Bill Leonard

Review of Eger health care and rehabilit...

At the risk of sounding extreme, Egers is a danger...

At the risk of sounding extreme, Egers is a dangerous place. I'm posting this as a warning to hopefully help in a decision to consider Egers. We were effectively duped by intake reps who came across as trustworthy, positive, and reassuring but the reality is something else.

My mother went to Egers for short-term hip rehabilitation. Before going, my siblings and I made separate calls to Egers representatives to determine their facility's safety (re: COVID). We were assured of strict protocols, including strict requirements for masks for staff and patients. Unfortunately, my mother was diagnosed with COVID after spending eight days in Egers (after she tested negative immediately prior to entering Egers). After a number of phone calls to Egers' staff, we were able to determine that Egers not only had many residents with COVID but that the floor they put my mother on had a high number of COVID residents (!). This info was never given to us prior and ... we only received it from staff members after VERY direct questioning. It is just not reasonable to maintain that all those whom we spoke with developed the same policy not to disclose this information. It has to be a strategy / policy that was planned by Egers and communicated to its staff that said to avoid disclosure related to their COVID numbers and giving out only the minimal information only when very specific questions were asked.

The story gets worse. The nurse who gave my mother the bad news did not have a mask on (!). Bizarrely, the nurse tried to allay my mother's fears by literally hugging my mother ... without a mask (!) and suggesting that 'we' (the staff) aren't worried about COVID given that most of the cases are mild (!). My mother reported that the nurse was a nice person and well-intended but ... this is very misguided. Worse, given that she could walk in without mask and not have any fears of this violating company protocol (along with her subsequent actions and comments) strongly point to the company's overall attitude towards its protocols. Given the staff's lax attitude towards COVID and the high number of COVID patients on the floor they put my mother on, it's not surprising that my mother contracted COVID.

My mother had to wait until she tested negative for COVID before leaving Egers. While there, she reported some positive things with respect to some staff members. However, in addition to the above serious issues, her general experience was a feeling of having to wait a long time for simple requests and being ignored (probably due to an overworked staff).