Today, Henryetta Lewis is still in a wheelchair and still suffers from incontinence. Her full-time caregiver, Rochelle, brings Lewis snacks and cigarettes while she watches TV. Begg helps her with daily chores and is doing all he can to fight her whopping medical bill.
Lewis is glad to be home.
Dora Vigil never left Casa Real. In April 2009, less than a year after she first entered the nursing home, Vigil fell while trying to get out of bed. According to Georgia Kelly, her niece, Vigil broke her femur—a fact that went unreported for 10 days.
“A nurse called me and said [Vigil] had fallen, and she usually bounces back, but this time she didn’t bounce back, so [the nurse] ordered an X-ray,” Kelly recalls.
Kelly, who lives in Albuquerque, says she packed a bag and headed straight up to Santa Fe to meet Vigil at the hospital.
At St. Vincent, Kelly says, the doctor told her Vigil’s leg had been broken for more than a week and that she would need surgery.
The surgery happened on a Saturday, Kelly says and, though Vigil was “in a lot of pain,” Kelly had to go back to Albuquerque for work. She visited Vigil as much as she could.
“I went back the day before she died,” Kelly says. “She said, ‘Take me back with you. They’re not very nice to me here.’” SFR
It would be wonderful if the NM Attorney General's office would do a thorough audit of CR's billing practices.
Very, very sad. My dear mother lasted one week at Casa Rael. Something needs to change for our elderly! Simply disgusting.
Casa Real understands two things: Money and Money
If families pulled their loved ones out of homes run by Cathedral Rock, they'd just get the message to change their name to something else. Most of these companies are shielded from liability by other front-companies that live on paper.
Cathedral Rock and Casa Real understand how to bill for as many services and procedures as possible to maximize their take from the insurance companies. This is without regard to the needs of the patients: Thus, maximize cash flow IN.
Understaffed and poorly trained staff cost less in the short run, thus: minimize cash flow out.
People who are afraid to lose the jobs they have but who are paid little and undertrained along with working in perpetualy understaffed conditions have little incentive to do more, to do better or to give a damn.
Casa Real is no place for a dog.
People sit in their own waste while Management regards patients as nothing more than billable units. And this is perpetuated by employees who know better but turn a blind eye so as not to lose their jobs. Conduct 20 interviews at CR and I'd be surprised if you did not hear 20 stories of problems, abuse and fraud.
However, Cathedral Rock also knows that there is little to no enforcement and the odds of them getting sued or audited for any reason are slim to none.
This company won't even pay employees via direct deposit so they can get an extra day of interest before they make payroll. In the electronic age, IMAGINE THAT.
Greed & privatization that fuels greed. This is the story, plain & simple ---What does the CEO of the Casa Ral Parent company earn per hour ( $500? $5000 -- some vn lrger, more avariciosly disgsting figure?)? What do they offer caregivers per hour (the SF miniimum wage, undoubtedly!) What hath greed wrought? Enough said.
Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center is called "St. Victim's" for a reason. The facility also has a sick relationship with law enforcement, whereby officers can handcuff anyone, take them to St. Vincent's, lock them in an examining room, put them in restraints, administer Haldol and draw blood - all while the 'victim' is known only as Jane Doe. This happened to me, and I have a lawsuit on the issue.