La Jolla Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

A former facility owned and operated by the highest rated Scripps Health organization now is La Jolla Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, but near Scripps in the world loved San Diego village of La Jolla. .. five blocks from the La Jolla Shores beach. .. and near Scripps hospitals and research facilities.
La Jolla Nursing and Rehabilitation, licensed for 135 patients, is staffed iby Scripps, Sharp Memorial, Kaiser Permanente physicians, and UCSan Diego. A highly trained corps of nurses and technicians, in a park like setting.
As two of my friends and I toured the beautiful center we were whelmed by the gracious staff, the cleanliness of every inch, and even enjoyed a splendid meal in a lovely dining room. Could there be a finer facility? We doubted it and their Father now agrees. He has been a happy member of the LJNR
for more than two months.
Trophies on the walls are all 5 of 5 stars. .. well there was one 4 of 5 star rating. .. and it was proudly displayed with the number of adjoining recent
national awards!

Superb, professional, compasionate staff. Extremely well run facility.
A recent unforeseen emergency situation that presented itself a few days ago, and which could have led to serious (potentially fatal) consequences, was avoided by the well trained staff that literally ran to my assistance, thus preventing my fall to the ground as I lost consciousness and colapsed.
Were it not for the staff that acted in the best written text book case manner, involving not only immediate in-​house first aid, but also the timely call to the paramedics for my transfer to the emergency room at Scripps Memorial Hospital (another first class institution), I would probably not be here recuperating from a crisis that could have had a VERY bad ending.
I write this as my expression of gratitude, apprectiation, and recognition to all the staff and management of the La Jolla Nursing and Rehab Center. I am fortunate to be in the hands of this fine team of professionals
Angel Xavier Sustaeta

Great job La Jolla nursing and rehab! I watched a little old man go from extremely depressed to one of the most talkative and social people in the facility. I give credit to the staff for pain attention to this man and fulfilling his needs, which direct impacted his behavior. I don’t know how long he’s going to live, but the rest of his life will be more fulfilling thanks to the staff that was aware!

I must say that La Jolla Nursing and Rehab is a top notch facility and would highly recommend them to anyone who has a loved one that needs rehab or nursing after a surgery or hospital stay. My dad had hip surgery and needed to go to a rehab afterwards and the staff and nursing care was wonderful. I met Jill in the hospital and she was wonderful in getting us to the right place and took such good care of us.

La Jolla Nursing and rehab has a great therapy team. They really do a good job of getting you back home. The nurses are excellent. The nurses were kinds and always trying to make your stay as pleasant as possible. The food is really good especially if you eat in the dining room. The omelet bar on Fridays is great. My family appreciated the free valet parking.

Nice clean place with friendly staff. Always willing to help out patients and families.

My father was in this facility due to a leg amputation for rehab. The staff allowed my father to fall 4 times from carelessness on their behalf. The staff did not follow directions from my father’s doctors, and gave him medication that the doctor discontinued. My father suffered injures to his other foot, and died due to an infection in his other foot that was supposed to treated from wound care team after his several falls in the facility. Please don’t send your loved one to this place. My father should not have died due to this. I have reported this place, due to this. The nurses don’t call you back, and doctor is not thorough. Now I’m spending the holidays without my father and I’m devastated.

My elderly parent stayed here because it’s the only place close to us that the insurance pays for. There are many basic improvements they need to make, and they are reasonable expectations of any competent rehabilitation facility.
Don’t let the façade of the lobby and decent front rooms fool you. The back rooms are horrific. My parent was placed in a small room with three rickety old beds which were two feet apart. The bed and the old worn-​down dresser dated back to the 1950s, and not in a good way. For privacy, I pulled the curtain, which was blood-​stained and shabby. It was extremely hot that day, and there was no AC in the room. There was a large, loud fan, blowing hot air. My parent was frightened and depressed, and when I asked for a decent room, they told me there would be a bed available the next day. My parent was so uncomfortable in the hot, cramped room, and I was really worried, so I found one of the nurse assistants, and she said there WAS a suitable room, it just had to be cleaned, and she would help us.
When we finally got a nice room a couple of hours later, the food tray, including used cups, and the bathroom had not been cleaned, including an overflowing trash can. I ended up wiping everything down myself with sanitizer gel after asking if someone would finish cleaning and no one came.
Also concerning is that the staff needs good supervision and mentoring. While some are kind and want to help, they lack experience, judgement, and competency. One employee was texting rather than working every time I walked by the nurses station. Even after several reminders, the staff did not ensure that my parent’s medications were administered which created a medical emergency. My parent had to tell both the CNA and nurse to call 911 when the emergency occured because they were at a loss what to do.
Security was also a concern. I could walk in and roam around anywhere without anyone asking me to sign in or out. They also «lost» my parent’s personal belongings. There was no apology, and apparently, no way of keeping track of belongings, a simple system to set up.
As a manager myself, I see so many substandard practices here that could easily be fixed with good ownership and good management. There’s a sign out front that says it won an endorsement from US News which is also appalling – what must the other rehab places must be like if this was named one of the best?

