Colonial Manor Nursing Center

My mother was a resident of Colonial Manor Nursing Home in Cleburne, Texas for five days in the first week of June 2015. She was transferred there after a short hospitalization for a heart problem and the plan was for her to receive aggressive physical and occupational therapy so that she could regain her strength and return home with home health. She was not on any psychotropic medications when she was admitted. Soon after her admission, I noticed that she was acting more sluggish during the day. She would refuse to get out of bed most of the time. When she did get out of bed, it was apparent that she needed a lot more help to transfer to a chair or stand up at her walker. She was unable to walk at all and she had been able to do so almost independently at home. She was admitted on a Friday and it was next Monday before the physical therapist evaluated her. The occupational therapist never evaluated or treated my mother despite there being an order on the chart for it to be done. I found out later that the nursing home physician had ordered 50 mg. Quetiapine, which is the generic form of Seroquel. This psychotropic drug is used to treat several different types of mental disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. It can also be used to treat insomnia as it can make people drowsy and in the elderly it can have an effect very much like a sedative and cause them to be lethargic and sluggish and want to stay in the bed all day. This is exactly what this drug did to my mother. I was not consulted about it at any time and only found out about it once my mother returned home and it was in her discharge medications. It is my opinion that this drug was ordered for her to decrease her awareness and alertness and thus decrease her ability to inconvenience the nursing staff by calling for help or wanting to get out of bed. They used this drug as a chemical restraint and they could easily justify it by just saying it was a “sleep aide”. The only time my mother got out of bed was when my wife or I assisted her to get out of bed. I never ONCE witnessed any nursing staff transfer my mother out of bed to a wheelchair or a bedside toilet. On Monday, the 3rd day after her admission, I had my wife go down to help my mother get out of bed and to make sure she was getting her therapy. My wife tried her best to get the staff to take my mother for a shower. She was told that it was not “her day” for a shower. I was sure my mother had not had a shower in the preceding three days since her admission. On Tuesday, when it should have been my mother’s shower day, my wife again attempted to make sure that my mother received a shower. Despite her best efforts, my mother again did not receive a shower. At the time of her discharge from Colonial Manor, five days after admission, my mother had still not had a shower. Every time that my wife or I would come to see my mother, she would be lying in the bed with a completely urine soaked diaper. Neither I or my wife ever saw any nursing staff change her diaper. My mother returned home and it was quickly determined that she had developed a raging yeast infection. The home health nurse who evaluated her upon her return to home stated that the yeast infection amounted to “elder abuse”. I feel strongly that her not receiving a shower, which would have allowed the infection to be discovered at the least and would have helped to possibly prevent it from getting so bad, was a strong contributing factor in her severe yeast infection. The nursing staff at Colonial Manor was not attentive and not well trained in assisting my mother with her impaired functional mobility and weakness. I never once saw a nursing aide transfer my mother out of or into the bed/chair. I could go on and on, however, my strong recommendation is that you avoid this facility. The abuse of psychotropic medication to chemically restrain and limit a resident’s alertness and awareness should be enough to prevent anyone going there, much less all the other problems.

I went there twice for rehab. Everyone that worked there including the construction crew, housekeepers, kitchen staff and nursing staff were all so happy and nice to me. They were doing remodeling so at times it got loud. Despite that, they were considerate of our afternoon naps and late sleepers. The food was really good and my room was recently remodeled. I was very pleased with the care I received there.

I am a daily visitor to this facility delivering products for staff and visiting a couple of people that have resided there for a short time.The facilities are quite old, not with the immediate of apprearance of being clean, but there is a clean smell that gives a reasonable reception. I would be personally cautious of letting a relative be a resident of this nursing facility, as i have observed the staff to not be the most friendly or accomodating of the facilities i have observed. The parking for this facility is sometimes very limited and often the only place to park is on the street. The distance from the hospital seems to be quite long and not a clear road to get there, and also not many doctors are located within a very close range of this facility, although an fire and ambulance service is located just a couple of blocks away for emergency situations.