Village Nursing Home

I went here visiting my grandma. The location is a little bit off the beaten path just south of the hip and trendy meatpacking district. There was a simple sign in, so not much security (necessary?).
When I arrived on the 5^th floor I noticed my grandma with another person in front of her having dinner. What I think to be meatloaf and mashed potatoes seriously looked like vomit. I understand old folks’ teeth are probably very sensitive or (otherwise lack of) but the slop that they serve seemed quite disgusting. However seeing how grandma is usually very grumpy about a lot of things she for some reason seemed settled and happy. Perhaps its because she’s actually making new friends. There is a lot of cultural diversity here judging from the staff, activities on their bulletin board, and patients.
The facilities themselves do seem a bit old — cracks along the walls or places where there might have been water damage or stains have simply been painted over. What would be nice is if there was some sort of garden somewhere, but then I only visited it in Winter and didn’t explore the facility.

The Village Nursing Home is the worse place on the planet. My father went there after a stroke to have therapy and here’s how it went. The first night he arrived we were told that he was unable to get out of bed because they wouldn’t give him a walker. The reason was that he had to wait 24 hours to be accessed to find out if he needed one. We knew he needed one because he had just spent 5 weeks in the hospital learning to use one and was very capable, The first night he got up and began wandering the halls without a walker. He was and still is very confused and forgetful and wouldn’t stay in bed, So he wandered the unfamiliar halls looking for a bathroom. Lining the narrow halls are chairs, people in wheel chairs and people milling about so there are many things to trip over, The staff are rude and incompetent and ignore the patients, especially the ones that are bedridden, The room was filthy. I cleaned it with bleach, laying on the filthy sink were left over items belonging to the last occupant such as a filthy nebulizer mask with sputum dripping from it which my confused father could easily have touched. I asked the nurse to clean it up and she gave me an attitude but eventually she removed some of the items-​no one cleaned and disinfected so I did it. That night my father was put on a pad that sounded an alarm if he turned over in bed, I tried desperately to remedy the problem to no avail. That night neither he one the poor man in the bed next to him got any sleep. The next day we started calling the nurses station number that was given to us in the welcome folder. The number rang and rang and was never answered, I arrived the next day to find that they were giving him the wrong diet and that they still hadn’t given him a walker. I pushed to have him seen by the PT and OT and was told he would not be seen by the speech therapist until the following week (there is apparently only one and she was off) The Therapists were very nice and the floor that they work on is cleaner and more professionally run it seems. Then we continued to have problems with the nursing staff, My father called me in the middle of the night to ask me to fix the television, I told him to find a nurse and he hung up so I tried to call back but it is impossible to call the nurses station from outside, I called the number he called me from and got a whole different floor I began to wonder if he was wandering into the elevator and to other floors! I finally reached someone who said that he was still on his floor and wandering the halls looking for the bathroom. My family and I were then contacted by administrative staff and found a young woman who was very sympathetic and we decided to move him to a different floor where she suggested he may be given better care. The new room was a little cleaner but not much and by now he had his walker had started his PT and OT and the therapists were very nice and professional. He still wandered the halls and even left his walker behind-​he is very physically fit but doesn’t know where he is going most of the time. He needs direction and guidance to complete most tasks. This place is completely understaffed and unable to care for all the patients. Last night my father went to use the toilet after I had worked with him over and over to find it form his room. He was getting better and better at it. We sat down to talk when he happens to mention that there was feces on the toilet-​at first I thought how can that be I was just in there with him (and he had not had a bowel movement) so I went to look and sure enough there was feces smeared allover the seat, I ran to the nurse and the first thing they said to me was «no there can’t be»!! I couldn’t believe that response! I said «oh yes there is, lets go I will show you» and the nurse said oh I have to call someone to clean it I said well how long will that take and how many confused patients will sit in it before a maintenance staff person comes to clean it??? When I went back to my father and asked him what happened he said that as he pulled the curtain to have privacy while urinating a large piece of feces fell from the curtain onto the seat and HE WIPED IT UP WITH A PAPER TOWEL!!! By then I was in tears, I made him promise that he would never ever touch or try to clean up feces!!! CALL THE NURSE!!! But I know he won’t remember to do that and so the next time there is feces, urine or even blood he could easily be put in contact with it. The patients are only given showers two times a week!!! They are not helped to get dressed, I found two of them laying on the ground after falling from there beds or wheelchairs. The food is disgusting. After being at St Vincents for 5 weeks we were used to decent care and decent food and the VNH is a huge disappointment. I was finally told that the phone number we were given is wrong and I can now after many tries sometimes reach someone on his floor. My father also slipped in another patients urine and fell!