William O Benenson Rehabilitation Pavilion

My 80 year old Mother came here after breaking her femur bone. I found that the staff was very demeaning to their patients and talked down to them. I found there was no one who really cared about their patients from the doctors, nurses to the attendants. My mom got the shingles while she was there and they took their time getting the cream for her, telling me it’s a very expensive cream. I told the staff that my Mom has very good insurance and if they can’t get the cream, give me the prescription and I will fill it, I didn’t care how much it costs as long as she had the cream, she did get the cream eventually.
Now let’s talk about the food, it was awful. My mom also witnessed the attendants taking fruit off the patients trays and keeping it for themselves. Whatever you do, before you put your love ones in this place, please do your research.

I’m not even close sorry when I say that this place is akin to what happened during the Holocaust. My Grandmother was admitted recently and thankfully was able to leave ASAP. No one should ever be treated the way my Grandmother was treated during her stay there.
My Grandmother had a lot of water buildup in her body so medication was prescribed to help her remove that excess water and therefore she had to go to the bathroom often. When my Grandmother needed to go to the bathroom, she would request for assistance but the nurses and ‘assistants’ there were not willing — they would just leave her there for her to wet the bed. My grandmother was not having any of that so she would just slowly take her time, UNSUPERVISED by the nurses and workers there, and use the bathroom, only to get scolded by the workers there when they find out she has gone to use the bathroom by herself.
As part of my Grandmother’s stay there, she also had to go through physical therapy. On the first day of her physical therapy session, the workers wheeled her out in a wheelchair and just left her in a corridor. She waited and waited and was never attended to after she was wheeled out of her room. A long while after, she was wheeled back into her room where she waited even longer. No one ever attended her. Since she waited for so long, she eventually had to use the bathroom again, and of course, no one was there to tend to her. She tried to go to the bathroom by herself and the worker that wheeled her in back into her chair did not lock the wheelchair so my Grandmother fell! She is now covered in bruises because (1) she was never got help from the people that work there and (2) the people that work there can’t perform their job properly!
My Grandmother, during several periods of her stay, was told that if she does need to wet the bed, she should wait every 2 hours. Why, you ask? How dare this facility even suggest such a thing?! I understand that the person that told my Grandmother that was trying to look out for her, but are we serious here? If you want to look out for my grandmother, help her by assisting her to the bathroom, not by telling her a ‘convenient’ time to wet the bed so the sheets could be changed promptly.
We took her home after her atrocious experience and when we brought her home, she was coughing non-​stop. We took her to her family doctor only to find out that she contracted bronchitis from the facility!
After her atrocious experience where (1) she was told convenient times to wet the bed, (2) where she did not get assistance to go to the bathroom when requested, (3) when she ended up falling because of the incompetence of workers there, and (4) where she ended up contracting bronchitis due to, most likely, unclean practices, where do you expect that person’s quality of life to be? My grandmother was the person to raise me up when I was a child — how do you expect me to react when I find out that I can’t do the same for her?
I read from another review that apparently
rates this place with 5 stars, but those ratings are probably the result of excessive brown-​nosing.
Please — for the sake of your loved ones — do not allow them to be administered to this concentration camp. Some of the patients there are just waiting for death and the workers there probably expect the same out of all the other patients. This is unacceptable.

On March 7, 2014, we gave Benenson $ 24,490 in order to get them to admit my mother-​in-​law, Paule Alexander, as a self-​pay patient. They charge $ 395 per day, and the payment was for one month (31 days) in advance and one month’s security. Paule Alexander died at the facility on March 28, 2014, 22 days after admission. On April 1, 2014, I requested a refund of the balance we paid, $ 15,800.
6 weeks later, and despite multiple requests for payment, we have not received a refund. Comptroller Lou Rosenthal promised me on May 5 for an immediate refund, but now he refuses to answer my calls to explain why we have not received a check. His excuse was that they are short staffed in their administration offices. Frankly, that is both ridiculous and frightening, ridiculous that the comptroller can’t get a check written and signed.
Benenson’s actions are in violation of the NYS Department of Health’s Patient’s Rights, that requires prompt refund of monies owed. According to «Your Rights as a Nursing Home Resident in New York State and Nursing Home Responsibilities — June 2010, Finances» at
, it says nursing homes must:
«refund promptly any amount or proportion of repayment in excess of the amount used for services in the event you leave the facility prior to the end of the prepayment period for reasons beyond your control»
I don’t think the fact that she died at their facility on March 28^th releases them from the obligation to refund the money to her children. I don’t think «prompt» can be defined as 6 weeks.

I choose this place after having a total hip replacement and it was pure hell from the minute I arrived by ambulance from the hospital. When I was wheeled into the room not one nurse or aid came into the room. The bed was not made or ready for me and the attendants did not know what to do. I had them help me get into a chair so they could leave. It took over a half hour for anyone to great me then things went straight down hill. In the 5 days I was there I got one therapy session never saw a doctor and was given dirty looks when asking for help. This is the worst rehab I have ever experienced and would suggest you keep looking and not go there or put your loved ones there.

