Red Wing Health Center

My mom was at the Red Wing Care Center for 6 weeks. The place smelled like a dirty toilet most of the time. Most of the nurses were very nice, except for a couple. They were so short of help. Waiting for someone to respond to call light was horrible. The Aids were constantly changing. New aids were being trained. Most of them were, caring and did pretty good. However, there were a few of them that had bad attitudes. There would be some who would show their frustration by stomping out of the room, rolling their eyes, mumbling under their breath and they would be in a hurry and would be rough when they were moving my mom. It got to the point that my mom would be afraid to ask them to do anything. Also the roughness added to her anxiety problems. She was afraid they would drop her. Several times her O2 lines were not even hooked up. It got to the point that each day when my dad would come to visit, he would check all the lines on the vent and O2. That is not the family’s responsibility. We were pleased with the therapy people. The respiratory therapist really did a good job working with my mom. The problem was that he was only there at the facility about once or twice a week. It was impossible to make any progress. Whenever any of the nurses would try to work with her on the vent weaning, my mom would have horrible anxieties. She would have severe anxiety attacks several times a day. One time my mom laid in a wet bed for over an hour, even when several people were told and the call light was on. Someone took my mom’s wallet out of her purse. A staff person found it on the floor out in the hall way. The staff said they did notify the police. At the “Care Conference”, I met with the social worker who had only been employed there a few days and a nurse who had never worked with my mom. That was a sorry excuse for a meeting. There were a couple of times that one of the head nurses did schedule a time to sit down and talk with us to answer questions, and that was appreciated. One time my mom had an emergency and almost died from breathing difficulties. When they decided she better go to the hospital, the head nurse told my dad that she would be going to the hospital in Rochester. My dad had to go to his hotel room to get some things he needed, so he told them he would meet the ambulance there. After getting to Rochester and waiting and worrying about my mom, he got a phone call from someone at the Hospital in Red Wing and told my dad that she had been taken to the Red Wing Hospital. Imagine my dad, who is 75, being scared that he is about to lose his wife, driving to Rochester, and then waiting a couple of hours for her to get there because of a miscommunication. The first time she had to go to Rochester because of an emergency was due to an increase in carbon dioxide. She was found unresponsive, but still breathing. The second time she had to go to Rochester due to emergency was because of breathing difficulty. Both times she came close to dying. Her progress at Rochester in just 2 days was by far more than she did in 6 weeks at Red Wing. I would not recommend this place to anyone! Thank goodness for wonderful staff at Rochester who helped us find a different facility. Since being at the new facility, she has improved more than we imagined she could. She is happy, no anxiety attacks, less pain. The vent weaning is going well. The respiratory therapist told us that she is doing better than they thought she would and that she had been declining at Red Wing, but now she is progressing. Most of the problems with the Red Wing Care Center are due to being so short staffed. As I pointed out most of the nurses there were really caring and tried to do the best that they could. Also the Director of Nursing did show concern. This however, is not enough to give them a good review. I sincerely hope that you will take this information seriously.