Castle Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center — Local services in National City

Castle Manor was by far one of the MOST stressful, infuriating and astonishing experiences I have ever had to witness from the sidelines. I highly recommend you search for care elsewhere!

My mom was admitted here following an emergency craniotomy to clip a brain aneurysm.

From day one I was horrified having witnessed a lack of patient safety, unhygienic conditions (food, poop and piss smeared on the walls and dust covered floors), people screaming for help because no one comes when you push the call button, flies in food (not to mention soggy, bland and overall gross), mediocre rehabilitation services, and multiple department mismanagement.

Most staff members are lazy, inattentive, liars, incompassionate and worst of all incompetent. I honestly cried after my mom’s first night there because of how awful it was for her. Upon admission in the evening, she was left unattended for 4 hours as she begged for her pain medication (as she hadn’t had any since the morning at the hospital). They claimed her medications hadn’t been delivered yet. It wasn’t until I got there and firmly said she needed her pain meds that they called the NP on call to prescribe a 1-time emergency narcotic from the Med-cart that she was given any relief. The issue progressed into the next afternoon where it took 5 phone calls, 6 hours of begging from my mom, and a threat to file an official complaint in order for her pain medication to FINALLY be approved and delivered to the facility. Doctor Cardinal personally called me to apologize for it taking so long and I asked him why did it take 6 hours today for us to finally get her relief. He said, “I’m not sure why, I’ve been on call all morning and staff only told me just now.” (Mind you we had been calling and begging since 7am and he called around 1pm). Just goes to show how everyone is NOT on the same page there. Why should a person that just had their head literally sawed open a week ago, have to beg for pain meds for hours and hours when they have medications prescribed? It’s inhumane.

Then, she started experiencing spotty vision (that she wasn’t previously experiencing post-op) as well as increased pain in her incision site. The best they can offer her? Discharge her earlier than originally expected and set her up with an appointment with her surgeon AFTER her discharge date. Seriously!? That’s safe? A senior citizen who just had a major surgery and has other health complications? Why would you not extend her discharge date? Seems fishy to me.

The list goes on. Including repeated missed doses of medications, missed breathing treatments, lack of hygiene services offered and people saying “that’s not my job” when it TOTALLY is their job.

PT is a joke. Instead of getting my mom up and walking around being active to clear out her lungs after being in bed sedentary for a month, they instead had her sitting in bed just putting rings on poles. She doesn’t have a TBI!!!! She doesn’t need to relearn her fine motor skills, she needs to get up and walk!

I was called by Lucy the social worker at Castle Manor her first week there. She informed me she was going to help get my mom get set up with an advanced directive so we wouldn’t have to pay for a notary by doing it upon her release. Then her discharge date comes and Lucy suddenly changes everything she said to me prior. “We don’t do Advanced Directives here, we only provide the forms.” That was only one of the DOZENS upon DOZENS of flat out LIES I heard come out of staffs’ mouths. You are consistently told one thing and then they do another.

When my mom expressed concern about getting to her medical appointments to Sergio the case manager because she has now lost the ability to drive over all of this and is on a fixed income his response was “try uber,” in a cold and heartless tone. What fixed-income senior can afford to pay $20-40/ride? Never recommended any county, state or government programs that assist seniors with affordable and accessible transit, NOTHING.

Bottom line: all these people want is a paycheck. They don’t care about...

Castle manor is the most horrible rehabilitation you can go to or that your family member can be sent to. My dad just got done with spinal surgery and they expect my dad to be seeing progress in two- three weeks. Literally when he had finish his surgery they sent him over there once his wound was healing right. Once he was admitted to castle manor there was no urgency to start his therapies. I get it it’s the holidays but I also work as a therapist and still had to work the holidays. My dad wasn’t getting consistent therapy till the second week he was there and coming into the third week they kick him out. Castle manor basically kicked out my dad because he was making slow progress, how can they see progress being done if they barely had given him therapy sessions? And saying it is not medically necessary for him to be there. They tried to blame the insurance on all of this saying they no longer wanted to pay. Insurance is only basing that off by what the therapist say in their notes. Mind you again, how can progress be made or shown if they hardly had any sessions. No one in their administration don’t even know who can answer what questions because they had me bouncing around from different people in different departments who couldn’t answer my questions. The nurses would leave my dad in pain waiting for his medicine for a half an hour from when he requested and don’t even know how to clean properly when coming to diaper changing. It absolutely amazed me to see the system neglect my dad and basically sent him back home to us with no resources at all? How can you find a wheel chair company that can put in a wheel chair ramp for you in the next two days? NONE your can’t find any and if you did they are backed up by three months. Thank god we found someone who was able to build it for us. The way things went, Castle manor made me feel like they were basically saying, “ sorry you aren’t making fast progress here and hogging up space bc you don’t medically need to be here even though you can’t walk by yourself or go to that bathroom by yourself, and need around the clock care but here’s a wheel chair that you’ll be in the rest of your life and we have no resources for you and your family to make this short time of sending you home easier.” that’s basically how this place made my family and with how they gave up on my dad. It’s been a week that’s he’s left this place and yet no physical therapist and home nurse that they said would come has NOT even come at all. Whatever. My dad is just happy to not be in that “he’ll hole” is what he calls it. Please don’t come here, I bet there’s way BETTER rehab facilities that give better care for their patients. Although I’ll tell you right now the real mvp there was the guy who transports the patients to their appointments. hope this...

My name is Russel Blake. My Dad, Alexander Blake is both formerly and currently a guest in Castle Manor.

Given the diligence of care his age of 98 years requires, I felt after spending a week in observance of said care, I will make aware to the public of what I have witnessed.

In knowing there are multiple components and modalities of care and an equally diverse staff of individuals employing their expertise in such care, I was thoroughly impressed from day one with every facet of therapeutic care and genuine concern my dad was receiving.

From the diligence of cleaning staff to the attentive CNA’s. The vigilant RN’s to the ever so patient Occupational and Physical Therapists. The Social Worker Regina to the front door receptionists who always greeted me with a warm welcome and a smile.

You have a team you can genuinely be very proud of as my dad, in each time I spoke with him affirmed that everyone is treating him with professionalism, respect and like a beloved member of the Castle Manor family.

I would like to single out Case Mgr. Nancy Ruiz who has gone the extra mile. I live in Baltimore County, Maryland and my brother lives in New York City.

Nancy saw to it that we were inclusive in the family meetings by phone as well as took the time to articulate and explain in great detail, the various options available to my dad’s post rehab care.

She also took the quality time to stop by my dad’s room every so often to share her warm smile and any updated information pertaining to his care and subsequent discharge.

As challenging as it was/is to see my dad in his current condition, the week was mitigated that much easier by meeting Nancy in person and seeing firsthand her professionalism, genuine kindness and emotional warmth towards my dad.

Physical therapists Rafi and Mervyn. RN Jim and CNA Claudia were also exceptional in their expertise, patience and compassion (my apologies as I wish I could have gotten all of their last names). Yet, I would have to nominate Nancy Ruiz as the Employee of the Week.

In closing, I imagine in your industry families are often distressed about their loved ones and not apt to reach out to you.

However, I believe you cannot know how well your team is doing, unless you’ve been told what they’ve done. So please accept this positive feedback in the spirit in which it is composed.

I just had to say thank you, Castle Manor, for your therapeutic expertise and continued success in all of your endeavors.

Best...