. This is not a place I would ever place a relative again. My frustration with not being able to contact anyone had reached a critical point. My mother told me she was starving and the food was terrible for her diabetes. She was supposed to see a psyc doctor for depression. As far as I know this never happened. But how would I know, no one ever contacted me regarding her. She was there for a month. Never again! If I could give this place negative 5 stars I would.

P Park

My mom was a resident in rehab section, now returns for outpatient rehab. We could not have been happier with her care. I am a healthcare provider so I watched her care with the perspective of one who knows what good care should be. And my mom received great care.

Anonymous115497250

We’ve been here. It’s a new facility. The food is terrible; the rooms are all singles. I thought the staff was just fine. They had card games. The atmosphere was so-so.