UNC Rex Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center of Raleigh — Local services in Raleigh

This place is appalling. My father was sent to this facility to recover after knee surgery. He ended up getting worse. The people there are incompetent and as another reviewer put it, they clearly don't like their jobs. They staff is giving titles like nursing assistant but they are nothing more than bad maids at best. There is nothing medical about them. To give some examples, I came to find my father in the middle of a bed changing. The "nursing assistant", more like prison orderly in my opinion, basically was trying to have my father hold himself while rolling onto his bad knee rather than calling for assistance. His gown was completely hanging off of him to where he was completely exposed and the nursing assistant didn't even care. I covered my father and asked her if she could be a little more mindful of his exposure for next time. Which I was met with a cross look. Another incident was in walking in the next day to visit with my father, I saw a pile of sheets that had blood on them sitting on a chair beside my father's bed. I asked my father how long the sheets had been sitting there and he said for a couple of hours. I immediately called to have the dirty sheets removed. The next day I come in and ask my father how he is doing. He says he has been calling for help and no one has come by to help him. I took a look and found that the call button that they had plugged into the patient station was frayed and when I pressed the button no lights lit up. I immediately yanked the cable out of the patient station as I used to work with these and I knew it would throw an alarm. Sure enough, about 15 mins later a nursing assistant walks in to see what triggered the alarm. I explained to her about the bad call button to which her response was to tell me that she would have to see if they had any more and she didn't think that they did. So in the interim, my father could pull the cable out of the wall himself to try and trigger the alarm. Now, my father is doped up on pain meds and can barely summon the strength the sit up and he's supposed to somehow yank a cable from behind while in the bed and unable to turn around to see the station. I was in shock. So, I went and found an empty room and asked another nursing assistant if I could get the cable from that room. She didn't care, and so I did. I connected the cable back to the station and tested its functionality for myself. I really started to become seriously concerned about the care my father was receiving here so I took off a day and spent pretty much the whole day with my father. Not once did anyone come by and check on him on there own. He had to call for everything and then wait 15-30 mins before someone would show up. Now that's just the day care. As for the medical care, there doesn't appear to be any. The "doctor" only saw my father on the day of admittance and has not been back to check on him since. The "nurse" has also not been by to check on my father on any kind of regular daily schedule. They let my father it in a chair for a whole day which caused more swelling and when asked about why they are not putting the ice machine we had been giving by rex hospital for his swelling, we were told that he is supposed to request that. Now I'm not sure, but I don't believe my father went to medical school and I'm pretty sure he's not affiliated with medicine at all. So the very notion that he is somehow on his own suppose to determine when he needs cold compress and when he doesn't kind of baffled me. What made it completely jump the shark for me was that they were expecting him to be doing this while he is doped up on pain meds?!? They tell you not to drive a car when you are on pain meds. Yet somehow these ppl are asking my father to be his own doctor while on them??? It is crazy and I really believe this place needs to be shut down and anyone associated with this place no longer allowed to participate in medicine any capacity whatsoever. Up to and including a job just changing the bed sheets. Horrible experience!!! ...

First, the location is on Rex way which is just off of Lake Boone Trail in between the main hospital entrance and the McDonald's Shopping Center. The address posted on Google Maps is the mailing address at Rex Hospital that the rehab facility is associated with. Once you turn onto Rex way it is the first building on the right however it is quite a ways down before there is anything on the right. The sign says Rex Rehab & Sleep Center but the Sleep Center has moved to another building, they just haven't changed the sign yet.

I have had two family members come here in the past year and after the first one's experience here, I insisted that the other one come here as well because they both received wonderful treatment. I'm not sure if those who had very negative experiences were maybe in long-term rehab instead of short-term rehab as my family members were since they are different parts of the same facility but all of the nurses, medical staff, nursing assistants, etc were wonderful both times. I have also heard bad things about Rex rehab in Apex though I've never been there, so to specify, this review is about Rex rehab in Raleigh.

I would say I have about 3 weeks experience with this facility as I visited every day or every other day. The nutritionist made up a heart healthy option for the patient who had problems with her GI system and couldn't eat the amount of fat that would be in a regular diet, though out of the menu given to them patients can choose whatever they would like to eat for that day from a list of options. Neither patient has complained about the food being cold or late. And the quality of the food taste-wise has been agreeable not just satisfactory.

When full mobility assistance was needed for anything that required getting out of bed, the patient only got a full-on shower twice a week as they needed a nurse to help them in the shower, however they were given the opportunity to have a in bath in bed bath given to them or done themselves every day. Occupational therapy and physical therapy would be scheduled the day before and the schedule for each patient written on the board in their room the night before so they could let any visitors know what time they would be busy getting therapy so we could plan our visits and each day the patient got a calendar with the days list of social activities.

There are activities planned for every day, usually several activities each day like an ice cream social or a game time so that residents are not isolated and bored in their rooms. Each bed comes with its own TV and the option to use headphones to watch TV so you don't interrupt anyone else if you are in a double room and there are sufficient electrical plugs so that patients can keep a phone and tablet and another device all plugged in to their bed and have access to them from the bed without having to have them unplugged. I think on three different occasions some agency brought in therapy dogs to interact with the patients in their rooms if patients wanted to interact with the dogs and that was a highlight for both family members.

There is a lovely little garden outside with paved walking trails for residence who are able to get around by themselves in a wheelchair or if they would like to go outside with their wheelchair or Walker with a visitor. There is even a fish pond and a small...

Given the multiple one-star reviews for Rex Rehabilitation of Raleigh, one would think that management would do something to change. They have not. This review of Jan. 2024 if for a 92-year-old patient who was to receive PT (physical therapy) as sanctioned by her doctors. PT consisted of one hour a day. Then for 23 hours they are confined to the bed. This went on for two weeks. Shameful. There are rehab centers across the USA that offer more. I invite someone at Rex Rehab management/board of directors to check them out and see how it's done.

Food: prisoners get better food. The Rex Rehab food 'perhaps' had been microwaved an hour earlier but then served in a non-chewable, rubber-like texture ice cold. Every meal. Cold spaghetti. Cold coffee. Cold hamburger. Pizza? A waffle with 3 slices of pepperoni on top... no sauce, no cheese. Couldn't chew the waffle but it could be used effectively as a door stop. Shameful. There are hospitals across the country, Rex Rehab needs to ask them how to treat their patients to real food so that they can heal and get better.

Next: staff. Rude, acted like you were imposing on them, short with their tone, annoyed. Even with a "must ask for assistance to go to the bathroom" doctor order, the staff, especially the evening staff, would take 30 - 45 minutes to come to assist. I do believe that there are more rights for prisoners. Then, certain staff members, would play a mind game of "did you ask or direct me to help you to the bathroom?". In other words, the entitled staff lacks empathy and is concerned more with themselves then providing care to patients in pain, confused in the middle of the night and will not help until the patient bended to their dictatorial mind games. Shameful.

Temperature: freezing. The rooms are exceedingly cold and the bathrooms have no vent for heat. Imagine you are sick and can barely stand and you're freezing the whole time. The staff can't be bothered for a blanket. You only have laying in bed praying to escape.

The entire culture screams "we don't respect our fellow humankind." The temperature, the non-food, the rude and entitled staff. I invite one of management to secretly send their loved one to Rex Rehab and see how they are treated. Again, it's shameful, horrible and the patients are left to basically see if they can survive and...