Vista Specialty Hospitals - La Mirada — Attraction in La Mirada

IF YOUR LOVED ONE HAS FOOD ALLERGIES PLEASE READ. My mom was placed here for about 2 months. I am mostly writing this review because of some very negative, very unacceptable things that happened while my mom was in their care. I'll start with some positives because it wasn't all bad BUT the bad was concerning. First, the staff at the front desk, super wonderful and very sweet. Rudy, their Patient Relations Representative, was great and very helpful. He came to my mom's room on a few occasions to speak to my mom and I about concerns. I unfortunately don't remember the names of a couple people who were helpful but after reading some of the other reviews I think Aileen and Stephanie would have been who I talked to. They made changes when I voiced my concerns and made sure to call me back when the concerns were addressed. Physical therapy staff was wonderful as well.

Now for the bad. The ABSOLUTE WORST thing that happened was related to meals. My mom has extensive food allergies, the majority of which are very serious allergies. The dietitian came in and spoke with us day one. We went over all her allergies and even discussed breakfast options since most breakfast options involve food she is allergic to. I thought we were fine. A day or so later, while I was there, they walk in with her lunch and what is on her plate? Food she is allergic to. I addressed it and was told by my mom that it was the second time she was handed food she was allergic to. This happened a total of 4 times.... FOUR TIMES. I addressed this 3 times (I wasn't there for the first issue). One slip up I can understand, it still shouldn't happen, but I can understand one accident. Four is unacceptable. Luckily my mom is alert enough to realize what is on her plate and the particular food (potatoes) is one of the lesser allergies. Had it been one of the other allergies, things may not have been a happy ending. The little menu slip literally says her allergies, and what is on the plate. Someone had to print that out, read it, highlight it, and put it on the tray and didn't notice the mistake. This particular meal, the main dish was even messed up and the dish she got (that was not listed) ALSO had potatoes in it. After that 4th time and talking to the right superiors the issue was addressed and fixed. IF YOUR LOVED ONE HAS FOOD ALLERGIES PLEASE PAY ATTENTION.

Some of the staff have horrible bedside manner. Things were said to my mom that were not acceptable, especially someone who works in health care. My mom was dealing with stomach related issues, when she asked for a sandwich because she was hungry, she was told "Why? You'll just poop it out again." One of the nurses told her he was the only one willing to come in and change her bed and no one else would do it. On more than one occasion they wouldn't bring her anything to drink, I had to call and ask why my mom, who struggles with hydration, was being denied drinks and didn't have water available.

Response time is horrible. My mom can be impatient so at first I thought that was all, they were busy with other patients and she was being impatient. She was very clear that no, they would take forever to respond when she hit her call button (and even told her to stop using it because she used it too much?). I decided to test this while I was there, she wanted to ask about medications and hit the button, I timed it. 34 minutes. It took 34 minutes for someone to come into the room and that person was bringing dinner, not actually responding to the button. We were told no one came because ALL the nurses were on break.... If she had hit that button because she was choking, she'd be dead and no one would have known until they brought dinner. This was addressed as well and the times got better but it should never take that long. I don't expect someone to rush to her bedside the moment she hits the call button but 34 minutes is ridiculous.

I know she was getting care, and the staff/nurses that were good were very good. Sadly not everyone should be working...

