The Greens at Spruce Pine

Reviewer#RD0626a

My uncle was at The Greens at Spruce Pines. He was probably there for six months. The place itself seemed clean. The rooms were spacious enough, and the outdoor areas were nice and well maintained. The staff seemed very friendly. In the beginning, he really didn't complain a whole lot about much of anything. As he got worse and worse there, he complained about everything, which was, I think, mostly just his physical and mental downfall and just not feeling well, and there's not too much you can do to make him feel better. He complained that people would just bring his food and leave it, and that he never really had anybody who would just talk to him. The one thing I had an issue with was the time he got sick. He felt so bad that he wanted to go to the hospital. He's a veteran, so he wanted to go to the VA (The reason why we went to Spruce Pine was that it was closer to the VA hospital). When I talked to the person who was over calling for an ambulance, she said they could not call for an ambulance to have him sent to the VA. They had some kind of contract with a different hospital there. She said they would have to send him there. I said, "He's a veteran. He gets all his help and benefits through the VA." She said if that happened, I would have to take him or call the VA and see if they would send somebody. However, I was an hour away from him. So that really bothered me that you didn't have a choice as to where the ambulance took you. That really upset me. They had activities, but he just wouldn't participate in any of those. A lady who was overseeing the activities called asking me what kind of things he enjoyed talking about. She said he didn't want to go to most of the things they had going on out of the room, so she was just going to go and talk to him some. From what I hear, that never happened. She never followed through with it. In terms of value for money, with somebody like him, he was paying $8000 a month for pretty much them just to come in and bring him his food and his medicine. At that point, he was like 115 or 120 pounds. He was in his early 90s, and he had a lot of arthritis, too, so you had to be gentle with him. He said some of those women would come in, and they would be talking to each other, just going through the motions. He would tell them, "You've got to be more gentle. You can't just turn me over like that and grab me by my wrist."

Reality1

I had to do my clinicals for CNA1 class at this facility. I was upset with what I seen. The staff seemed friendly, but you could tell that it is just a paycheck to them. Maybe due to being understaffed. It was almost like the residents was at boot camp. That is there home, and they should be made to feel that way. The facility itself was clean, but the rooms are very small considering everyone had a roommate. The amenities were standard. All in all, if I had to put a loved one in a facility, I would consider other choices.