My mom lives in a MC facility, and we’ve recently had a problem with staff using her room for breaks. Several times we’ve walked in and a staff member will be sitting on her furniture or talking on the phone in her bathroom because it’s “quiet” there. One time Mom and I were in her room for several minutes before a staff member sheepishly came out of the bathroom and made some excuse about checking on Mom (who is very mobile and usually not in her room). We’ve told the facility director, and he says he’s aware that this is a widespread issue. Is this a normal thing? We’re thinking about putting a camera in her room. While I totally understand the staff needing regular breaks, they do have their own break room. I don’t like my mom’s room being used as the place to “hang out” just because it’s cleaner/nicer than other areas in the facility (thanks to me). I guess I’m a little irked about paying thousands of dollars for Mom to have her own space and someone else using it, potentially sleeping there. I hope this doesn’t sound selfish. I’m just wanting to know what others have experienced.
(You likely won't even have to have a camera, just a sign that says there is one😉)
When my mom was in Rehab, the other bed was empty and she told me that two CNAs came in on the night shift and sat on that bed to watch stuff on their phones. She didn’t want me to say anything.
At the AL I worked at, I did not do hands-on care. I was medication only. Everyone's meds were ordered and organized by me that was my job.
I'd see a call light on and literally go and get an aide myself to see what it was for. I knew all their hiding places.
I would strongly encourage you to take this up with the facility director. If the facility director ever feeds you the insulting nonsense about being 'aware that it's a widespread issue' you go higher than him. He has a boss. Or the place had a Board of Directors that he answers to. I worked in a very nice AL for a long time. If I ever saw a staff member sneaking into a client's room to chill or use the phone there would have been trouble.
Install those cameras too. Then show the footage to the facility director and insist that he make a policy that employees in a resident's room who are not assisting them in some way or not the housekeeping staff in there cleaning, will be fired immediatey.
You should make a big fuss about this because it is wrong.
Side note: find a excellent stand alone ER so you can take her if she doesn’t have to be transported. Mom tripped, 911 was called, nothing broken but because she hit her face she was required to be evaluated. I put her in my vehicle and took her to my fav standalone ER and she was evaluated, xrayed and mri’d and released. She was back in 2 hours. The AL staff were shocked. If she was taken to the local hospital they said she would have been there all day and probably admitted according to the staff. Mom was happy to be home and in her own cozy apartment.
I told mom the cameras were speakers and I didn’t ask permission from the facility. There is a sign outside her door that they eventually put up but the cameras are not hidden. I use Blink.
I think your lawyer may have given you advice that serves to bring more business his or her way and to keep you calling on this issue and racking up more billable hours. They do that. And why is a facility being fined from a State survey finding illegal violations occurring in the facility a bad thing? Imo, they should be both reported on and fined, it's the only way to force them to provide the corrective oversight to ensure that residents' rights are not being continually violated.
The means of putting a complete stop to this is a total self service type of thing. Any interested party can place a call to the state oversight agencies plus Medicare and Medicaid, for that matter, and make a formal complaint either online or via phone. This can be done anonymously and results in the agencies doing an on-site survey, aka, inspection and issuing points for the violations identified. Some of these points result in fines and there is no better way than to hit their bottom line to get these sleezeball (sry, but most all of them are) facility admins to act on a problem.
Be glad that you did a report; I believe that more people should. I've done reports on the SNF my Mom resides in and don't care who knows it, it's an issue of endangerment and standard of care. I also reported on a SNF that I worked in for endangering residents and my RN license for taking people's money and not providing proper care and staffing levels by admitting people to AL who couldn't raise a glass of water for themselves and maintaining the same staffing numbers, spreading staff dangerously thin and resulting in falls and other preventable injuries for vulnerable residents.
I was scheduled out of that non-union job for reporting because I'd raised the very same issues at the previous staff meeting. I was the sole RN on shift with only an LPN and 2 aides and spent 3 hrs of one shift getting a new AL resident admitted to the hospital and I had residents in the Nsg home building on vents and IVs that needed RN care. This person required skilled care, not an apartment in AL. Aside from the staffing issues and lack of eyes on the residents, my staff had no way of reaching me while at the AL and I was not going to be party to this theft of monies and low staffing that resulted in poor care and two preventable falls. That place was taken out of the owner's hands and properly managed until sold to a large care home chain.
