Comparison of Leaside Revera Assisted Living with Long Term Care Facility (LTC)

Now that xxx is fairly settled in LTC I visit every 2 weeks because I know xxx  is well looked after and at minimal risk compared to what care he got at Leaside Revera assisted living.

There is 4 x as much cupboard space. So I stock up on the special toiletries xxx likes but they provide EVERYTHING.  I do not need to buy anything to be honest.

  1. all incontinent supplies are covered by cost.  Compared to Revera where you had to buy everything EXCEPT toilet paper.

2. They have ample towels and at night xxx is but into a gown for easy incontinent changes. They specifically told me not to bring towels as they have ample of linen supplies.  Very different than the so called private better care facility at 3xs the cost.

At first at Leaside Revera I did not bring pillow cases then I had to supply them because most to the time at Revera they would just put a towel over the pillow because they did not have enough pillow cases.

I also chatted at Revera with the personal support workers and many weekends they described situations where they did not have enough towels to clean all the residents in am.  They told me of stories of them having to go down to the laundry and run a load so they would have clean towels.  Then the informed me that management told them they could no longer do this so I do not even what to think what the staff did when they ran out of towels. Of course xxx had his ample set of towels that i labelled and brought in.

In LTC =Also, I have noticed that xxx laundry is very clean with no lingering smell. As well nothing is bleached and the dark clothes are staying dark.

At Revera all the navy blue and black and dark grey clothes were bleached until they were pink, so xxx went around wearing pink pants until the move to Long Term Care.

When I packed up all of xxx linens and clothing and brought them home from Leaside Revera, I noticed they smelled of stale sweat…the were not clean it was very clear that if they used any soap at all in the laundry…it was minimal…everything had a very stale smell. I did not notice this  on site because of the lingering smell permeating the entire floor. So for many years xx was in stinky clothes just rinsed out with water from what I have assessed. So I washed myself everything twice and got the stench out of the clothes.

When I had a family member and friend help me move out stuff from Leaside Revera …they were both appalled at the stench. They could not believe the non clean environment. I should not that these two people are in upper management of environmental services at a large public hosptial…so keeping things clean and safe for unwell people is their business.

So in the end there are nice physical features, like a grand piano but if you can’t keep your facility clean and smelling fresh what is the point??? How safe and caring is that?

 

 

 

Comparison of Leaside Revera Assisted Living with Long Term Care Facility (LTC)

Hello Everyone,

I am back after a break while settling in xxx into LTC room.

My previous posts focused on the dissatisfaction with the quality of care of Leaside Revera Assisted Living facilities that xxx was in while we applied for LTC.

I cannot not tell you how happy I am that xxx has left Leaside.

The quality of care is like night and day.

I will talk about each aspect of care.

Physical appearance:

1.So much more wheelchair friendly, bright and specious

2. NO – NOT a WHIFF NOT one ounce of smell of stale food, urine or feces and like Revera most residents are incontinent. It’s like a breath of fresh air walking into the facility

3. Private room is larger and bath room is 4 times the size of the ones at Revera. There is no shower, residents are bathed twice a week in the shower room

4. In each room is a fully electric bed (supplied you do not have to buy it!!!) that lowers right to the ground to reduce falls risks.

5. Call bells in each room (much better than the crap system they had at Revera)

6. Call bell alarm if the pt. tries to get out of  bed or wheel chair (service not available at Leaside Revera)

7. Dining room on same floor – not as fancy as Leaside but has 3 times the space to maneuver chairs and bright and spacious. The servers come around to each resident show them a sample plate of 2 offerings and they choose. No foul smell of stale food.

8. No MICE…well so far…but I am optimistic and the property is surrounded by park land like Revera.

This is just the beginning of the good news…and to boot…all of this for 1/3 the price!

Happy Days!

Not impressed by Leaside Revera Assisted Living Units – The Hell is Over

Hello,

I have not been blogging since the fall, that is because in the summer 2016 xxx finally was transitioned to a LTC bed!

Hindsight being 20/20 I wished we had applied for LTC bed early than we did, as our wait was well over a year.

The transition has been challenging on many levels for xxx, I will in detail explain at a later date. Hoping by spring 2017 a good routine will be in place.

I cannot tell you how happy that I do not have to deal with the Leadership Team at Revera, although in the last year, I basically declined to discuss anything with them for my own sanity!

I do miss some of the front workers who were caring, but that is no reason to stay in an unsafe care environment. I am thankful for those who did care, although continuity of care was not really present over the years.

Once xxx is settle a bit better, I will start to blog about the comparison of Revera with LTC.

I do not expect perfection, but it already is better than Revera on several basic levels.

Not impressed with Leaside Revera Assisted Living Care – Happy New Year

Happy New Year …wishing you all a good 2017.

I looked at my site stats today and see that almost 400 people at some point viewed my blog with almost 1400 hits. I know that does not seem like a lot to most but it is an improvement from last year.

This blog would only appeal to a unique group of people and I keep this in mind.

In the end if I have assisted just one person to make their loved ones transition into care a bit easier, it was all worth it in the end.

Not impressed with Leaside Revera Assisted Living Units…Be Aware

Hello to those out there looking at Leaside Revera Assisted Living units in building 10 at William Morgan Drive.

