Benedictine Living Community-Owatonna

Susan

My husband is at the nursing facility of Benedictine Living Community-Owatonna. It is excellent. I would live there myself. It's clean, and they go above and beyond for the clients. I think it's a wonderful place. All the help, from the aides to the nurses to the social services, everybody bends over backwards to help you. There is a hospital right behind it. As a matter of fact, they have a tunnel that goes from their place to the hospital in case they have somebody they have to take there. It's a closed-in walkway, so they just put them on a wheelchair or stretcher and take them right through that, and they're in the hospital emergency room. I've been in nursing homes where you just turn around and want to walk back out again, but this place is very clean and doesn't have that odor. The food leaves something to be desired, and they'll even tell you that. It's not great, but most of the time it's edible. The people who are in and out, when he pushes the button, are all very caring and very pleasant. They've really gone above and beyond to make him comfortable and happy. I like the place, and everybody there has been very good to my husband and me. The aides come in, and they start teasing him and whatever, and his mood changes immediately. The laundry lady is very sweet. Even the guys that do maintenance, if you ask them to do something, they're right there, and they do it, and they get it done. Everybody there is just very helpful, very pleasant, very kind. The head nurse in his unit is wonderful with the patients. He has taken time to sit down and talk to my husband and just calm him down. The female nurses have also been very, very good to him. If he is upset, they try to comfort him, to make it better. By the time they get done, the girls will put him in a wheelchair and take him for a walk. If it's a nice day, they'll take him outside for a little while. They pay a lot of attention to their clientele. They're very animal-friendly, too. They have calves, cows, horses, and stuff, once a year for the residents, and they all come out in the parking lot and pet the animals. They have bingo a couple of times a week. They have some guy come in and play country music, and then somebody comes in and plays other kinds of music. They take the clients to the park, and they make sandwiches to take along, and it gets my husband out of there. They take them to the Owatonna Fair and the State Fair, those who want to go. They really have a lot of activities that they can do. It's expensive, but they don't ignore the residents. Nine out of ten times, they're there within two to three minutes, and don't let them wait. A lot of times, when my husband is not happy with what's for dinner, they'll try to replace it with something that he will eat. They make sure that he eats, too. They're going to cut his food up for him so he doesn't choke on it. They're very attentive.