Victoria Gardens of Allen

My father has been at Victoria Gardens for 10 years. My grandmother was there for the last two years or so, and passed away a month ago. Like any facility, you are going to have good aides and bad aides, good nurses and bad nurses, and over time, good directors and bad directors! We have been unhappy about issues (CNAs not changing him in a timely manner, not doing what they are supposed to, etc) and talked about moving facilities, but we decided to stay with the devil you know rather than devil you don't know... The most recent director Steve, is great. He really cares about the residents, and things have improved with him in charge! Generally the only problems we have anymore are on the weekend when Steve is not there!

This place will tell you one thing and do another. So many issues. They took out the catheter before they would leave the hospital, even though it was ordered by the Dr. When we asked, they refused to put one in unless their Dr. prescribed it. My mom is heavy and was their to rehab to gain strength after a fall and UTI and they had her wearing diapers. They often took over an hour to clean her after being called, and they did not clean her properly. She had existing open wounds that needed care. The bed they put her in did not have working controls on one side and we were told they were going to get an adapter cable and fix it. I talked to 4 different people about getting the bed fixed, and 6 days later it was still not fixed. I did not get to visit my mom on the 5th day there, but was there on the 6th day at 2pm. She was nearly in a vegetative state, completely unresponsive, unable to move or hold her call button. The "nurse" on duty (Nelson) told me that they had given her a dose of pain meds at lunch which is why she was so out of it and that we should come back after dinner. I didn't believe him and stayed for awhile with no change. After having to leave shortly to pick up my son, I came back and dinner was already done (she hadn't eaten in days) and my mom was still out of it. I then demanded to know what they gave her and when. I then found out that the pain medicine was given to her at 8am ( maximum time this medication stays in the system is 4 hrs). He tried to tell me it could last 12 hours, but when he realized that I was familiar with the medication, he back tracked a bit. I again expressed my concerns about the catheter and her wound issue. He told me that the wounds were all healed and she was doing great as of that morning. It is now 5pm and she is unresponsive. At this point I ask to have an ambulance transfer her to the ER. Long story short, got to the ER and the nurse there told me her wounds were in bad shape, she was bleeding and was not clean at all, and that he was 90% sure without running any tests that she had another UTI and that was causing her problems. (tests did reveal he was correct). DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING THEY SAY. If you have to have someone in this facility, make sure you can be there EVERY DAY and watch what they do on a regular basis.

My mother received terrible care. No communication between staff members. Front office and director do NOT care about patients. No truthful information on daily records. Always said that she ate and received meds on time and that was NOT true. We were there!

Overall, I enjoyed Victoria Gardens Nursing Home. Stated previously, I had volunteered there for about a year for a beginners nursing class. We would go about three times a week and stay for about three hours. When we were there, we got to tour the facility, become familiar with the staff and patients, and even perform certain tasks for nurses and doctors. The staff there are friendly and courteous. The facility itself is very quiet and looks cozy. Ive been out of high school for about 6 years now, and looking back I could say its one of the better nursing homes ive visited. My mother now volunteers there every tuesday, and she's grown quite fond of three women that she makes and buys little gifts for, ranging from their late 70's to a woman who is 94. I have been back recently to meet and visit with these women, and they seemed happy and in good health.