Let's ask...[b][i]THE INTERNET[/i][/b]!

[quote="james prince "]the place is not clean, the staff are not too friendly, something is quietly missing, I do not know what it is but you not feel home. Front desk customer service 4/10, HR personnel 3/10 nursing staff 4/10[/quote]
[quote="wtarkin10"]To be perfectly honest the facilities seemed like an outdated hospital but at least everything was clean. Amenities, too, seemed to be in paucity. Each room is usually habited by two people per hospital norm. Every room though had a high definition television. This fact perfectly reflects the cold nature of a living facility; plopping residents in front of television in place of human interaction. The positives of this facility come from some of the smaller nuances provided. Immigrants from Korea are all put in one floor, providing a network for those who cannot speak English very well. Staff for them can speak Korean as well. This little touch was very thoughtful.[/quote]
[quote="Roger1"]I toured this place with some family members and noticed that it was not bad clean at first glance. Then when we began the tour we found that there were some serious issues we had with things. The nursing and administration staff were not actually unfriendly, they were simply not paying any attention to us at all. My brother went up to the front desk to ask a question about one of the services they provide, and was told that she was not able to help him because she was going to lunch. She did not offer to find someone to help him or even give him an idea of who else he could ask for help. There seemed to be no personal touch to this place at all.[/quote]

This nursing home has not been fined or denied payment in the last three years.

That was the best post I have ever read on this BBS.

Well done, Commander, [i]indeed.[/i]

All in 8 lines, as well! Well done, Commander!

As everyone here knows, for the last month or so I've been in a rehabilitation facility. It was Room 227a at Oakview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 2700 Barker Street, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland. I live in University Park, Prince George's County, Maryland. And here is how I chose to just escape, because I got sick of what happened.

On June 24 I discover I misunderstood that I was being discharged on the 25th, not the 26th as I thought I'd been told. So when I was meeting with him, I tell the doctor I'll take it, I want to leave. I'm excited and scared, so much I hardly slept the night before. I'm going [i]home![/i]
Well, while the Director of Social Services is arranging the final details for my discharge, she discovers - as I knew - that there is no way she can get Metro Access to reset my trip to today. (Metro Access specifically states they are not for emergency trips; that's what ambulance services are for.) So, at least - saving me the trouble - she has them cancel the pick up on Friday, because I won't need it.

I explain that I can simply go three blocks to the bus stop and catch the #5 into Silver Spring and get home from there. Apparently, notwithstanding that I am in a power wheelchair it's not acceptable for them to release someone to take the bus home, something about how Montgomery County doesn't like it.

[color=yellow]Did you really think about it
Before you made the rules
That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
[/color]- Bruce Hornsby, [i]The Way It Is[/i]

So she's going to call a cab, and even though they normally also require one day's advance notice to get a wheelchair accessible one she claims that (because of the amount of business they do) that she can get one sooner.

So while that is going on, I get my prescriptions for the medications I'm taking which will be for a couple weeks until I can get an appointment to see my regular doctor. I get the exit packet explaining the exercises and such I've been doing from rehab, and I take the medications for today that the nurse gives me.

Now I find the cab company she was using doesn't have any wheelchair accessible cabs available so she'll use Barwood, which is the largest cab company in the county. Supposedly they'll call me to let me know when I'm going to get a cab.

In the mean time I talk to one of the other residents (a permanent one) who's also in a power chair because he has lost one leg at the knee, and he regularly goes out. He informs me that if I want to catch the bus, I go up the road to the right, follow it to the end, that will be Capital View, and to take the bus to Silver Spring I would go across the street. This more-or-less confirms all the information including bus stop info I got over my computer from Google Maps the night before after I realized I wasn't going to be able to use Metro Access this time.

So then I'm sitting in my room with my two buckets of stuff I had brought over during the two times I went home, plus the bag of clothing changes and my wallet (which hangs on my neck and includes my badge holder for my Metro Access ID). Half an hour I'm sitting, bored, waiting for the Cab company to call me and give me some idea of how long I'm going to wait, Nothing. So I get disgusted and decide to do something about it.

