Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Lack of communication by the Assisted Living Center - what a PAIN

For each week that Mom's in this assisted living facility (ALF) I find another reason that I want to move her. Some times it's based on Mom's comments or complaint, some time's it's because they just don't seem organized. Some times they do something that makes me wonder just how well they take care of my Mom.

Today it was a miss communication about a doctor's visit and now I'm ticked off. She had an appointment with the doctor at 2:45pm. The van was supposed to drive her there and my brother was all set to meet her. He planned to take her for coffee and pie afterward then return her to the ALF. So, I called the ALF about 1pm to remind them that she needs lots of notice to get ready, then I called Mom to remind her and she'd ALREADY BEEN THERE! She said the van driver took her in, waited and then drove around for about 30 minutes before taking her back. She was thrilled to get out and enjoy the sunshine. While I was happy that things went smoothly and that she enjoyed the ride, I was upset because my brother made arrangements to meet her there. He changed his schedule to be there and he also planned take her out. No one told us that the appointment was changed!

The doctor's office worked with the ALF to change the appointment from the afternoon to morning but the ALF didn't tell the family. The doctor's office left a reminder message on my NEPHEW's phone - he's not even on the contact list. He passed on the message but we didn't talk about the TIME. The ALF didn't call us even though they're supposed to tell us EACH time she has an appointment.

The bottom line for the ALF is that they just have WAY, WAY too many people to care for and not enough staff to tend to these details. It leaves me wondering about the other details that slip through the cracks. Or worse - WHO - slips through the cracks.

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