Colonial Manor Nursing Center

I urge anyone considering this facility to look elsewhere. I would have given it zero stars but that wasn't a choice. My father was a resident there for 45 days. During that time he lost 34 pounds. The facility has lost his upper teeth meaning he was unable to eat much while he was there. I was never informed that this had happened nor was there any supplementing with Ensure/Boost, nutritious milkshakes, etc. He was not bathed well, due to the pandemic there is very little interaction with anyone, the food is bad, and the appearance is less than cheery. This is just a warehouse for bodies!

My friend and I are roommates at Colonial Manor Nursing Center. It used to be pretty good. We have been on total lockdown since July 1st. It's still pretty bad right now; we're locked down to our rooms, and we can't get out. The food is horrible. We're transitioning to a new administrator. I've not been here long time, and I'm bedridden. We don't have much people working like nurses and nurse's aides. We're real short on aides. It's worse now with the pandemic.

My brother was there for only a few short weeks. The facility when I arrived to visit was clean, smelled clean and the residents were well cared for from my observations. Having been a mental health care provider I have observed the care given to my brother was superb and caring. The staff took a personal interest not only in my brothers care, but also to all the residents within the memory care unit. I thank them for all they have done.

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.