[color=yellow]Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
Ah, but don't you believe them
[/color]

[color=#00ff00]Why do lock yourself up in these chains?
No one can change your life except for you
Don't ever let anyone step all over you...
Some day somebody's gonna make you want to
Turn around and say goodbye
Until then baby are you going to let them
Hold you down and make you cry...
You've got no one to blame for your unhappiness
You got yourself into your own mess
Lettin' your worries pass you by
Don't you think it's worth your time
To change your mind?
[/color]- Wilson Phillips, [i]Hold On[/i]



I decide to go down to the first floor to wait, and as it turns out the guy that drives the facility's bus is leaving and thought I thought I was getting on, so I asked him where he was going, and he says to get gas. So, anyway, I decide to roll outside to wait for the cab (or so it would look), following the bus driver, carrying my possessions in two half-size plastic tubs on my lap and my bag of clothes hooked to the seatbelt and sitting on the foot plate between my legs.

I wait for the bus to leave, then not seeing the cab after waiting a full two seconds, I (as you can guess obviously I had already done so long ago) decide to just leave and take the (Ride-On) bus home. I roll up the parking lot, over to the street and I get as far as the guard parking gate (open because it's during daylight hours, it is probably there more to keep people from thinking it's a public road instead of a dead end). That's when one of the facility employees catches up to me, and tries to stop me, imploring me to turn around and come back.

Now realize, nobody would have done anything if I had gotten in a bus, a van or a private car. But, me attempting to leave on my own power - or the power of my power wheelchair, anyway - is not acceptable. Also, a trip on Metro Access is $3.50. No problem. On Montgomery County Ride-On, WMATA Metrobus, and Prince George's Transit The Bus, the cost for a wheelchair rider is zero. Cost for a cab home would probably have been about $25. Yeah, I can afford it and if it had showed up faster I'd probably have taken it. But I was sick and tired of waiting, and for a service I was going to have to pay a premium price for, to add insult to injury.

So, anyway, I told the guy from the facility, "no," ignored him and kept on rolling up what is now Barker Street (it later changes its name to Grant Ave.) instead of the facility's private road, I continue to tell him no and roll on. As the other guy in the wheelchaIr told me, in about 2 blocks I reach Capital View Avenue, and I cross the street. As luck would have it, within about a minute the Ride-On bus to Silver Spring shows up. Well, the guy from the facility is still trying to get me to go back, So he gets on the bus and convinces the driver not to let me on!

Either some point before this or then I told him that if he tried to stop me I was going to call the police. Well, anyway I'm kind of pissed because, after the guy from the facility got off the bus, the Ride On Bus driver shrugged his shoulders, closed the doors and drove off. (Probably wanted no part in the altercation.) I guess the guy from the facility realized I was not happy and I probably was about 5 seconds from calling 9-1-1, he asked me my name and I said, "Paul Robinson," so he then went about a block away and presumably he called the place. I guess they figured it was a [i]fait accompli[/i] as I was on a public street, they didn't want to make a scene - especially one which I would have brought in the police - and didn't need to. So he left.

About 1/2 an hour later the next #5 showed up and I get on, then secure myself and ride away. The tubs are a bit heavier than I would have liked but I can set them down while riding. I get to Silver Spring and the connecting bus, the Metrobus F4, is about 3 blocks away, downhill, which still scares me a little; I'm out of practice doing movements outside since I'm mostly been indoors and haven't been on any serious incline. So I take the trip in pieces, set my cases down from time to time to rest and enjoy the view outside - the Discovery Channel / Discovery Communications has its headquarters across the street from the Silver Spring Station, so it's an interesting-looking split building - and finally I get to the F4. I got on and rode to the last point it gets near to where I live, which is Baltimore Avenue and East-West Highway, about 6 blocks away, mostly flat.

I could have gotten off the F4 at Prince George's Plaza and caught the 86 home, but it would have been as much as another hour to wait for that bus, and it only means I'm about 2 1/2 blocks away instead of 6. Being in a power wheelchair it doesn't really matter.

So i get off the F4, roll most of the way home, only the construction crew is out doing repair work because the water district - WSSC - has to replace a 50-year-old water main. So I have to dodge around the warning signs they put on the sidewalk to warn cars that the left or right lane is being taken out of service, often being impossible for a wheelchair user to get past. One of the workers runs up, and, bless his soul, moves the sign out of the way so I can get past.

I roll up the walkway, go into the front door, "and I am home, again" (Cue Elton John's [i]Blue Eyes[/i]).

===
"I'm Commander Tansin A. Darcos and I approve this message."