My mother has been in La Jolla Nursing and Rehab, a Covenant Care facility, for the last few years. About a year ago, under La Jolla Nursing and Rehab ‘care’, she almost died, and was put under hospice care — at the nursing home — by outside hospice nurses. The hospice nurses took great care of her, and trained the La Jolla nurses how to take care of her. She fully recovered and was taken off hospice care.
I live far away in a different city and keep in touch with my mother on the phone.
Until a month ago, La Jolla Nursing and Rehab had cordless phones that the nurses would bring to residents when an outside call came in. A month ago, without warning, the La Jolla Nursing and Rehab administrator removed the cordless phones. So, suddenly without warning, I could no longer speak with my mother. The nursing home said I could call AT&T to set up a land line next to my mother’s bed. I called AT&T and was told the nursing home had to do some set up on their end first. I left messages with the nursing home about it. It took a week or two to get a return call from the nursing home, in which they said AT&T was wrong and I should call AT&T back. I called AT&T back and AT&T said they no longer service La Jolla Nursing and Rehab, and that another phone company must be servicing La Jolla Nursing and Rehab. Over the past week I left two messages with the administrator about this, as well as two messages with the social services representative, asking who is their new phone company, but have not yet received a return call.

This place has changed a lot. The service it’s wonderful! Love their candle light dinners, her physical therapies are very promising. I have my mom there and every time I speak with her she has nothing but good things to say… She’s happy I’m happy! Keep up the good work la jolla!

I notice most of the comments are either earlier this year or in 2012. I can tell you there have been many positive changes to this facility. With a new Administrator, Director of Nursing and Rehab director there a different direction this facility seems to be going. New menu, new offerings, more customer service and prompt attention to name a few. Those «uncaring or uninterested» staff are being weeded out. They are trying to make the patients have a more comfortable experience. Nothing is like home but this facility is trying their darnest to come as close as they can. I hope others will give them a try.

As a local nurse in La Jolla I have plenty of great feedback from patient that have gone to La Jolla Nursing and Rehab. I have had several patient ask to return after recent visits. Especially for short term rehab after orthopedic procedures. the rehab team has provided agressive rehab that has enabled disharge home indepenedently. They work with many insurance plans like Blue Cross that most others won’t.

My mom was here for 7 days after a hip replacement and repair of a torn muscle in her glute (butt).
She was put in a room with a woman that had the TV on full blast from the time she woke up until they made her shut it off at 11pm.
My dad requested a room change right away.
The PT person came to get her up and do an assessment on her mobility. She had her session, then requested to use the toilet when she did everything but pass out. The staff seemed to respond well with the exception of a few times when I was left alone holding her up and wiping her face with wet paper towels. Someone should have been with her at all times during this episode.
On the second day my mom was having anxiety issues so she was given Ativan which seemed to ease her. The room was freezing cold and never got warm.
That same night they gave her the Ativan and Ambien which interacted in a very bad way giving her hallucinations causing her to fall/​climb out of bed and crawl to her cell phone to call home (my dad, who called me). I came down there at 1:30 in the morning to find her terrified and stayed there until I was sure she fell asleep.
In the meantime, she was alone other other than random checks by staff. The RN in charge put me on the phone with my mom’s supervising doctor to make sure the drugs were removed from her meds list.
She was still feeling the effects of the drugs in the morning so my brother came and stayed with her during the day.
I returned after work to find her in a new room which seemed to be ok with the exception of no remote for the TV. We NEVER did get one and no one followed up on it after my initial request. This was when I first noticed the ants on her night stand. I killed then thinking they may have been from a small vase of flowers.
On the third morning, I came with some snacks for her since the food was disgusting. I brought everything in sealable ziplock bags and plastic containers. I also brought a universal remote and Lysol wipes. I wiped down all of her handrails, her grab bar, her tray table and her night stand. I also killed a few more ants.
On that night she became violently ill, vomiting and having diarrhea. She was sick all night.
On Monday morning she requested some anti-​diarrhea medication and was not given anything.
On Tuesday, same thing no meds for the diarrhea.
On Wednesday, once again no medication whats so ever for the diarrhea.
At this point the ants seemed non stop although someone has sprayed with Windex to kill them earlier.
At this point a family member was there most of the time, my dad in the day, my niece and sister or myself in the afternoon. She couldn’t eat much of anything, they kept bringing her the regular meals and was not offered anything like crackers or ginger ale for the nausea. Fortunately we had that stuff for her.
My dad had been in contact with her supervising doctor and had already requested to move her out of the facility. He just needed to find her a bed somewhere else.
This is when a formal complaint was opened regarding her care
I also discovered that while she was crapping her guts out, they were still giving her stool softener! I was really mad and told then to cancel that order.
On Thursday she was waiting to be moved still when I got there for my «shift» of hanging out with her. My dad had a surgical procedure and was home in bed trying to handle getting her moved through the patient liaison.
The director of nursing came in and tried to ask her why she wanted to move to a new facility. I told him he should call my dad at home who was handling everything. He continued to ask her which was making my already sick mom feel worse. He was persistent and said things like:
«you don’t want to go somewhere else, they will have to start all over with you»
«let’s forget the past and go from here»
He finally left after me telling him to call my dad once again. I was really getting pissed.
Once again this guy shows up and tells my mom she has a case of Clostridium Difficile because they did a stool sample test. He gives us a handout of it and then tells me to be very careful as it’s highly contagious. *** No precautions we offered or taken by the staff in regards to this.
He then tells my mom:
«call your husband and tell him you want to stay here“which he actually repeated before he left the room.
I was furious at the point with the entire week of suffering my mom experienced.
*** As it turned out, C. Diff is in everyone and is often transmitted in nursing homes and hospitals. We did NOT have it. We did however get what my mom had, which was either the Norovirus or the Novovirus. The we being: my dad, my sister, my niece, my nephew and myself, as well as the patient in the other bed.
This means it was from the facility and/​or the surfaces of the facility.
Never did I see anyone clean any of the hard surfaces with any kind of disinfectant or bleach.
My mom was moved to a new place on Friday to our relief!

