Shawnee Carespring

Shawnee is a very nice place. The place is just beautiful. The apartments are nice. It's like you have a little living room and the closet was bigger than you would imagine. Everybody was very, very good. They were all really helpful. There's a lot of stuff to do, so the family is really connected. We are really all involved. All the nurses are so nice. They were many activities, but my sister couldn't participate because she is unable to walk. The food was good. It was absolutely well prepared. They have several dining rooms, but she just ate in a smaller one with about 30 tables' right outside in her little apartment. She was happy there.

I really thought Shawnee would be great for my mother-in-law because it was a nicely decorated and had a homey feel. I also liked the distance between my home and Shawnee's location. When we moved Jay in, the staff was very friendly and helped get Jay settled into her room. I felt like they were very respectable about the fact that this was hard on me to do, since I had taken care of Jay since she became ill. The room that she had was clean, and very spacious. Since she is in a wheelchair I noticed right away that everything was handicap accessable. We took a tour of the facility and noticed the grounds and the common rooms were well maintained. Other guests also looked well taken care of and happy. We did have a bit of a problem when we were trying to get assistance so that she could be moved to her bed, from her chair. I thought we had to wait a little longer than we should have. Otherwise, she seemed content and I felt like I was leaving her in good hands. After a few weeks there we discussed how she liked it and she had met some other patients and really enjoyed talking to people that she could relate to. She also was very satisfied with her "helpers".

I felt that the amenities were great - it was decorated quite nicely. But, the staff weren't as helpful. They didn't come right away when called, and they kind of left my grandpa lonely. Also, he didn't have a tv for quite a while so he had nothing to do. He just sat around in a wheelchair at times. They seemed like they only wanted his money and to keep him in there longer. Also, they tried to charge my grandma more than necessary. Thankfully I was with her and did the math in my head, or we would have been overcharged a couple thousand dollars. I gave it a 3/5 because I haven't seen other nursing homes. All in all, they should have had more activities and more staff available to tend to my grandpa. Also, if his breathing tube (that wraps around the ears/nose, not physically implanted) would come loose just a little, there would be a loud beeping. Most of the time it was faulty equipment. My grandpa was annoyed by this quite a bit.

We made the tough decision to put my grandmother in a facility after she had hip surgery last October. The main reason we choice Carespring was because of the location from our home, we got so much more though. My grandmother started to do things with other residents of Carespring, anything from just sitting in the piano lounge - where they would just sit or tell stories about their younger years. She also started to go down and eat dinner with other people, she made friends, and even attended Bingo a few times during her short visit. Another thing my grandmother really enjoyed was the small church located inside the facility. The nurses and aides were all very helpful while my grandmother was there, and would call if anything arose, as soon as it arose. Sadly, we lost my grandmother in January of this year. She went peacefully with her nurse by her side. Even though it's been months now, the staff at Carespring still call and check up on us to see if we need anything and how we are doing.