Sry for the lack of relevance in unwinding my tale. My point is that most Nsg home admins are only in it for the money and won't act until the revenue stream is disrupted by fines imposed for violations of protected persons rights and only state agencies, alerted by families, can impose those fines.
I would be extremely concerned about regularly finding staff members in your mother's room and her bathroom. I would also want the facility director to be more specific about what the widespread issue is, and I hope it isn't that staff aren't prepared to use their own restroom because it's monitored.
Residents pay for the room. It is their home. They are told that in cna training. They know that. You wouldn't walk in someone's home and make it yours. I didn't like it, but then thought at least he sees more people. And if he needs something maybe they will stop to help him?
She must be trusting, she left her phone right there. Wasn't worried about me or a resident taking it. Ive also had cna's walk out of the bathroom.
So as long as nothing is stolen and they acknowledge your mom, I don't think it's so bad. They wouldn't do that in a room of a person they don't like. And they will take their lunch and breaks there. So your mom gets to see more people.
Altho you could say loudly this is my mom's personal room. It is rude not to acknowledge her and I as you are using it, and walking past us. But I think there is a better way.
If you befriend them, they will probably treat your mom better. Not like a stranger. It is better knowing the people they are taking care of. If they are friends with you, and your mom, they will go the extra mile for your mom. I know being nice to them works.
Their break room is probably not comfortable to take breaks in. Or they will get harassed about work duties, while they are trying to take a break. They don't feel comfortable there.
I think since the boss didn't care, it's probably not going to stop. I'd take in a thermos of good coffee and something easy to nosh on and befriend them. They will care about your mom's well being more if you are friends with them. They work a thankless job, and a lot of the residents don't talk much. And the adult children complain a lot. I think that's better than trying to get them in trouble. I would go out of my way to befriend them. I think that is your best bet.
Privacy has to do with dignity, too, which is hard sometimes to maintain as one gets older. Maybe the mother in question is too "nice" and doesn't want to risk alienating the workers by asking them not to hang out in her place. But, for me, yeah -- this is definitely "off," and should be reported/stopped -- unless the mother genuinely doesn't mind and likes having these workers "hanging out" in her place for the company.
The Dept of Social Services deals with issues regarding social workers. This is an issue of an Elder care facility and goes to the State Department of Aging Services or whatever it is named by any given state.
I find this absolutely unacceptable and my Mom would not stand for it. I'm sure that your mother is not speaking up out of some sense of being indebted to the people who provide for her needs there, but is barely tolerating it. My mother's estate is paying dearly for her services and while I'm deeply grateful to the staff, we are not indebted to anyone.
1. If you've not already put it into writing - always wise, btw, whenever dealing with facility problems - the write a letter and email it as an attachment to the CEO / Administrator, if already in written form, add that info. Inform that you've already spoken to her/him about this issue, date, etc., and it remains unresolved, give a few details. Cite the Residents' Rights in any care setting (you can easily find these online) and the facility has it's own, a copy of which should be in your mothers admission papers. Provide them with five days from the date of the letter in which to completely correct this problem.
2. Contact an Elder Law attorney and have them draft a warning letter to the facility, a basic cease and desist and find out what penalties can be levied for this ongoing issue. Or, skip the expense and make a formal complaint to your state department of Aging, via the Aging Services Ombudsperson, and inform that you've informed the facility admin and nothing is being done about their "wide-spread" privacy invading problem. Provide a detailed written complaint via the online form or do an over the phone formal complaint. This will result in the facility getting 'points' against them in a formal survey for this horrid laxity.
3. I personally would withhold payment until it's stopped, would place a camera and notice of same, and place a sign on her door that states NO ENTRY WITHOUT CAUSE. THIS ROOM IS BEING MONITORED.
Yes, we are in a staffing crisis and none of the RAs, CNAs are getting paid what they should be paid, ergo: the staffing crisis. But, your mother needs her privacy and it's your job to jump the hurdles to ensure that her room is her refuge; it's all that she has left to her.
You can get this done, pronto.
1. if you complain too loudly it may negatively affect his care from them
2. what about all her posessions. Have you done an inventory lately?
Tread cautiously.
You are in a tough spot