OK, Maybe Things are not Quite as bad as Denmark

I woke up late today with a call from dad. I was half-awake when I spoke with him, so I do not remember what we discussed. I jumped out of bed, walked the dog, and was off. When I arrived at the Jewish Home, Robert told me today he went on an Adventure! Using his walker, the occupational therapist and he went all the way outside of the facility (a significant walk), across the street, into a grocery store (for New Yorkers: bodega) and pretended to shop for milk and eggs. Now, using his cane, after his simulated shopping seminar (alliteration aggressively asserted? affirmative!), the OT and Robert walked across the street, into the Jewish Home and back to his room. This is a milestone event. I can not remember, before his fall, the last time dad was outside of his apartment, let alone shopping. I'm very glad this type of simulated real-life therapy is occurring. Due to the following, I expect much more to come!

I then met with the Administrator of the Jewish Home (not an assistant for once). I told him I needed a social worker to go over my Dad's release plans and explained why the person currently in charge, the Assistant Director of Social work, was not acceptable. He called the director of the Physical Therapy department but she was not in. He then personally walked me back to Robert's building and went to meet with her. Her office is on the third floor of my dad's building, so I went back to dad's room.

Sidebar: I am amazed and delighted at the level of access concerned family members are given, up to the highest level. I just walked to security, told them I had a concern and they put me on the phone with the head of the entire operation. I was invited up to his office within 30 seconds. They truly want issues resolved and have bent over backwards to regain my trust.

Shortly afterwords, our actual social worker came by and talked to us about the situation. I explained the issues we were having and she told us everything would be taken care of. Dad's substance abuse worker also dropped in for a chat. He, very reasonably, explained the meeting may have gone differently if I had not just quit drinking, resulting in a short temper. I agreed, but stuck to my guns about the form signing duplicity. He did not disagree on that front.

After he left, the head of the facility came by and introduced us to the Assistant Director of the Physical Therapy department, as the head was unavailable. I inwardly cried "Higher Power, protect me from Assistants!" Fortunately my cry was unneeded, as she sat with us and went over the goals originally set and worked out what was missing from our expectations. Taking notes the whole time, she agreed to add work on going to a store for groceries and sundry items, walking on uneven surfaces, practicing stair climbing, stair descending and kitchen safety.

She was a very pleasant woman, fulling informed about dad's care to date and was able to describe how we could reach our goals together.

Barring one interaction with the Assistant Director of Social Work, our time with the Jewish Home has been top-notch, and the Administrator and Assistant Administrator of the entire facility have promised to change the training to ensure this never happens again. I don't blame the social worker at the discharge meeting for the mess-up. This is a training issue. I believe there was no intent to deceive, just improper instruction to staff that is being address as I type.

While it is much better never to have a customer (even in health care, people are customers to some degree) satisfaction issue, the way you handle the problem can make someone never come back and curse your name to everyone they meet. On the other hand, if you handle an issue with true remorse, resolve the concern, and do so in such a way that is above and beyond what is expected, even those you have wronged (actually or imagined) will sing your praises from the mountaintops!