He's a good man who deserves good care

July 3, 2007 12:52 PM

Looking for good/bad experiences with specific nursing homes in Chicago area.

After a long battle with Lewy-Body Dementia (okay, it was a one-sided battle) and a recent fall/followup CT scan that revealed the extent to which the disease has progressed, my mother has finally decided to stop trying to care for my father herself and put him in a nursing home.

This is happening in Chicago, and my mother doesn't drive, but she gets around very well and can take public transportation. Obviously she wants to be able to visit him, so consider the geographical range to be within an hour's public transit commute from the northwest side.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has personal experience with a given nursing home in the area to let me know if that nursing home is treating/treated their loved one well, or poorly. If Lewy-Body Dementia, Parkinsons, or similar diseases were involved, even more so.

posted by davejay to health & fitness (2 comments total)

No replies yet? Hrm. Well, I don't have any personal experience, but if you're in the area I would suggest going up to the nearest EMT in the ambulance bay of any hospital and asking them if there if they can give you a few names of good places to check out.

In my job, I see the good ones and I see the bad ones. I'm more than happy to tell people names of the good ones when I'm asked.
posted by drstein at 6:46 PM on July 3, 2007

I had to warehouse a loved one for 3 months once, and we used The Abbington. It's a chain, and if there's one close you should look at them.
They let me in to look at the place, and I know what to look for, and they had no qualms about the fact I crawled on the kitchen floor to look under the sinks and counters. Nothing in the refrigerator that was more than 1 day old, no odor, everything was clean. They had lovely furniture, many small areas for people to go and visit or watch TV, or play cards in small groups. They prided themselves on their gourmet food, which the patient would not eat, but would happily serve something else on request. I think the choices if you did not want what they were having involved hamburgers, chicken kiev, and a couple of other things that were just always available. They had activities going all day long, for those who wanted to. The nursing staff was largely Not From Around Here originally, but perfectly competent. Everybody was clean and well cared for. I did not visit the facility next door, which was designed for those with impaired mental functions, but I'd give it a look. The patient was not of nursing home age, and they made every effort to keep suitable roommates.
But, yeah, ask someone who knows in the medical profession. Ultimately, that's the best info you're going to get. (That's where we got this one.)
Price-wise, it was about $1,000 a month more than the Absolute Hellhole I also inspected.
Email in profile, if you want more.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:57 AM on July 5, 2007