Pine Grove Manor Saint Louis

Carolyn

My sister moved to Pine Grove Manor. It's a small skilled nursing home with 77 beds. I saw some of their records, and I was pretty happy with that. The facility is nice and clean, and it didn't have any strange smells about it. It was bright and cheery, with lots of windows. It just gave me a good, comfortable, warm, and happy feeling when I walked in. A couple of other places that we'd checked out were dark and felt cold. All the employees were friendly and happy. The patients that I met or ran into as we were taking a tour through the hallway seemed to be very happy. A lot of them were sitting out in the lunchroom area watching television, and they had been playing games. I just thought this would be a nice place for my sister. They know all the patients' names. When we were touring it, they knew everybody there. Now, when I walk in, they tell me what my sister has been doing, so they know my face. It was just kind of a different atmosphere. They'll talk to you if you have any questions. If they can't answer the questions, they'll send it to somebody. I've been there for about three dinners when my sister has been there. We walked in one day, and they had a beef pot roast, and it smelled delicious. My sister ate that. I was also there one day, and they had baked chicken, and she ate the whole leg. They are still remodeling, but it's clean. During our tour, we went up to the second story, and they have rooms up there that are going to be really nice. We saw that they're still painting, fixing, and taking care of the upstairs, but they had a few of the rooms rented out that we got to see. They're nice-sized rooms and have double and single-sized ones. They are private rooms and shared rooms. My sister is in a shared room, although she doesn't have anybody in the room with her at this point. They have a big cage with lovebirds that's very clean. No feathers lying around all over the place, or a dirty bottom of the cage. They also have a parakeet that entertains everybody, and it's quite a noisemaker. They bought this place, and it had been run down, so they are trying to get it shaped up again. The other day, they came in and moved some of their offices. They have their PT room up in the front of the building now, and a counseling room for the people looking for it. They also have a visiting room up in the front. They've moved a few things around, but the nurse's desk and business office are still where they were. I was talking to the one lady who takes care of the social activities. I said it would be great to have a place for the patients, and she said that could be in the plans. Right now, they're concentrating on the building, but they have somebody who comes in and does Bible study. They play baseball, and they have a movie in the evening. They have crafts, and my sister has also been putting together puzzles. She also does some physical therapy because before she went to the hospital, she was mobile, but the hospital wasn't getting her up and kept her in a geri chair. Now she's trying to walk and get going again. It looks like they have a well-rounded system with things for people to do. They said before COVID, they used to have a beautician and a minister that came in, but when COVID hit, all of that stopped, and nobody has come back. The other day, I came in, and the craft lady had been in there, and some of the nurses and aides were in there painting all the women's fingernails. There are also a few residents who, I guess, wanted to have a little job. For instance, one of the people out of the kitchen was folding napkins and rolling them up, and this lady, who I know is a patient, was sitting there folding napkins and rolling up the silverware, too. They let them help out if they want to. They don't make them do that, but if they wanna do something, they can do it.