Rose Mountain Care Center

When faced with the choice of a few facilities in Middlesex County, I called the administrator and discussed the strengths of Rose Mountain and requested a tour. Knowing it had superior surveys the past few years and was rated 5 stars, further research showed it exceeded the state and federal categories for resident care by a significant amount. So I scheduled a tour as everyone should do.
The administrator himself met me and my sister and cordially showed me around the building as we discussed resident care.
The first thing I noticed in the main lobby was how CLEAN it was and how the air was so fragrant! This continued throughout the building into the resident’s rooms and bathrooms.
We toured the first floor with it’s offices, laundry and kitchen areas then went to the resident’s floor. The first thing I saw upstairs was how happy the residents and staff were. Everyone was smiling and one of the Activities Aides, when the administrator introduced me and my sister, said «we have a good time here.»
I was told that there is a Chinese and American menu so there are lots of food choices, activities like Mah Jhong, blackjack, Bingo, trips to the community, a big screen, Chinese television, Chinese nurses, doctors and activities aides, volunteers every Wednesday from one of the local churches who put on exercise programs, musical events, a quaint, outdoor patio where bar-​b-​ques are held and all the residents love it!
It’s very convenient to Rte 1 & 18, has adequate parking and all in all our tour was a wonderful experience and we can’t wait to get our relatives into the facility.

This center can be a pain to find if you are coming from New York. It was a good thing I caught this place in the corner of my eye because I would have never found it if I didn’t see it. When get out of the exit, you are actually across from the center, but you can’t cut across it or make a U turn. You have to go about a mile away from the center to make the next available left turn. If you get lost, just remember it is near Rutgers University.
I haven’t been to much nursing homes, so I can’t base my experience off of it. This center looks really sad in my eyes. The rooms look like the ones you see in hospitals, but you can tell that some of the people living there try to make it like home. There’s not much outside the center to do either. You see a lot of sick people. It’s just sad to see. This center is more like a hospital than a nursing home. Although the staff are really nice.
Now why did I come here. My friend and I decided to help out our elderly lady friend to reunite with a long lost friend. They haven’t made contact in decades. Our elderly lady friend searched high and low to find her long lost friend. Well her friend is living in this center. They reunited and it was such a surprise visit for the lost friend. They looked really happy to be reunited again. I felt good and heart warming to help out someone.

Rose Mountain is part nursing home (long term care) and part rehabilitation center, which helps patients recover so they can go home. Its located off the exit ramp from Rt 1 to Rt 18 (across the highway from the old Fudruckers/​new Asian fusion place and next to the creepy office, right before the overpass). There is a back entrance that can be accessed via Paulus Blvd if you’re coming from Rt 18 rather than Rt 1.
My grandmother was admitted after being diagnosed with cancer and requiring more supervision and assistance. Ideally, she would be admitted for rehab, but we were considering transferring her to the nursing home side if she continued to need more help. My family selected Rose Mountain because of the large Chinese community and the representative informed us that the staff was bilingual and they had plenty of daily programming to keep residents busy. The residents are 50% Chinese and 50% not — programming is conducted in English mostly.
I spent a couple of days with grandma for several hours each. (Mind you, not just a quick visit — we’re talking over 5 hours at a time.) The dual nature of Rose Mountain allows them to admit more patients, but mostly at the expense of the patients who have limited mobility or speech. The patients who do best here are the long term residents who are self motivated and friendly. Bonus points of they play a good game of mah jong. The patients who suffer the most are the ones who can’t walk on their own, use the rest room, or speak. On the day I was there longest, the patients used the restroom when they woke up and when they went to bed — no one did a diaper check all day. The programming is slim and many residents sit and literally stare at the walls all day.
Food is most of the time okay to good. However cleanliness is an issue — the place does have a distinctive smell and I definitely had a roach run over my boot while sitting in the main hall. I also observed a soiled towel sit on the floor for about an hour and trash on the main hall floor sit for about three hours.
While about half the staff is bilingual, I had to watch a sad physical therapy session entirely in English when the gentleman had no idea what they wanted. He spent thirty minutes trying his best to comply when he clearly didn’t understand what the nurses were instructing him to do. It would be nice to have a PT person speak Chinese too. The PT room is also very small. You can’t more than 10 paces before having to turn around or go around an object.
I met Dr Gu, the primary physician here. She does speak both Chinese and English. Typically she does a review of each resident here once of week, which is fine for long term residents. I was under the impression that she does more exams for rehab patients or hospice patients, but wasn’t present for any exams. From family reports, the exams were cursory and not thorough. The one time I met her, she was complaining that the pharmacy screwed up an order, when the nurses had written down the order wrong and then the pharmacy’s fax machine appeared to not be working. As the facility physician, it is her duty to make sure that the orders are correct and to follow up that they went through — so it behooves me that it took 36 hours to fill an easy prescription for pain medication. (During which the patient ultimately suffered). Perhaps it can be blamed on a poor relationship with the pharmacy, but her behavior was unprofessional and inappropriate. My family actually had to call the administrators to page her through the night.
I commend the nursing staff for working as hard as they do. Most of them are friendly and generous and genuinely good at what they do. (There are also a few that royally suck). For a nursing home facility, the level of care is adequate and a good number of residents are happy with the community there. However, there aren’t enough staff, time, or motivation to provide a high level of day to day care as a rehab center. The health and safety of residents who cannot move or communicate is very questionable.
Regardless please, please — go visit your relatives more often.