Dolan Memory Care Homes-Frontier

Memory care daughter

My mother spent a year, almost to the day, in one of the Dolan Homes, before dying there last year. From the outside it looks like a great model - small homey houses, great staff ratio, nice outdoor spaces. It checked all the boxes for us. But there is something very, very wrong there. Within a few months we realized they were not communicating medication changes with the medical POA for our mom. We found out when we discovered they were tranquilizing her without consent or conversation with family,. Most of the people in her house stared into space all day. She was the only truly awake one - once we put some controls on tranquilizer use. And it went downhill from there. Six months after moving in she nearly died due to tripling dosage of a dangerous chemo drug - without communicating that change to family and without consulting a specialist. We were told by the Missouri long term care ombudsmen that this issue of medical communication is systemic in this company, with other complaints. We tried to get her into another facility but felt that the head nurse was actively blocking us. We finally found another place for her but Dolan didn't inform us or treat a severe UTI., shortly before she was going to move. She was bedridden with a severe infection and ended up with a neck injury that caused extreme pain. They were not trained in moving or caring for someone with a neck injury, and insisted on moving and cleaning her even though she screamed in pain, and even though hospice believed she was hours from death. She died three days before she was going to move, and her last week was a nightmare. If you move your loved one here, insist on strong oversight on meds, consider having an outside doctor rather than a Dolan doctor, visit often, put a camera in your loved ones room, and know that the head nurses are LPNs with little training but vast power over your loved one and their well-being. One positive note: most of the hands -on caregivers were kind and fun, and some were truly loving. (Though the whole house and staff and family members caught COVID over Christmas because staff do not get sick leave, and a staff member was working with a respiratory illness.) Other staff were working two full time jobs because they were so poorly paid. If we could do it over again, we would have chosen somewhere else, no matter how nice it appeared. The whole experience was traumatic and tragic. Maybe this review will protect other fragile people with dementia, and those who love them.

Teresa Jorgen

Too small to offer any stimulation to residents. Physical and cognitive exercises are non existent. Many times there are not enough staff. The decline I witnessed of my friend and other residents was unbelievable. The patients were parked in front of a tv, most times slumped over. My friend was so over medicated some days that she could barely walk or talk.

Mary

My mom is currently at the Dolan Memory Care Homes. We haven't been inside yet because of COVID, we just have to meet her in the waiting room. She was not interested in going to any type of home or place because she used to live with my sister, but she is loving this place. They do things for her like paint her nails, do her hair, play some games, and get her involved in anything, like cooking. Only eight or ten people live there and it's set up like a home environment, so it's very personalized. The last time we saw her, she's significantly better, remembered more, and just looked happier. We're pleased with it. Although I haven't had much experience with the staff, everything my mom says about them is positive. They all sit at the same big dining room table so nobody's left out and my mom has said only positive things about the food so far. It's just extremely expensive in my point of view. We'll have to take a Medicaid place at some point.