Help! I Am Locked In A Bad Rehabilitation And Care Center Formerly Known As A Nursing Home

This article might be a little shock to you. After you are shocked, the best thing that you can do for you and for your family is to prepare them and prepare yourself for the future and cover any what ifs that could or might happen.

After doing extensive research on the topic and after being a somewhat-constant visitor to many hospitals, medical centers, nursing homes and a rehabilitation and care center, I have come to the conclusion that nursing homes are not meant for human beings. The only human beings that most nursing homes can benefit are those humans that have absolutely no family, friends, co-workers or connections. And even then, those patients are not helped either but might be the ones that are most taken advantage of.

These are statements in general about various things that can, did and will happen in your local nursing homes, rehab centers and medical centers and hospitals.

1. Nursing homes and rehab centers and some hospitals will insist that patients wear diapers --even when they do not medically need diapers.


2. Nursing homes and rehab centers will present some patients with contracts/policy admissions or enrollment papers that gives the facility practically complete control over all the assets, money an d real estate of the patient. The documents will give mass permission to the facility to investigage into the patient's entire life, financial, social, psychiatric, medical and more circumstances without even asking the patients' permission again. (They get the signature when the patient enrolls and most time the patient has no clue what the enrollment agreement /contract is.


3. Nursing homes and rehab centers, in some and lots of cases, will try to isolate the family members and co workers and friends from their relatives, patients so that the family members and friends are not witnesses to the nursing home lacks and neglects. The really bad nursing homes are those that want the patient to be separate from their immediate family members even from those family members that have been helpful, beneficial and good towards the patient or family member.


4. Nursing Homes and rehab centers, once they get your signature on Medicaid or Medicare applications, and once they get your application almost processed will ignore your requests to go home, to visit out of the nursing homes and your requests to be connected with people.


5. Rehabilitation and care centers that are bad or going bad will keep their public phones -- on the long term floors -- broken or out of order most times. THey know that is the connection with family members, yet the phones are always either busy, broken or both.


6. They will let patients sit for hours and hours in their own urine and excrement, ignoring their pleas for help and assistance.


7. They will let patients wait for hours on toilet bowls, having them wait to have assistance to come off the toilet bowl.


8. They will medicate patients that are witnesses and medicate patients who complain about conditions.


9. They will lie to families consistently and continuously. There was one case where they told the family member that a patient could walk 90 feet, yet when the family member went to watch the patient, the patient could walk only a few feet at one time and no where near 90 feet. They have lied to other patients about whether patients came out of the bed. For example, a nurse will say, yes she had breakfast in the dining room, but the truth is that she had breakfast in bed in her own room, still isolated from the rest of the population in the facility.


10. They will consistently lose patients' clothing, all the time. There are patients wearing other patients' clothing and there are tons of clothing lost for each year.


11. They will ignore your requests for help. They will make fun of patients, mimicking them when they want to do so.


12. They will take money from residents so that they can purchase cigarettes and other health-harming items for patients who are on oxygen, patients who are sick, and for patients who are not allowed out of the building.


13. Some will take your clothing and not issue any receipts.


14. Some will lose ALL the pants and some of the clothing. The method to their madness about them losing the pants, is this: If the resident has many pairs of pants then the resident can tell the place that he does not want to wear diapers. So, those facilities that want to keep residents isolated, will lose the residents pants so that the resident cannot leave his room. YOu are not permitted to leave your room without pants, of course, and it the place consistently loses their pants, the resident becomes more isolated and more unhappy.

How can you protect yourself and your family?

• Put everything in writing. Yes, write all about it. This way no one can say that you said this or said that. Keep documented records of everything that happened or did or will happen.

These are just some of the ways that these facilities are harming people. I will write more articles about this topic, at a future date,

I created this article on May 20, 2007.