Landline Telephone question

November 11, 2024 9:16 AM

My mom has been in a nursing home about four years. For most of that time, we have been able to call her room's landline directly, and she has been able to call out. In the last couple weeks, something changed and we can no longer call her directly (we get a message that the call cannot be completed), though she can still call us. Any idea what might have changed or what we can do to call her directly (without getting a cell phone*)?

I now have to call the main line, get transferred to mom's wing, and then someone has to either bring her a phone or ask her to call us back. Frequently, nobody answers at the front desk, and if they do, same problem with getting an answer on her wing.

I've been trying to reach the social worker (or anyone who can at least look into it), but no luck so far.

*Why a cell phone won't work:
1. she doesn't know how to use one
2. she is bedbound and would be unable to charge it
3. good chance it will be stolen
(though I believe a couple of the other residents have one)

posted by Glinn to Technology (11 answers total)

When you were calling her directly, I'm assuming you just had to dial a single telephone number to reach her? (This is known as direct-dial, as opposed to having to dial the main number and being prompted to key in an extension)

This sounds like it's an issue with the nursing home's telephone system. They may have discontinued direct dial for reasons or their local PBX may be malfunctioning. Either way, you need to ask the nursing home's management what's going on because there's no way you can fix this on your own.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:29 AM on November 11 [19 favorites]

Sounds like they changed the phone system.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:29 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]

When you call the main number, is there an option to enter an extension to reach a particular room instead of having to go through a human switchboard operator? There's a slight chance that they've discontinued direct dial but you might still be able to reach your grandmother by her extension.

But yeah. This is on their telephone system.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:32 AM on November 11 [3 favorites]

I presume that a landline phone number is part of the cost that your mom/family is paying for her assisted living stay, so you need to take this up with the facility management and demand (politely at first, of course) that it get fixed asap.

My work phone is a voip DID and when they updated the phone system a while back they accidentally un-DID'd my number (meaning I could call out but could no longer receive calls in). Agree that this is a technical issue you have no individual power to access.
posted by phunniemee at 9:32 AM on November 11 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Yes, it was always direct dial with a regular number, no extensions involved.
Never been prompted to enter an extension - I would be happy to call in and then be prompted to enter an extension, but it is not set up that way.
I will keep trying.
posted by Glinn at 9:43 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]

Can you call her landline from a different number? Or it's blocked outright?
I had something similar happen to me where I couldn't call one specific number from one specific number and it turns out it had been accidentally autodetected as spam and i had to whitelist the incoming number.
posted by jozxyqk at 10:41 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]

Does her room have more than one phone jack? Different phone jacks would have different phone numbers associated with them, so that each resident can have their own direct line. Her phone might be plugged into the wrong jack.
posted by La Gata at 11:05 AM on November 11 [6 favorites]

Maybe her line is mixed up with another line as per La Gata above. First thing I would do is have your mother call the ANAC or Automated Number Announcement Circuit. Growing up this is how we would get the number of a pay phone so we could get a call back. In my area, simply dialing 958 would get the circuit.

Here is a link to how to get it now. How to identify the number I am calling from.. Have your mother follow these steps and confirm the number on her bedside is the number you want to use. If so, I think the problem is with the phone system at the home. Have her write down the number when it is announced. Then give it to you. You try calling that number and see if it rings on her phone.

Also, next time your mom calls you, what does the caller ID say? Is it consistent with what you know it should be?

(The ANAC lines are [phone], [phone], [phone], [phone] and [phone].. There maybe more. Try it from your phone. It works from cell or landlines.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:46 AM on November 11 [5 favorites]

One person who actually answers the phone at nursing homes is the admissions director. One idea is to call that person, explain the problem, express your concern (risk of social isolation) and ask who can help solve this .
posted by latkes at 11:55 AM on November 11 [17 favorites]

Kind of a long shot, but when you try to call your mom, are you using 10-digit dialing (including the area code)? Pretty sure all of the US has been migrated to requiring 10-digit dialing by now, but there may have been some legacy areas? Or perhaps try dialing 1+ 10-digit number and see if that works?
posted by xedrik at 8:38 AM on November 12

My uncle had an issue with the landline in his senior apartment. The landline was part of a package from his cable tv provider and his personally-owned router wasn’t automatically updating itself as one rented from the provider does. Either his personal router settings were updated to download automatically or he ended up renting a router from his cable tv provider; I don’t remember. His phone works now though.
posted by dreaming in stereo at 4:25 PM on November 15