Very bad experience. Attendants outright lied saying 92 year old mother was sleeping at 7 pm when pressed to wake her found her dehydrated from throwing up 5 times with vomit left in room. Had her shipped. out that night back to hospitsl to find her wallet riffled through and $ 30 cash missing. Physical therapist stupidly insisted on putting her on s treadmill and gave the wrong diet plan. Understaffed. What a disaster!

My grandfather was neglected by the nurses despite the fact that he was in the room right across from their station. He was sitting in his own urine numerous times. I should not have to ask the nurses to do their job and change him and clean him up. After about a month of living here he died while under their «care.» He had lung and heart conditions and needed oxygen in his room. He had trouble breathing one day, the nurse left him for about half and hour and came back to find him not breathing and without a pulse. How is this not their fault? Is this not neglect to them? I don’t know. My grandfather wasn’t the healthiest but lived just fine for 78 years and lived here for one month and is gone.
Overall the home is racially segregated on every floor. The residents are miserable from what I hear and see. They are walking around screaming, banging their heads up against walls and just look like they are waiting for death. Not at all a pleasant atmosphere and the nurses are just plain lazy. Inexcusable.

The William O’Benenson Rehabilitation is great if you or your loved one is ambulatory (you can walk around or bus around in a wheelchair, eat by yourself, speak). If you need more care than that I don’t feel this is the place for you. A lot of people choose Benenson b/​c it has an Asian population, the facility is new, and clean… It’s more Korean than Chinese, more Mandarin speaking Chinese than Cantonese. I haven’t met one true Cantonese speaking staff member. However, the doctor is really Mandarin that can speak some Cantonese (so I hear).
Make sure you see the events calender, I felt it was kind of low key only 2 events per day where other facilities typically have 4 in one day. Also, see if you like how the residents typical protocols for a day. They typically have 1 CNA baby sit them all in the dining room during the day while everyone goes in and out for their therapies. If you want to dine with your loved one or bring their own food, you need to go to one of the sitting areas or back into their own room. Most other facilities has a «café» setting where at Benenson, you have the food cart come up and then you get served.
I felt the nursing was good, but I’m not too crazy about the doctor. I’ve never seen them before. If you leave your loved one there and they don’t really speak for themselves and such; I feel that it is critical that you go there sporadically to any nursing home to make sure you are getting the care you are expecting. In addition, you keep an eye on your loved one where if there’s something off baseline, it can be immediately addressed. Who else knows better than you about your loved one.
*** For my Asian family readers… I know you can be aggressive and not so passive. I’ve seen you be aggressive at free events. You even elbow me at most of them. You should fight for what is right and what you want and need. We are the LARGEST population in the WORLD.
What I see is a lot of families who only visit on the weekends (provided you are comfortable with that and your loved one can «take care» of themselves to a certain extent). I would suggest people to go a bit more just to really see the type of care you receive.
I am a firm believer in PREVENTATIVE medicine, where I didn’t feel I received here. They let my grandmother sit around getting septic before sending her to the hospital. If anything the doctor should’ve come immediately a week before when I complained that something was starting to look fishy and did some labs.
In addition to that, during the second admission (b/​c you do get bed hold for 14 days after a hospital stay; then you would be automatically discharged). The staff was disorganized where my grandmother was sitting in her own fecal matter for quite some time to the point it was all dried on her. Also, upon request of her belongings, they lost her shoes and custom orthotics (these are typically over $ 100). To top it all off, after an approval for a dental consult (the previous hospital couldn’t get a dental consult). The staff couldn’t figure out when the dentist comes into the facility. Where then I had to take on the responsibility myself to fix her problem with her mouth hurting to the point where she was classified «palliative care» and failure to thrive.
Hello people… failure to thrive due to you cannot fix the pain in her mouth or throat preventing them from wanting to THRIVE… Also for Palliative care people… make sure you check with each facility what their own definition of palliative care is. There is such a large spectrum that most facilities define it as «hospice» with more than 6 months to live. If you find the right facility palliative care should be practicing preventative medicine, and if your loved one’s time happens to come, then it was their time. But they should not be helping them along to getting to the point of no return, just non-​aggressive medicine where you do not end up torturing a person with all these needles and such.
Another thing when shopping for a nursing home. Make sure they know when all their consultants come in and that they are capable of determining if things are «routine» and if there is a priority it can be pushed up to the top of the list. Most of all, even though there are «scheduled» days that consultants come in, if there are emergency situations, the consultant will come in immediately.
Overall, as a family, be active and proactive in managing your loved one’s health care. Do not think of nursing homes as day care or long term summer camp. We all have our own lives to live but don’t forget about them. In life we all do a full circle being children twice, so as much attention you give your children, you should also give to your elderly (which can also be frustrating at times). We will all be there one day ourselves and just think of how you want to be treated. Also, return to the elderly what they have given to us when we were helpless children ourselves.
Kharma works in funny ways.