Providence Transitional Care Center

Seriously, this place got Best Nursing Home? I’d hate to see the worst if this is the best. My dad was there when he broke his hip. The doctor said they would do physical therapy three times a day. He was lucky if they did it once a day.
The food was so bad, we had to bring him meals. The nurses were to check on him and turn him once an hour. They walked in the room, didn’t say a word, didn’t even look at you, and would sign a sheet and walk out.
One night, he got diarrhea and could get no help. He got up himself — with a recent hip replacement — and had to get himself to the bathroom. He sat in there for well over an hour and rang the bell. Someone came in finally and said, «Are you okay?» He said no, and she disappeared, never to return, and he had to get himself back to bed.
They dropped a couple pills on the floor, picked them up and gave them to him to take.
We finally thought he’d be better off at home, and the head of nursing was refusing to release him because he hadn’t had the physical therapy to show him how to get in and out of the car and he couldn’t have that till the next day. I asked to see her, and she refused to see anyone. So I sent someone to tell her we would leave without it.
She relented and had them give him the therapy, which took FIVE MINUTES. I watched it. They were just trying to keep him there for the $$$$
I would hate to see a patient there who didn’t have friends or relatives there each and every day for hours to help because they’re not going to get any from the staff.

Not the best place, but not the worst place for a patient. I visited a few times to see my grandfather while he was admitted.
The location was pretty clean, but it is very small and enclosed. The staff would often forget about giving meals to the patients or it would come hours later and may be something completely different. Visiting hours are 24/​7, the front door closes at 8p but you can be ringed in if you come later. They have a rock fountain in the middle of where the patient rooms surround similar to a block with a missing center; at times children from visiting families will play there and make extremely loud noises that can be heard in the patients rooms, since all patients rooms have a sliding glass door to lead them to the fountain.
I was quite surprised to a 2005 U.S. News Best Nursing Homes display during my recent trip.

This place is terrible. Everything from patient care to quality of food. Staff does not care about patients.

My elderly loved one left LCOM Hospital for rehab and arrived at TCC about 3 wks ago. Overall this place isn’t too bad. However, as with all care centers, it is wise to check regularly on your loved one and not to assume they are having all their needs met. As good as TCC may be at times, they do make mistakes. Among the mistakes/​errors:
1) unsanitary conditions. A plastic container was not cleaned properly and had feces on it and left on top of the toliet.
2) my loved one was transported by ambulance from the TCC to the surgeon’s office for a follow up appointment. The surgeon recognized a wound infection and ordered wound cleansing twice per day. Upon returning to TCC, the nurse was unable to clean the wound or treat my loved one because the doctor’s orders were not in the computer system (note: we had been back at TCC a good 30 min). Even though the doctor’s orders were given to the Case Manager (Laura) and the doctor on call (Dr. Segal) immediately upon returning. ???
Another annoying thing is that 8 times out of 10 their «I’ll be back in 5 minutes» turns into 30 40 60 minutes or more. It’s inexcusable. Don’t say you’ll be back in 5 minutes if you really mean in an hour!
I would definitely avoid Case Manager (Laura) as she is NOT helpful or customer service oriented. Laura provided «protected health information» about my elderly loved one to another family member even though I have POA for Health (!!). Then when I questioned her about what happens when my elderly loved one leaves TCC, she snarkily stared at me and said ‘What do you want to know?” She’s not forthcoming with information and really has a chip on her shoulder.
There were many caring nurses and assistants during my loved one’s stay. Roslyn is a hardworking beauty who does her best to care and comfort those under her care. Nerma is a jovial nurse who takes the time to know her residents’ likes and dislikes. Vicente is another nurse who goes the extra mile and is a man of his word. Renae is a pleasant nurse who has a gentle demeanor.

