Somerford House & Place of Hagerstown

Somerford House & Place of Hagerstown is very good. The service is wonderful. The people are trained well, cheery, and enjoy their jobs, which is important. My father's room is a perfect size, clean, bright, and has a nice window to the outside which lets the light in. They have many activities, and they're spread throughout the day. The activities director is wonderful and she does a great job. There are a couple of libraries, some nice sitting rooms with televisions, an outdoor courtyard, and nice, separate dining rooms.

From what we have observed, Somerford House is excellent. My dad has a bedroom with a sitting room, a bathroom, and a little kitchenette. I saw the activity director was doing a history presentation to some of the residents. My dad has been on some of the bus trips, too.

My husband was at Somerford Place. It was a very, very bad experience for us. I would not recommend this facility to anyone. The day before my husband went in there in April, he was considered to be lucid with a sense of humor, although he suffers from dementia very badly, and my husband was never sick a day in his life. However, within three days of being at Somerford Place, he was so drugged that he could not stand up or walk without holding onto railings. It continued for a month. There was a nurse who seemed to be somebody that did not belong in that field whatsoever, and she was abrupt and rude. I spent many hours down there because I was concerned because I observed her being rather harsh with patients. They kept older patients sleeping. That's a very terrible place. My husband never took any kind of antidepressant nor antipsychotic before, but they had him on Depakote right away -- 500 mg at night and 500 mg in the morning -- Seroquel several times a day, and on another drug I cannot remember right now. He was so drugged that he became psychotic. His behavior turned very psychotic. They sent him out by ambulance to a local ER room with no place to go. They called me to tell me that he was being put in an ambulance, and they never bothered to find a bed in a psych hospital. The head nurse said, "We will not take him back." They claimed that he became psychotic and a danger or a threat to other patients. The nurse that I despised kept calling me all month telling me that he was punching her. Well, my husband didn't have the strength to pick up an arm, let alone punch somebody, so there was something going on at this place. They even gave me my money back; they felt pretty guilty about what they did. So when we got to the ER, the ER staff at the hospital found my husband a bed at Sheppard Pratt, which is a major psych institute in Baltimore. When he got there, he was not behaving psychotic. When Sheppard Pratt got him, and the doctors immediately changed his meds, they couldn't even keep him there because his behavior was fine. The atmosphere at Somerford was very depressing. There were about 30 patients, and they're all comatose. They just sit with their heads back or down. There was not much in the way of activities for patients, and they don't take them anywhere.

The staff that I met at Somerford Place seemed very nice. I have no idea about the food, but the rooms were very nice, and really the only reason why we did not move forward with them was the availability that they had for a room at that time. The facility was even more modern and nicer than where my mom is currently at. It was just that, unfortunately, they had no openings.

Somerford House is the one I want my mother in. It was stunning. The rooms were beautiful and immaculate. They had all kinds of activities. They had an art room, a bingo room, and an activities room. They have activities on the outside and on the inside. They have a library. They have group meetings for people with different physical ailments. They have doctors on staff. They do not have a big staff turnaround, which is good. That would be the one I want to get into. It's perfect for anybody who doesn't want to have to manage a home. They had a kitchenette where you can have a small refrigerator, a microwave, a sink, and a couple of cabinets. It was just enough for you to get a cup of coffee in the morning or have a bagel. They have 3 snacks a day. They can go up have fruit and coffee and drinks and anything they want if they like to do that. They make sure they're not going hungry. They all could come and get the resident if the resident is far away to walk. My mom uses a walker. They'll put her in a wheelchair and they'll wheel her up so she doesn't miss dinner. I thought Somerford gave me a much homier feel. It's all like a community. They seem to have enough staff to cover their residents. The other thing they do, which I really like: they screen every single one of their people that come in. Before they come in, they do a criminal background check. Some people who tried to come have rapist issues. What they do is they recommend them to another facility because they don't want to put their normal residents in jeopardy. That was really important to me because you don't know what they're like.

Mom is all settled in at Somerford House. We chose this because it was cleaner, they offered more activities, and it seemed to be in the right price range. My mom's room is excellent. It’s clean and very spacious. She is in a secured memory care and she has a room to herself so she got the privacy that she wants and along with the day to day attention that she gets. I did try their food and it’s excellent. They have daily care exercises were they sit and do flexibility exercises. They also enjoy when the children come in to sing. They have church service. They play some memory and matching games that keeps the residents engaged.

My mother actually passed away about three weeks after I put her on Somerford House. The place is very homey. It didn't feel medical. The atmosphere and the staff is all good. I've tasted the food and it's good. They got a number of activities. They do shopping trips and outings. They have sort of different living rooms. They also have a video library where the residents could watch movies. The staff is very conscientious. You don't get a sense that anybody is actually working, they just all help each other to help the patients. I'm even impressed that the sales person who really doesn't deal with patient care on a full time basis but she knows of everybody there and interact with everybody.