Holmes Lake Rehabilitation and Care Center

My husband has been battling Alzheimer’s for 8 years. He was started to have falls and more difficulty with everyday living activities. I had to make the hard decision that is time to place him in a 24 hour nursing facility. We have been working with a great team of hospice care givers at home. They helped me find a place that had a opening and was able to take him. He entered into Homes Lake Rehabilitation and care facility on September 18th 2019. He did have enough clarity to understand that a change was happening and handled very bravely. That night he was very upset and agitated which is very common for Alzheimer’s patients. I helped get him calmed down and asked the aide if she could get me his dinner tray that I would help him with his dinner. She was a very sweet girl and did get his dinner. I already knew that was going to be an ongoing problem in the evening and asked if they could give him his medication early to help prevent this from happening. The order was at bedtime which I was told was between 7:00 and 8:00. The very next morning I called his hospice team to see if they could get his medication orders changed and they were. Now was able give as needed and his dr also added another anxiety medication to keep him calm. I left on Thursday about 3:00 to go home to try and get some sleep feeling better that he would have a better night. I arrived on Friday morning and talked to his nurse how his night was. I was told he had a good night and was only up once and he did need some convincing to return to bed. So was happy to hear it went better. I then went to his room and took him outside for some fresh air. Shortly after I received a call from the hospice social worker that she received a call from social worker at Holmes Lake stated that he would have to leave their facility today. That gave us no time on a Friday to find a better fit for him. I had to call our son to come immediately to help me get him home. We packed up his items and I went to the front desk tell them I had my husbands items packed and we were ready so if I needed paperwork to sign if they could please get them for me. His nurse and several other employees standing there told me I was not allowed to just take him out. I told them he has been kicked out so I could leave. The looked shocked and was told they knew nothing about this. The nurse left to go find the social worker I guess to find out what was going on. When the nurse came back I as told I would have to wait until they received their paper from his dr office. I replied I was not waiting so the social worker returned right away with the paperwork and we left. As of Monday September 23rd my portion that I would have to pay would been right around $10,000.00 a month. This price was just for room and board insurance was paying for medical costs. Very heartbreaking this is the care he was receiving for that price. Holmes Lake should take a better look at the care they are giving their patients. Very traumatic experience for my husband and our whole family. I would not recommend Holmes Lake care facility to anyone’s loved ones. Pretty obvious they are in this for the money and not the care to their residents. On the positive side I enjoyed the nurse’s and aides. They should maybe take another look at the empathy and compassion they are giving. I have worked in nursing homes and saw first hand how they are operated and it was very disturbing and finally left that field and hoped that things have changed but not the case. The social worker claimed he needed to much assistance and that’s why they came to this conclusion. I thought that is why residents are there. I don’t think people entering into a care facility come because they can take care of themselves.