I was in this facility for 9 days in May, 2013. I was very impressed with how professional, polite, and thorough the staff was. They treated me extremely well. I have learned in my few hospital stays that, as in life, a little honey gets more good treatment than a little vinegar. I didn’t feel my best as my broken leg healed, but I kept up a determined effort to be polite, grateful, and cheerful to the nursing staff, and the effort paid great dividends. I could tell that they were glad to visit me in my room, and they knew that I was interested in helping them help me. I did not make a pest of myself if I needed something. If I wanted something, I would not ring the buzzer, which too many patients would do without any urgent need. instead I would ask for something when I was being visited as part of a normal routine visit.
The staff responded to my efforts to be a cooperative patient.
The food was exceptional! The kitchen makes everything fresh every day. When you are just laying in bed reading or watching TV, the meal times become something to look forward to. I wish I could go back just for the meals! What a staff!
The medical director, Dr. Sherry Sonka-​Maarek, would make a point to personally visit each patient every couple of days to see how we were doing. I appreciated this attention very much. She is a very capable administrator and her kindness was much appreciated.
We patients don’t get the opportunity often enough to thank our caregivers for all of their hard work and diligence when we are not feeling well. I am glad to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Sonka-​Maarek for the work of her wonderful staff at Providence Transitional Care Center.
Thanks guys, very much!
Sincerely,
–Lee Goslin

Had my husband check it out beforehand and it was all good…
My Dad came here from Torrance Memorial after he had a mild stroke…
The nurses seemed nice, We had relatives checking on him everyday. They have activities, a rec. room with a large t. v, piano, and vending machines. Also had arts and crafts for their patients. My Dad was sharing a room with an older man who was not able to move much… when i informed the nurse that her patient had his leg stuck between the bed rail and the mattress she just looked at me and went in the room to fix it but didn’t say one word, no thank you, ill be right there… NOTHING…I wasn’t telling her how to do her job I was just doing what I would hope someone would do if that was my Dad.

Now that my husband has been in and out of the hospital (Torrance Memorial and Providence Little Company of Mary) since April 2013 on a fairly regular basis, I am getting a crash course in transitional care centers provided by or adjacent to Providence Little Company of Mary in Torrance.
After his numerous hospital visits for severe infections, kidney failure and most recently a minor heart attack and stroke, he has spent several weeks at The Earlwood Care Center (three times), Providence Transitional Care Center (once) and Providence Little Company of Mary San Pedro Rehab Center (once)
I will rate all three centers.
The San Pedro center
is modern, up-​to-​date and sterile. My husband was brought here by ambulance at around 7 pm one evening from Little Company of Mary in Torrance, and was basically dumped in his room and ignored. When we arrived, he had not eaten an evening meal (he had not eaten all day) and the nurse on duty told us she thought he had already eaten before he left the hospital. I asked her to order a meal, which she said she did, and promptly went off duty. She had not, and we had to beg for food, which he did not receive until 10 pm. There was hardly any staff around to serve just six patients and we had to visit every day to make sure his needs were being met.
We had been told that the Providence Transitional Care Center was the best
and were thrilled to get my husband in there last week after he had spent four days at Little Company of Mary being treated for severe infections and kidney failure. He was transferred from the hospital at midnight, and when we arrived he was burning with fever. Not one nurse came to check on him until we scoured the halls looking for one. They could not be bothered to don the robes and gloves necessary before entering his room since he was infectious. After begging them to take his vitals, a male nurse eventually gave him a Tylenol and did his best to get my husband comfortable. We had to ask for water, food and his meds — which no one seemed inclined to give. The next day he was transported by ambulance for dialysis and when he came back to his room he had a severe infection and temperature. No one called his family to inform us of this. When we arrived to visit the next morning, his room was empty. We asked a very sullen nurse where he was, and was told he had been sent to Emergency and to wait for a doctor. We waited for twenty minutes, and were then told he was severely infectious and had been rushed to Emergency. The attitude of the staff, except for the nurse on the reception desk phone, stunk. Mean faces, non-​caring, several bitching about their lunch breaks, etc. Horrendous attitudes and definitely not «care givers.» I went back several times to pick up clothing he had left behind, and it was the same don’t care attitude. The atmosphere between many of the nurses appeared to be strained and it certainly was not a place I would want my husband to return to.
As a result of their lack of care, my husband had suffered a stroke, along with two infections and spent five more days at Little Company of Mary ICU, four days in Coronary Care and he is now back at Earlwood where he has spent most time this year.
. Although the property is older than the other two, and the noise level is sometimes quite loud, this center appears to have the most caring staff of the three in question. They might be a little preoccupied at times — but they have given my husband the best care of the three centers. They all know his name and make every attempt to get to know his family and his needs. The food is below par in all of the centers, and it is not great here either. However, the rehab staff is amazing and do all they can to speed recovery.
(The Royalwood is a disaster, so I won’t bother to review it. I did a quick tour and was horrified by the noise and constant clanging of bells. It was like bedlam.)

