Alden Estates of Evanston

It’s clean, cheerful, good food, nice atmosphere BUT: the staff is below par. Administration, reception, PT, nursing and housekeeping do not have customer service in mind. They’re not rude but nobody’s friendly. they act as though you’re bothering them if you have a question. The only people that smile and are friendly are the people serving the food. Upper management needs to address this and have customer service training for their employees.

The nurses are very understaffed. If you’re worried about the medical issues of your family member, you should not choose Alden. The administration knows the fact about very poor response times, especially at night and in the early morning when families are not likely to be around. Even when we were present, the wait time for a nurse or CNA was sometimes over 45 minutes. We often heard other patient hollering into the hallway for assistance, and no staff would respond. Administration did nothing to change things for the better during the extent of our stay. We eventually transferred our family member, but we wished that we had been more savvy about rehab places as we would have transferred immediately. Nurse and CNA staff were very slow to respond to an emergency situation, and it was a close call. If you are just there for a minor problem, rehab and ice cream, you might be fine. It was very easy to change rehab centers. We transferred to Presbyterian Homes McGaw Care Center of Evanston, and it was a world of difference with attentive and caring nursing and CNA staff.

TL;DR– Meds are not given as instructed, nursing staff is incompetent, neglectful, and negligent, administration lies about getting things done. No one gives a shit except for the independent contractor therapists, the only ones who did a good job.
DO NOT SEND YOUR LOVED ONES HERE. My mom came here after a spinal fusion from the hospital where she had made great progress through good pain management. All that progress was lost during her short stint at Alden. I am lodging a complaint with DHS because it was so bad. Some of the highlights:
1. Due to «miscommunication» they did not give my mom her pain med the first night for 6 hours after her «scheduled» time, 10 hours since her last dose. She asked for them multiple times, to have minutes turn into hours. The thing about pain meds, you have to stay on top of the pain because once you’ve been laying there 10 hours since your last dose, it’s excruciating and hard to catch up. When asked about it the next day, the staff gave an attitude saying dosing every 6 hours was merely a suggestion and that my mom should ask for meds ONLY if she was in pain!!! After clearing up the «miscommunication», they missed dosing by anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
2. My mom’s bandage was negligently dressed. Instead of using the prefab dressing (really long Band-​Aid), the nurse decided to DIY a bandage by folding a piece of regular gauze in half lengthwise and taping it directly on her incision. The gauze was too short, leaving an inch of raw incision at both the top and bottom where it was brilliantly decided it was okay to lay down tape. Not lightly sticking tape, but the super adhesive clear duct tape they use to hold down IV’s! When another nurse was removing it, my mom was crying out from the tape and gauze being ripped from her fresh incision. That nurse merely walked away saying the previous nurse «just did it wrong.»
I’m not sure if it’s to save money or if the original nurse just did’t want to walk over to her supply cart, but I never got an answer as to why she thought this homemade dressing was remotely a sane idea. We were assured that this was unacceptable and the nurse was being retrained, but a 3 days later, a different nurse tried to do the same exact thing until my mom protested for a real bandage. Regarding the second instance, the administration again said they didn’t know why this happened. Lastly, they didn’t want to change the dressing unless demanded, even despite the doctor’s «suggestion» of a daily change.
3. They have this policy of no one goes to the bathroom alone, that you must be assisted by a staff member. All that meant was after you wait for them for 15 minutes, they walk you to the bathroom door then leave, not even asking if you need personal assistance. When you’re done, you’re supposed to pull a cord and after another 15 minutes or so of waiting, they walk you back to your bed. Pray you don’t need to pee relatively soon or if you need help wiping because they don’t even disguise their disgust at your needing bathroom assistance. When asked, the administration confirmed that they’re supposed to help fully, but that my mom «didn’t look like she needed the help» so they didn’t even bother asking. If they truly are a rehab facility specializing in back surgery recovery, they would know she couldn’t twist to do proper personal hygiene!
4. I met resistance every step of the way despite the administration’s stated willingness to help. I always had to call repeatedly and ALL my emails went unanswered. They were defensive, refusing to answer for the staff or follow through on the many promises made. They hindered the transfer process to a new facility with incomplete paperwork (conveniently missing the medications list).
5. Our visitors made comments about the incessant dinging– unanswered resident call bells. The staff blatantly ignored residents, sometimes pretending not to hear them even when face to face. Most of the time, the staff would be hanging around at the nurse’s station ignoring the call bells, one of which I timed to have rung for over 30 minutes.
We transferred my mother to a new facility after I got her crying on the phone saying she was so sleep deprived from all the noise and was in so much pain. WTF! After transferring, we heard about others who had a similar experience at Alden so unfortunately our terrible experience was business as usual. It’s abundantly clear Alden does not care about the recovery of its residents nor that they have any clue. So overwhelmingly awful, unprofessional, and downright negligent.

Update– my dad is now home, we can’t thank the staff enough for all of their help and support!

So far I’ve been very disappointed with this facility. First day I saw my dad he was in terrible pain and was told by the staff they couldn’t get the pain medicine for about 4 hours which they didnt. Then his phone wasn’t working for days, first I was told it was him that he couldn’t hear it, than it was broken and last the sound was turned off. Next they planned a meeting giving us one day notice, which we couldn’t go to, and called to tell them and they still had the meeting with my 86 yr old dad who has a fracture pelvic, can’t walk, has cancer, and is depressed. They informed him if he doesn’t work Harding in physical therapy he will have to leave since Medicare won’t pay. Wow great place!

Pro: Family is welcome to visit. they have free popcorn and ice cream for tjose who come with children to visit. The facility is clean and staff are very freindly. The PT staff is very patient and seem to care a lot about the patients.
Con: the food is terrible. I have not found a staff or resident who could say the food was good. They have a full kitchen staff so why not change the way they are seasoning (or should I say NOT seasoning) the food. Not all the patients are on a resticted diet.