Colonial Hill of Rochester Care and Rehabilitation Center

My mother-in-law stayed at Birch Healthcare Center before she passed away. I was never really able to go in because of COVID. We tried to do a window visit, but she was legally blind and incredibly hard of hearing. She had no idea what we were trying to get her to do. I talked to the nurses every other day, and there were some wonderful ladies that worked there. They kept me in a loop and told me what was going on. They were doing their absolute best, and they were lovely people. When we had a conference call, they were very cooperative and very helpful. There was another elderly woman in the room with my mother-in-law. They were in a normal sized bedroom with two single beds. They each had their own dressers. They also kept her close to the nurse's station. The building was a little older and obviously needed to be modernized, but it is still appeared to be well-maintained. It was winter so the grounds were not green and lush, but you could see that there was a garden in the spring. They did have a seating area outside where in the good weather, you could possibly sit outside among different plants. They were very helpful and caring people. I know that they truly cared about her.

I would never ever send a person/patient here. One day I was on the phone with my husband and you could hear residents yelling for nurses /bells and alarms going off. My husband was given used toiletries and a basin that was cracked. He was not receiving all of his medications because they didn’t have any in stock. They had to order it and he was already there for two days. The food was disgusting. He was supposed to be quarantined for two weeks but they had to keep the door to his room opened because of the heat. There was no regulation of the heat distribution. I could keep on going on.

The staff are a bunch of morons, letting a non relative make the decision of who can contact our family member. It is also seems this facility don't know who the supervisor on duty is or that there isn't one. I have never witnessed a facility like this run so poorly. if anyone from the New Hampshire health department is reading this I urge you to look into this place, it is a disaster and doesn't need to be in operation. If anyone has a family member in this facility I recommend you remove them and find a new facility. Anywhere but here.

Poor care from most of the staff, sometimes rude. Slow response times, up to an hour wait for a bed pan. Rough treatment, not considerate to needs of patients. Some staff were ok. This could all be due to staff shortage.. Still no excuse for the poor treatment and rough handling of patients. I would avoid this nursing home/rehab.