If I could give this place zero stars, I would! With the exception of a few nurses and one doctor, the management and staff are lazy & unprofessional. They have taken advantage of the fact that most of the patients are helpless and have no recourse to the poor and/​or lack of service. I work in business and I move ten times faster than these people. You would think in medicine, they would have a better sense of urgency. I witnessed many times that a patient would ring the buzzer and they would be disregarded for 10 minutes or more. God forbid that it be for an emergency… because it could mean the difference between life or death. The nurses and assistants erroneously document and/​or relay improper information about the patients at the end of their shifts… medication, pain levels, special instructions… and when my family tried to correct them, they either blatantly ignored us or simply stated that it was the instruction (or lack of instruction) from the doctor… a doctor, I might add, that was someone we had never seen or even heard of. There were no patient advocates, no checks and balances, no accountability, no pro-​activity. The instructions from my family member’s original doctor and surgeon were completely ignored. The medication dosing and equipment specified for use were not followed. On top of all of that, I had to ask the staff to lower their voices several times because they were hollering and cursing and messing around… making it echo loudly in the hallway. Maybe it’s just another day at work for them, but the patients have no escape… How are they expected to rest, let alone, sleep? When I asked them to be quiet, they continued to act unprofessionally and disrespectfully. rolling eyes, etc. Do not send your loved ones here!

MY mom was there for 2 months until she eventually died to to Septic Shock that was misdiagnosed for at least a week. Her regular nurses knew she was getting worse not better, as did the PTs and the case manager. THe nurses are afraid to tell the doctors things and there were some things written wrong in her records. I spent everyday there in the summer and then came everyday after work and watched what went on. She was left on the bedpan far too long some of the time, and had to wait for a bed pan far too long sometimes. She was also scolded for not taking her medicines when they made her sick to her stomach. I watched her try and the pills came up most of the time near the end. She was also left for 5 days without going to the bathroom. I think this made her very sick. Rumors were spread to her rotating docotrs that she was not doing her physical therapy so some of the doctors scolded her for not trying. She had a wound that consumed her entire lower leg and needed treatments everyday. She was in there because she had fallen and broken her leg. She was on kumadine so she lost a lot of blood. She went to ICU for a week until she was ready for surgery. In the mean time a hematoma burst in her leg and left a huge hole that started at the knee and went around and down to the bottom of her calf. She was in miserable pain all day every day. THe doctors who come on rounds are rotated in so they are never there that long. Sometimes a few days to a week or week and a half. Her last doctor misdiagnosed her condition and scolded her for not eating and doing her physical therapy. He did not listen to me when I said she is not getting better-​she is getting worse. He told me very surly that he was the doctor and if she needed something he would tell me not the other way around. He said she was malnutritioned and she needed to drink Boost and that was the most critical thing now although when she tried she would usually upchuck that too. The sad thing is she came to heel her leg and wound and they were both doing well, especially the wound. Another bad thing is that she had gotten C_​diff and they never rechecked her for it to see if it went away. I am so sorry that some of the good nurses who work there do not have more say in her care and she was left in a bad state far too long and died 3 days after she was finnally sent to ER. The first thing they noticed was her urine was brown and thick. Why didn’t the nurses see that at TCC. How much attention did they pay?