The Rivers Assisted Living

Ross M

July 8, 2023

My elderly Mother had the misfortune of being a resident within the Rehabilitation section at the Rivers of Grosse Pointe from June 6 through July 3. I was with her most every day for 8-10 hours, and in the few days I could not be there, one of my siblings stepped in. Our overall experience with The Rivers left a lot to be desired due to the lack of consistent, compassionate, and professional care for my Mother. It became obvious very early that the Rehabilitation section is understaffed in all positions (Nursing, Technicians, Aids). It is even worse on weekends. This is based on my 28 days and over 250 hours of staying with my Mother to ensure she was getting the contracted services as promised. I give them a grade of 2/5 stars; and it would be worse except for the fact that most of the personnel seem to care about their residents and take personal accountability in their actions in the administration of competent and compassionate care. The problems we experienced were troubling and systemic. Their procedures are inconsistently applied or not known. Several of the employees lack adequate training, or they just do not care. It would be interesting to know what the average length of employment is for staff, but from talking with them there were several that were new or had less than 3 months. In two cases, they were temporary employees from an Employment Agency and it was their first day at the Rivers. Often, there were different interpretations about standard procedure depending on which employee entered the room. This ranged from personal hygiene (adult diapers/barrier cream/bandages/compression wraps), kitchen/nutrition (inconsistency in specified beverages), medication dosing, application of skilled nursing and availability of resident health information. Worse, some staff members would not take responsibility and blame it on someone/something else (another Technician or Nurse, the kitchen, etc.) In one example, it was suggested we inform the nutritionist regarding Mom’s beverage needs essential for food swallowing with every meal, which were then added to her resident profile. Seems simple enough, but nothing is simple getting things done at the Rivers. Even with this information printed on each meal ticket, at least once a day we had to ask this to be honored. I found out it is the Techs responsibility to dress each tray with resident’s beverages as it was received from the kitchen. The blame game went on most every day for this and other issues. I could always count on excuses from some staff members, not the accountability and competent service expected. Response times for assistance of any kind were poor, consistently averaging between 5 to 12 minutes. Upon arrival, they would press a button in the resident’s room console to confirm the request and silence the chime and corresponding hallway light. I grew accustomed to the regular sound of chimes while residents waited for help. I will refrain from calling out the staff by name in this review that were routinely dismissive and rude, of which there were three that come to mind. Two of them were nurses and were very difficult to deal with the entire time. Fortunately, the Physical/Occupational Therapy personal attending to my Mother’s needs were very capable and kind. Thank you, Amanda, Star, Mike, and Bert. Also, there are several Techs/Aids that were outstanding. Thank you, Armani, Carmel, Erica, Thea, Tenisha, Catherine (Cat), and Miss V. The same for Nurses Sade, Shakira, and Jasmin. The Rivers needs more people like this. Finally, I would not recommend The Rivers Rehabilitation Facility to anyone, regardless of age, condition or the availability of a family member or loved one to spend the time necessary for the advocacy of professional and compassionate care. It was a daily struggle with their systemic issues, inconsistency, and quality of care. Quite frankly, it was not worth it as there are other facilities available. I did briefly address my concerns with John Toupin, Administrator for The Rivers. Be the Change.