Kindred Hospital Seattle – Northgate

My best friend checked into Kindred and 2 days later he was dead. I can’t say how they do with all their patients but if your loved one is sick, I mean really sick, fight like hell to keep them out of there.
My friend checked in with complications from diabetes. The first night we had to point out to the nursing staff that he was covered in blood as he was bleeding from his feeding tube. When the staff doctor arrived he barely looked at him and summoned a nursing aid to put dressing on the wound. At this point we should have insisted he be moved back to Harborview as it was clear the doctor was overwhelmed as I’m sure he was the only doctor on duty to cover the 50 or so residents there.
The next day we met several of his caregivers. Each time we met a new one we would have to explain his condition. Shouldn’t they have some briefing by the staff prior to caring for a patient!?! On this particular day my wife asked if my friends trachea was bothering him. He nodded yes as he couldn’t talk. When my wife mentioned this to one of the nursing staff he responded that tracheae are supposed to be uncomfortable.
The next day I went in and my friend was in really bad shape as his eyes were wipe open without blinking. We was obviously in bad shape. I immediately got a nurse and her response was «that he must be sleeping». «With his eyes wide open» I asked. The nurse took no action and left the room. I have no medical training but I could tell he was in bad bad shape.
I asked to talk with a doctor. 15 minutes went by and no doctor showed up. I asked again and he finally showed up after another 15 minutes. He then saw how bad my friend was and ordered a nurse to start drawing the blood that had accumulated in my friends belly.
Too little too late. An hour later he went into cardiac arrest and by the end of the day he was gone.
I’m sharing this story to let you know that if your loved one has a life threatening illness, Kindred is not equipping or adequately staffed to accommodate him or her.
Fight like hell to keep them in the hospital they are coming from as long as possible until you are comfortable that they can survive with a lower level of care.
Remember the insurance company are pressuring hospitals to send their patients to lower care facilities like Kindred as soon as possible. The only one truly fighting for your loved one is you!

I went to Kindred Sub Acute unit to recover from a car accident. I had no idea what to expect from my stay there, and was pleasantly surprised by the facility. The Administrative staff is very attentive, the nursing care was excellent, the CNA’s are the unsung heroes and the care and support they give on a daily basis is over and above. The Rehab staff was supportive and push you to get better in a kind, but assertive way. I made excellent progress, and after 7 weeks, was able to return home. I had 5 places to choose from and am so glad Kindred was the one I ended up choosing. No one wants to «live» in a rehab hospital, but if you find yourself needing to choose a place for you or your family, I would highly recommend Kindred at Northgate.

Another decent choice for extended care. Wouldn’t be my first because it has some of the traditional aesthetic complaints of a ‘typical’ care facility… dark, dingy, with fluorescent lighting and some odors. But my great uncle was there for 4 weeks and said the staff were generally good, food was decent and plentiful, and if he needed to do so again he would go back.

The top floor of this place is a Death Factory. It is the most disgusting environment from stepping on the elevator to leaving. I have worked at many facilities that serve people with extremely high medical needs. NEVER have I seen such incompetence at every level of care. It should be fined, brought to the public attention and shut down immediately.
The top floor is dirty, smelly (more than should be expected), medical waste is not handled properly and the staff do not seem to give a hoot about the patients.
They provide lazy, death inducing care. They seem to really enjoy rectal tubes and prefer not to bathe people. Dignity is nonexistent and if you visit a loved one prepare to see their breast or private parts and don’t try to tell the staff they will just laugh at you.
The medical care is deplorable. Medications are prescribed without consent and without proper review of medical information and history. Dialysis is sub par. the Occupational. Physical and Speech therapy team only take easy cases and let the rest go. they do not have proper equipment for rehabilitation such as a special medical chair to help transition patients from bed rest to sitting. They may offer you a folding chair for your relative though. Bed sores are a huge problem especailly on the heels as patients are never turned or repositioned.
the staff on the top floor is awful and I am pretty sure they just pick up staff on street corners and then give them a glass of I don’t care juice. the head RN is one of the foulest human beings I have ever encountered. She tries to cover the deplorable conditions and medical errors by using medical jargon that she thinks people don’t understand to intimidate. If you do understand (as I do) and call her on her mistakes politely she will threaten to evict your relative and/​or say that (real quote) «well your grandma is old, old people did you know, she is going to die.» Wow, what a great attitude in a rehabilitation unit. The nurse was right, if my grandma had stayed there she would have died.
Not only should you avoid this place at all cost, it should be investigated and shut down. It is that bad. If anyone with any investigative powers regarding nursing homes is reading this please do something.
Perhaps the other reviews were of the bottom floor of which i know very little. But the top floor is a death factory and everyone that works there thinks it is funny.
On a positive note: My grandma went elsewhere after a huge battle. She is doing well and should be moving into a small apartment soon. So there meanest nurse ever, (sing) nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah… you were wrong.

