Sapphire Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing of Central Queens — Local services in New York

Long story short, once the money runs out on insurance they will dump your loved ones on the outside without a second thought to their safety. I would avoid this facility if at all possible.

The care received while my aunt was recovering from a bad fall in the facility was excellent. Visiting was great. However they did very little to keep me updated on her care and did not tell me she was being discharged. She called me herself to say that they announced her insurance was cutting off coverage at the end of that week and therefore she had to go. When I called the social worker, Linor Zuniga, to ask why as the healthcare proxy I was not notified so I could help arrange her discharge, she told me that they “don’t do that” (a favorite statement of hers) so that the patient themselves can tell people. I find this practice irresponsible. My aunt is nearly 70 years old with memory and mobility problems. She cannot arrange everything she needs on the outside without her family. Why they wouldn’t understand this and notify us of how her discharge would be administered so she could be as safe as possible makes me believe it is because they do not want to be caught in how irresponsible their practices are. Additionally, an element of her being discharged safely was a wound care nurse visiting 3x a week to do bandage changes. Her social worker was responsible (as confirmed by NYS Department of Health) for checking the wound nurse service she was referred to was covered under her insurance. Linor did not confirm this and released my Aunt only for her to find out she wouldn’t have any nurse coming for at least a week. After 5+ different phone calls in one day to multiple people at Sapphire, arguing that it is their responsibility to ensure safe discharge, and reporting them to NYS, they finally relented and brought her back in for a wound change until the new nurse service could come later in the week. During this I also discovered two social workers cover 6 floors of patients, probably around 300 patients each. There is no way they can possibly be doing diligent and thorough work for all patients at this capacity with so little LCSW staff. This is all unacceptable and I sincerely hope they reform their practices after NYS investigates this. I will send my Aunt to The Grand in...

Sapphire Center is the third rehab facility I have been in. On the day I had an appointment with my surgeon (he removed a tumor from my spine). I complained of pain in my clavicle. He said that he would x-ray it while checking my surgery. It was a fracture, so he said he's not sending me back to that place. That's when I came to Sapphire Center. I have stage 4 prostate cancer. When I got here, I was in very bad shape. To put me in the wheelchair, they had to use a hoyer-lift machine. Even then they had to put pillows under my leg because of my extreme pain. The last place I was in did nothing but try to stand me up and hold onto a wall-bar. When I screamed in pain, they just sat me back down in the wheelchair for hours. Despair fueled my tears.

Then when I went to Sapphire, I was treated with true care. I was carefully put in my wheelchair to go upstairs for assessment. Five people very carefully lifted me from my wheelchair, I cried out, not so much in pain, but fear. They eased my fear as they eased me back into my chair. “Don’t worry we got you,” they told me. And now instead of being in pain, I can get out of bed by myself and use the walker. My miracle at sapphire was only possible because of the people and care that I get here. Their encouragement fuels my desire to get better. I forgot to tell you, the first place I went to, the doctor was telling the nurses that I would never walk again. He was right. I would never walk again there, I would only have my miracle at Sapphire Center.

The people that continue making life better for me are Diane James, my physical therapist, Dorothy Racimo, the Director of the Rehabilitation Department who keeps My mental state stable. And Dilya Avezova, the second floor supervisor who has always gone above and beyond for everybody. My name is Martin Williams, and this is my...

You are not a person here. You are an invoice.

The only good thing I can say is that the nurses are caring, thoughtful, and genuinely wonderful. The place is rundown. The social worker barely spoke English. The accounting department refused to issue me itemized statements so I still have no idea what I had paid for. The administration team were defensive and got into screaming matches with us when I simply questioned (out of terror and confusion) how they could discharge my mother when she was a fall risk and could not take care of herself yet. They gave us zero help in terms of trying to get at-home care (besides handing us a phone number) or plan out our future. It was very obvious that from the beginning, this was all about money for them. And once we were gone, there were no followups and our phone calls were not returned.

They did nothing to ease our concerns during her several-month stay. Perhaps it's because they were more used to being a nursing home than a rehab center -- they didn't really deal with people leaving. But isn't that more reason for better family services?

Upon discharge, we visited her family doctor who had seriously questioned the prescription schedule they had her on! I cannot help but wonder if my mother would be further along in her healing process if she had not been stuck at this place. Oh, yes. We were literally stuck. Apparently, once you enter one center, it is nearly impossible to get transferred. So,...