The Willows at Ramapo

I will start off by saying my mother has significant health issues, and she has been to The Willows twice. In 2024 following a heart attack she received excellent care in the PT department, she made great progress and moved on to assisted living. She was recently admitted in April for PT to help strengthen her after a fall at assisted living. She has been struggling as she has been through significant health issues over the past several months prior to this admission to The Willows, but her further decline in the past couple of months has been rapid. I understand that people at her age can have this happen, but why isn’t there concern from the medical staff and better communication to the family member who is responsible for her? I expressed concern due to her past unrelated UTI and sepsis hospitalization that occurred several months ago, prior to this stay. I let them know that confusion is not her baseline, she is very with it and confusion can actually be a sign that something is wrong such as a UTI. Overall the PT department and the nurses have been helpful and I know they were trying to help her get back to more independence, but it has been increasingly more difficult because she has not had energy and has had pain which they were trying to manage. As for the doctor assigned to her, he has never contacted me to return my calls with important health related questions about my mother and I live a significant distance away making it difficult to communicate in person because I am unable to visit every week. I am not aware of a patient/family portal to receive real time updates on any medical tests or notes. I have been told to call the nurses station and speak to the nurse for those, which I do regularly. When I expressed my legitimate concerns about my mother’s confusion and pain I am advised that the doctor would need to answer my questions. That’s fine if that is the protocol, but after leaving several messages for the doctor with no response, I find that is unacceptable. My suggestion is they need to improve their communications for the sake of their patients and the families trying to help. After more than 2 weeks of me calling to get assistance regarding what I suspected was a UTI due to my mother’s symptoms, she was rushed to the hospital because her blood pressure dropped. Unfortunately she has sepsis, a UTI and blood infection , sacral wound, along with a heart attack. I am not blaming The Willows for her health, but I am concerned that my requests to communicate with the doctor on her case were ignored. From my perspective she should have been checked more carefully for a UTI because she was not given an antibiotic to the best of my knowledge when clearly she needed it. I appreciate that she was rushed to the hospital which probably saved her life. I still, 2 days later have not been contacted by her doctor from The Willows. The nurse did call me to be sure I knew my mother was on her way to the hospital, but nothing from the doctor. As a family member I expressed my concerns multiple times and either was not taken seriously or someone dropped the ball but this is not acceptable. As for the facility, during this stay the private room was not very clean, furniture is worn out and the heating vents next to the bed under the window were filthy with dried on spilled substances, bed rails were old and sometimes not on. Food has improved significantly from 2024. Some staff aids are not very friendly, but most staff is. I would advise anyone considering The Willows to be on top of everything.

Able personnel , one I found outstanding was CNA Kim LeGoff very helpful and an amiable personality and Shirley a nurse along with the concierge Noah !! Also Ebony a nurse kind and caring. Good food and therapy, but there should be longer time in therapy as NY State law demands. Beauty parlor on the premises 2 days a week, woman charges reasonable rates!! One last mention for Aide Judith a caring and patient very helpful worker and last but not least I want to mention Kinberli Haye nursing supervisor who was very helpful and a charming personality to go with it. One down side which dropped my rating down to 2 was that I had to go to the hospital twice while at the Willows. Neither was spotted by the doctor or nursing staff.