I walked into emergency at another facility and was sent to kindred for rehabilitation. The doctor are very good, the physical therapist department is good. The issues are nursing, method of room mates selecting and room origination. Nursing due to the fact the hospital nursing staff is on a rotation you almost never see the same nurse twice. The issues with this that each nurse does things different and the staff never get in a routine with its patients. I was on feeding tube and one nurse did not know how to use the feeding machine proper. She set up the bottom and has machine on but it took over 5 hour for one feeding. Since I was to be feed every 4 hours some feeding were missed. How I knew I was not being fed I marked the bottle and it never went down. The same nurse forgot to turn on the valve once she got help into correcting the machine but forgot to turn on the valve on the tube. That popped the plug in the feeding tube hose and the hole bed, myself got soaked. My feeding was scheduled every 4 hours which means one of my feeding were scheduled for 2 am. I reminded the nurse assigned to my self for that evening, she stated she was not going to feed me in said yes you are, I cannot lose more weight. I got up paged her at 0245 to remind her feed at 0315. There were other issues with there system like anti blood clotting shot stopping. Doctors stating I can walk around and staff not liking it, to just going to the bathroom. I would go out side in wheel chair been going out for days. On one of my outing my newly assigned nurse got up sit stopping me. I asked her if there a problem she said I was not belted in chair so I belted myself. She said it’s policy I thanked her, afterward I notice all the wheel chair do not have belts. Having patients inter mixed in the same room is questionable. While I was there is seen 4 patients pass, god bless them. But it places yourself in a state of mine not well. During this stay a patient had to be on Kidney machine. That a 8 plus hour operation with hose running across the floor , occupy the bath room for over 8 hours. The closest bath room public was the other end of the facility. Each time you have to go to your room bathroom you had to remove the soil linen. They keep the soil line in front of the toilet. They wanted my to us a walker, it was great training out these items to go. Yes call the nurse them that a 30 minutes hold it in time. The cleaning staff done a good job washing down the walls , floors, removing the curtains getting room ready for another patient. Placing new or clean curtains cleaning bedding and all. I was told by my lead doctor that I could go home. 8 days afterward the hospital was not ready for me to check out. First they said I needed a vacuum machine suck on machine and lung treatment machine. I purchased these machines, I ask for a letter stating that it’s required, No letter was given. Then they would not check me out because one doctor written that home care should be provided. I insurance doesn’t over such care, so I had the hospital train my wife on doctor orders. On day 7 they would not check me out. I also order food for feeding tube all delivered to home. Every day the lead doctor would say you did go yet and that he would talk to the other doctors. We just left the facility the hospital had me sign a wavier. The hospital did not help us out of the facility. Did not Give us follow up ( yes I get messages on phone ) I signed papers requesting records copies. Today over 30 days afterward no records have been received. The nursing staff have the right Hart, quality control and methods are of issue. The rotation of nursing staff causes a lot of problems. After all patients are what they...

My mother has been at Kindred-La Mirada for 4 weeks. Plenty of time to come across different staff members. She has had a mixture of amazing nurses along with horrible nurses. Two of mom’s favorites amongst the amazing staff is Sanshine, RN, who is sweet, gentle, attentive & kind. The other is Juan, respiratory therapist, who always takes the time to explain to my mother what he is there to do to her. Even if it comes down to drawing blood which can be painful with my mother’s smaller veins, he is extremely compassion on expressing his sympathy for needing to poke multiple times to get enough blood.

Other great staff members are: Scott, physical therapist. Claudia, CNA, Angelica, CNA. Tatiana, LVN. Jackie, LVN. Adriana, RN. All who genuinely show care for their patients. Elena, cleaning crew, every morning shows up with a positive attitude greeting my mom while she cleans her room and my mom appreciates that.

On the other hand Lorena & Trini have horrible bedside manners and zero patience care professionalism. Both horrible interactions happened out of visiting hours and were obviously extremely upsetting to my mother, who hours later, when visiting hours were open, expressed them to us through her only way of communicating (a dry eraser whiteboard). Both individuals were rough with my mom and spoke in a rude tone to her. Lorena wanted my mom to turn on her own when my mother is not physically capable of. Again my mother doesn’t have a voice so she was attempting to mouth to her she can’t. Later Mom pulled her whiteboard out and Lorena claimed she couldn’t understand her writing (funny because every single other staff member has been able to understand her writing perfectly fine). When my mother told my sister later that morning, my sister talked to Lorena and Lorena claimed she wasn’t aware my mother couldn’t turn on her own. My sister expressed that our mom clearly has a “risk fall” bracelet, and in her chart we would assume each nurse would review their patient chart at the beginning of their shifts to learn their limitations. Instead of apologizing for the miscommunication, Lorena was defensive toward my sister, we requested for Lorena to never be on my mother’s services again. Trini, CNA is rude and sloppy. Doesn’t follow up to confirm if the bedding he placed under my mom is comfortable. He yelled at my mom because he didn’t understand her when she was trying to express that he left the sheet balled up underneath her. She got really upset at him for his tone and she kicked him out of her room.

The call button can go over 20 minutes to get responded which usually results for a family member to go track down one of the nurses to get assistance. The building is older and the room my mom is in gets extremely hot from 11-3pm every day. When this was expressed to Rudy he was to follow up to see if he can find a fan and never came back to follow up. We brought our own fan to keep mom cool as the hot room gave her episodes of anxiety attacks.

My word of advice, if you have a loved one here or any type of similar facility. Make your presence known and advocate for your family members. I am extremely grateful that even though my mother can’t speak, she can still communicate & express all these...