If you have the option, don’t bring your loved one here. While there are a handful of great individuals, most of the employees look like they rather not be there. The facility is easy on the eyes and clean, I’ll give them that.
I know that nurses and care staff employees get a bad rep that isn’t fair to them because their job demands so much, however 65% of the staff here really should not be in healthcare. My family rotated shifts so that someone was always with my father, even through the night. Plus, my dad had a massive stroke so he wasn’t able to speak or even gesturally express himself enough to get what he needed.
Having spent approximately three to four nights a week here, I saw and experienced things you really wished you’d never did. I can cite a quite more than a few instances in which the care of a staff member (s)/team was highly questionable, but I’ll cite three… and only three:
1) A Senior RN during night shift had come into the room to give my father his meds. She also needed to replace his feeding tube (as is done when his formula is also replaced). She made multiple attempts at replacing the feeding tube connector and could not get the machine to start the feed. After twenty minutes, she asked another RN to help her with it. It worked for a few moments and again the machine stopped due to some mal-​installation of the equipment. She continued to fiddle with this for a long while til it finally worked. After all that, I noticed that she had forgotten to give my dad his medicine. So I kindly reminded her. She thanked me for reminding her and said she’d return to provide him his medicine shortly. And well what do you know, I slipped into a short nap, the shift changed happened and she never returned nor inform anyone of the needed task. I told the incoming RN that my father’s evening medication was missed (at least six hours passed). He said, «oh it’s not big deal, they’re just vitamins and supplements anyway.» Uh! no. My father wasn’t prescribed any vitamins and wouldn’t be receiving vitamins via pills because he’d be getting them through his feeding formula. Not to mention that he didn’t get his dose of water for that evening through the tube because of the missed medication. (It’s a wonder why they prescribed him Chapstick). So here you have a forgetful RN who does not know how to use common equipment and another RN who is trying to sweep mistakes under the rug. Just great.
2) Fatima is the best nurse ever and I am so grateful that she is a nurse because you just don’t get CNAs that care as genuinely as she does. She happened to be helping out on the night shift one day. She usually does dayshift so it was a pleasant surprise to see her kind face during the evening. It happens that that night, two patients had fallen out of bed, at the same time. Fatima was coming from helping at a different section of the center and immediately attended to both as swiftly as possible. Meanwhile, there was a CNA who was «on her break» for the past hour sitting comfortably in the chair who was in earshot of one of the patients who had been weakly calling for help. This idiot CNA paid not a single ounce of attention to Fatima as she paced between the two rooms and assertively informed her that «two people have fallen». Seriously, this CNA barely cared to acknowledge Fatima and continued to surf the web on her phone. Fatima is outstanding but she is still one person and she deserves a better team.
3) After a CNA was done changing my father, she was peeling her gloves off when I informed her that my father’s bed pad was still wet. «It’s just a little bit wet! You want me to change the whole thing? (sigh!)» was the most mature and professional response she could conjure. I was too tired to respond to her whiny retort, noting she didn’t even bother to check. So I politely informed her that it was wet further above his waist line under his back where the wetness is not visible because he’s laying on it. Duh. She moved my father a little to discover that my father was still laying in a heavily urine-​soaked bed pad. This also was during the evening shift, middle of the night. Had no one been with my dad, who knows how long my father would have been lying in urine before the morning shift would make the discovery.
Most of the therapists are helpful minus the one occupational therapist who was eating Cheetos while my dad was sitting to work on his balance. The OT’s grubby fingers were still orange when he was assisting my father.
Anyway, I really do appreciate the handful of individuals that really did make my father’s stay a little more pleasant. I only wish I remembered their names because they deserve to be recognized: Fatima, there was the encouraging PT lady sorta short with brown streaked hair, the PTA who was always helpful and cheerful, and the two RNs who helped me learn most of what I needed to know in preparation for my father’s home-​discharge.