In the end you may decide to put your loved one here on a temp basis until long term care bed becomes available, which you will be guaranteed that they will have a warm room, food, drink and medications provided, a bath once a week and incontinence care.

However keep in mind that you will be paying 2 or 3 times the prices you would pay in long term care for probably the same or on some levels less care and support services.

Once in assisted living I do not think most can take advantage of the extras one pays for such as classes and entertainment. The residents are too sick, or bedridden or just not interested because they are probably too depressed and just want to die.

You have to provide all your equipment, keep it in working order, do your own safety checks on equipment, buy all incontinent supplies, all toiletries other than toilet paper. Nail care, foot care, hair care all at a premium cost.

If you do have extra funds, hire a person every morning to freshen up you loved one and get them going for the day in a not so rushed manner as staffing is bare bones from what I see.

Be prepared that your loved one will experience falls.

Know that there is only a doctor available Mon-thurs for a few hours in the AM after that its go to ER or they call the MediVisit MD.

Be aware that blood work and urine samples cannot be picked up on weekends from my understanding…urine for sure will sit in the fridge for Monday pickup.

Be aware that the pharmacy only delivers new meds Mon-Friday. On weekends you will be asked to go get meds from local pharmacy.

Know that a strong urine smell especially in winter is present.

Know that the carpets and floors are filthy.

Do not forget the resident mice.

Visit as often as you can to try and find the gem nurses and support workers, there are a few there, but do not expect them to stay around long…they are moved around or find better jobs which I am happy they do.

Be aware that they will bleach the hell out of clothes so do not spend too much money on new things….and new things will go missing even if labelled.

 

 

Not impressed with Leaside Revera Assisted Living Unit

Hello….

Took a break from blogging my experience to just have a month of not focusing on the lack of care and service at Revera for the price you pay.

Executive Director parking space still in prime location…I guess maybe they are not reading my blog… or there is a feeling of “entitlement”.

things are basically the same. I am quite used to the lack of services considering what you pay to stay there.

TIP: Do not believe that they provide linens and towels, there is not enough to go around.  Provide your own linens if you can especially washcloths, pillowcases, soaker pads and fitted sheets.

It is worse than a hospital where there is lack of universal linens they state that they provide. Hard to find pillow cases and in the past before I brought in some pillow cases, they would use a towel to cover the pillow because lack of linens.

Several weeks ago I heard that the floor did not have enough clean towels to use on residents for their personal care and sometimes the workers have to run down to the laundry room to do their own towels so they have a clean supply.

 

Not impressed with Leaside Revera Assisted Living Unit

Hello Everyone,

I feel compelled to remind you that my comments are on Assisted Living units at Leaside Revera, and the ” leadership team” at Leaside Revera involved in this care.

The team that delivers the actual care I think most just view it as a job not as a vocation or profession.  I do not see a lot of smiling faces, its hit or miss if staff will acknowledge you as walk on the unit. A feel a culture of apathy. The care teams are moved around to different floors frequently, there is little continuity of care.

I looked at the mailed bill for the first time in months for care. It just sickens me to see the prices in comparison to what xxx tells me about the care and the treatment.

In one blog I commented on a bath being done once a week. Well, I guess if I request this more frequently for xxx, there will be a cost to this.

A bath costs over just over $100.00. Revera is making a pretty profit on this from my point of view. I guess rightly so…as they are profit driven.

The average wage of a PSW who provide this care per hour under $20.00. See link below.

http://www.payscale.com/research/CA/Job=Personal_Support_Worker_(PSW)/Hourly_Rate.

So where does the other $80.00 go to???  I am pretty sure that a PSW is NOT taking 1 hour to bathe each patient, but lets be generous and say they do.

Residents already pay an accommodation fee of thousands of dollars, so that would account for water, electricity, washing the dirty towel.

Residents and family are responsible to provide soap, shampoo, cream, incontinent products. So that is not part of the 100.00.

So from what I see this is quite a profit margin for the organization and the leadership team.

Something to think about…..and reflect on if your loved one is on a limited budget.

Not impressed with Leaside Revera assissted living

On May 8th I received a private message requesting me to remove my blog posting from May 5 2016.  I put it in here for your review:  https://leasidereverareviewandblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/erin-robinson-charlene-parish-michael-wright-use-caution-when-trusting-this-leadership-team-at-leaside-revera/

The person sending the email disagreed with my posting calling me a bully.

I responded to the two requests to remove the entry, which I will not consider. I explained that my experience is my experience and that is what my blog is about.

I offered to post a counter comment to my post of May 5th.  I never received it. I believe that this person’s soul motivation was for me to remove the post.

I do believe that some residents and family members are happy with their care, as I have stated in several posts I will post any comments by others if they give their consent.

This got me thinking, obviously team members at Leaside Revera are not keen on receiving feedback from residents and family members.

In fact I have never received any invitations to provide feedback and rate satisfaction levels.

Health care organizations do this quarterly using a survey called the Picker survey and results are reviewed by leadership as on avenue to guide changes to care and improve services.

Here is an example: http://sunnybrook.ca/content/?page=patient-engagement-consultation

Does Leaside Revera really care about resident/family satisfaction?

You decide. I have made my decision.