My grandpa suffered a stroke back in August and he was transfered to Kindred in October. I had actually heard good things about this facility as a friend’s father had to come here a few years prior. Whatever has happened between now and then has been drastric. At the time of his stay they were still remodeling the hospital. All the patients were in the oldest part of the hopsital while they were building.
I believe total he was here 2 months before we had to demand he be moved out. My grandpa has been in A LOT of facilities since his stroke and this was by far THE WORST place. I was so afraid to visit because I was terrified of the condition I would find him in. I would often come in and he would be hanging off the bed, or completely uncovered and most times needed to be cleaned as he had gone to the bathroom. He was in a room where there were 4 beds because he needed to be monitored constantly. The problem with the set up is the CNA would sit behind a desk that was too tall for them to actually see the patient. They would sit there and read or watch tv not paying attention to what was going on. The second we would walk in of course we would get the «Oh I was just getting ready to clean him, reposition him, yada, yada, yada» The first couple of times I came in to find him like this I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. By the 3^rd and 4^th time this is unacceptable.
I won’t go into details but there was a problem with the some of the medication they were giving him. They were using a specific medication to «quiet» him. So instead of doing your job, you decide to medicate a patient? Really? We noticed a huge decline in my Grandpa’s behavior. He was becoming aggressive, confused and not like himself. After doing research on this medication we realized it was the drug. They even went as far as switching out his bed and layed him in an inflatable pool!!! They said it was a «hazard» to have him in a bed and literally blew up a pool and layed him in it. That is HUMILATING to do to someone. My Grandma finally had enough and asked them to stop giving him this drug which the nurse was not happy with. About 2 weeks after the drug was stopped we were starting to get the old him back.
We finally had him removed from this facility. There were just too many problems and we no longer felt safe leaving him there. Unfortunatly he’s still not well enough to come home but it was been made very clear he will never come back to this facility again.

I started this review in July or so and have never finished it. Its been a strange one to write. By necessity it has to be more serious than others. I have almost decided not to write it at all several times but, when we were looking for a care facility to place my mother in, trying to find a place, deal with everything was hard enough– but trying to find reviews on a place was even more difficult. Nearly impossible. So, I am committing that this will eventually get posted.
A family member was sick, and needed a lot of recovery. She needed more attention than the hospital could provide; physical therapy, speech therapy; assistance eating… basically everything. Also she needed a place that could handle her breathing machine. There are few places that can it seems. Kindred was one of the places.
We first went to visit, showing up after «business hours» and their head nurse was happy to take the time to show us around the facility and tell us about what they do and how they do it. First, if you are ever looking at a place like this for a loved one, it is never anything buy disheartening and maybe depressing. It was hard to be impressed. We were not unimpressed, but we were hesitant. Mostly as we were hesitant to do anything. In the end this is, of course, where we chose.
All in all, they were great. She was there for several weeks and began talking again and walking again and eating for herself and chewing solid food, and every day it was another improvement. She came to Kindred from the UW ICU with a UTI and some other infection that I can’t remember and they caught and addressed them right away– without stopping to waste time they were also working immediately to start her therapies. Also, it was spring (crappy as that is in Seattle) and whenever possible they would help us take her outside in a wheelchair (like a wheelchair on steroids) to get fresh air, sunshine and a change of pace. This was a little thing, but I really think it helped… everyone.
The staff there seemed truly dedicated to working with her and I really feel that in the end it was their care that expedited what was still a long and slow recovery. They staff specialists in all sorts of care and therapies and really involve the families in the process– we always knew what the schedules were and if they were changing that information was provided as well. Also, they do a good job of matching people to rooms where they have similar conditions. I don’t know exactly why, but that seemed good for everyone.
They were attentive, and not only to her needs but also to ours. As Tiffany mentioned in her review as well, their visiting hours only go until 8pm, but I know I waltzed in far later than that more than once and was only ever greeted with a smile. They also have conferences, even weekly, where you can schedule to meet with all the therapists and doctors and specialist working with your loved one and hear about progress and goals and what not. Finally, they also work closely with families and insurance companies– which is something hard to even think about when you are in this situation maybe, but it is also really great that they are so genuinely involved.
In the end, she left Kindred far far better than when she came in and though is still recovering in some ways, I have no doubts that they care here helped the process tremendously. Also, I watched her «roommate» going through similar things begin to recover as well. She went from an unknown nearly vegetative woman when we first started visiting Kindred to quite the interesting person that she was some time before we met her. Its painful to watch, until that day when you see that its getting better.
In the end, if you are reading this review it is probably heartbreaking circumstances that have brought you to search for a Unilocal review of Kindred, but I would not hesitate to recommend talking to them or visiting at least to see if their facilities are appropriate for your needs as well. It was as good as experience as it could have been and that is saying something.
PS: Free parking for visitors… I am always a fan, and its close from the 75 bus route too.

My Grandma had been suffering for many years and after many visits to the community hospital was referred to Kindred.
The Kindred staff was so friendly and kind to my Grandmother, but more importantly they let us know when she started slipping away. We had enough time for everyone to fly in from Portland, San Diego, Nashville and even Iraq in time to say goodbye to our matriarch.
The staff was so wonderful — visiting hours were only til 8pm, but we were allowed to stay as late as we wanted (as many of us as we wanted). My family is very loud and boisterous — even despite our somber surroundings. The staff left us alone to grieve and say goodbye to grandma — they didn’t interupt or tell us to keep it down. In fact they brought us a tray full of cookies and coffee. This went on for days! Every single person that we met made this hospital better and better — each perons was filled with compassion and treated our loved one as if she were their own. They also took heed when we made suggestions for her care — at this point there wasn’t any «saving» her so we were just keeping her comfortable, but the doctors and nurses listened to us when we suggested switching pain meds (she didn’t look comfortable on the morphine).
After she passed, they allowed us to remain the room as long as we needed. Many of the staff members stopped to offer their condolences, and I could see that they had made a real connection with my grandma.
The staff at Kindred really helped us make the best out of one of the saddest times possibles. Dare, I say we actually had a good time? That’s the way Grandma wanted it.
Thank you so much!