GEM Transitional Care Center

Thank you Gem. Thank you for being a legitimate nightmare and horrendous place. True to the fears that seniors have when needing care from a facility. Skilled Nurses? Where? Maybe the one who gave my aunt medication causing her to have immediate chest pains and feel like she was suffocating… not only did she not respect my 91 year old aunts needs, but dismissed her requests to be gentle when treating her legs with open wounds causing her pain. My brother and I are truly disgusted with this place. When she was rushed to emergency, they claimed they did not have our contact numbers although they had been calling me everyday for other matters. When the ER doctor asked what was given to her to cause her to react the way she did, they gave my brother and I the run around, took 15 minutes to read a chart, claimed they gave her nothing then norco, then iron, and the best was when they told my brother they could not share her chart with him even though different excuses had already been given and the ER doctor was asking. Suspicios much? I would say so. They parade all these plaques on their walls about 15% reduction of pain medications and antipsychotic meds… of course… if you do not give meds needed then you can celebrate saving money while taxing the life out of Medicare insurances as proven by the screams of a lady down the hall heard on all 3 days my aunt was there. All that staff is unprofessional and unable to answer a simple question in regards to medical updates and treat you like you are bothering them. Not to mention, they have proven to be the biggest bigots in the world as they discriminate against the elderly. Ageism is a real thing. My aunt is fully conscious and alert in regards to all of her affairs, but was ignored and treated as she had dementia and was unaware or unable to make decision regarding her own body. Is it possible to give them ½ a star?

Horrible food and the staff mislead on when your getting out. SUSAN from
is incompetant

My 97 yr mother has been very well cared for the week of May 2015, she is recovering hip replacement. They have properly treated her with respect. They have her walking, she is clean and they are controlling her sugar levels. They have trimmed her nails & done her hair.
Some of the ratings are older on this does not reflect today’s employees and care. And some are not rated because they forgot to fill in stars. USC keck recommends this place. We are happy.

Best rehab staff in the san gabriel valley. I recommend this facility to all my friends and family. The nursing staff is professional and skilled

I have very mixed feelings about GEM:
1. The facility itself is beyond old & ugly; totally depressing.
2. The food is inedible.
3. There are some angels working there. Others, not so much.
4. My husband picked up 2 free-​of-​charge infections there.
5. Rocky, the PT guy, is the best ever, period.
6. Odessa, LVN: two big thumbs up.
7. The docs are not around very much.
8. Showering is done often.

They took GREAT care of my mom during her month long stay after she had her entire jaw removed and rebuilt after cancer.
They were respectful, prompt and attentive.
Due to the fact that my mom had her teeth removed, she was given a special diet of purreed food only. They made it as possibly appealing as they could for her.
The case managers were very sweet and helpful.
As for the facilities: they were a bit dated, but my mom wasn’t walking around much. What we loved is that she had a room and they gave her the bed next to the sliding glass doors which looked out onto a patio area. It also provided a little more room for us when my mom had multiple visitors (rooms don’t have much space for more than one guest)… so we would go out and sit right outside her room on the patio. It provided a nice break.
I saw a review that said the physical therapy was a joke, which I totally disagree with. They were patient and VERY helpful to my mom, who had a bone taken from her leg to rebuild her jaw. They helped her relearn to walk, use the toilet and really started her off on a good foot.
If needed, which I hope it is not, we would definitely return to Gem for nursing care.
THE ONLY NEGATIVE we found was a nurse named Marsha, whom we asked that she would never be allowed to be assigned to my mom again… and they kept that up. We truly never saw her after I complained. She was not nice to my mom and refused to give her ice chips (one of the only things that felt good in my mom’s mouth) because she said my mom had «had enough». Grrrr. Still pisses me off. But at least they kept her away after I complained. I am hoping they fired her, actually.
Rant over.

In the interest of full disclosure you should know that my mom spent her next to last days here. So I am definitely biased but trying to be honest and informative so that this is helpful to others in what is an excruciating and emotionally trying time. My sister and I had to quickly find an assisted care facility for my elderly mother (a retired RN) when Keck kicked her out after repairing (another story) her broken femur. Our experience occurred about 14 months ago. Keck recommended GEM along with a few others and out of the two we toured, we picked GEM. The recruiting staff we interviewed seemed professional, compassionate and competent. They give you a fair tour of the plant.
Facilities: This has a very industrial feel to it, nothing soothing in the surroundings as it is in a busy commercial/​medical area of Pasadena. The hallways and common areas are just ok-​clean. The nursing home smell is just about everywhere but I expected that. Food service is unattractive and true to stereotype. In fact, patient food service at other hospitals I had the chance to observe around that same time were much better and surprisingly not-​that-​bad. Who decided on those salmon-​colored plates you see in care facilities anyway? Access and visiting are good. You can stay just about as long as you want; however, seating in patient rooms is nearly none. If your loved one is mobile, you can visit in one of the common areas. TVs are early-​90s vintage. It was mid-​August and the A/​C was not up to the task. A few requests to the nurses resulted in no appreciable improvements in air handling.
Staff: The nurses are attentive, helpful and nice. The advertised doctor is barely noticeable, seems like this is a side-​gig for them, we were never sure when they were going to show up. The physical therapy is a joke. Unlike the other review, the only one who did extra to get mom into therapy was the lead PT. The others went through the motions with little enthusiasm. Her plan (seems like most of the other patients were on a similar schedule) encompassed two 30-​minute sessions — one AM and one PM — except on Saturdays (only one) and none on Sundays. So start with a regimen that has you sedentary for 23 hours a day. The therapy itself was of such low exertion, it is hard to imagine being able to build any strength and rehabilitate through it. This was not just related to my mom as we saw the other patients doing similar exercises. If you are working with the nurse or are indisposed when the PT comes for your session, it is likely that you will not go to that session because they did not come back, except for the lead PT.
As I said at the start, mom was not a win for GEM; in fairness she was pretty weak coming in, although she was active until her accident 10 days earlier. After about 10 days at GEM, she caught an infection that elevated her temperature to 102+, whereupon she was taken back to the hospital. Bottom line: If you want to get better and have the will to do so, this might work for you. If your loved one requires more motivation and encouragement (like ours did), look elsewhere.

If there was a way to give MINUS stars for this hell hole it would be more appropriate! My best friend was sent to GEM after having a full knee replacement at Huntington Memorial Hospital, the night she arrived she was greeted with hostility and rudeness from the staff, the details of the next two weeks horror story could fill a short book, although there were some staff that were quite nice and attentive, for the most part this place is staffed with poorly skilled and unorganized employees, from the administrative staff, physical therapists, nurses, caregivers and housekeeping, those staff that are actually «skilled» would do best searching for employment elsewhere, as working for an organizing such as this could only be a detriment to their career. Worst of all she was sent home way to early and poorly prepared to manage on her own, although who in the world would want to stay longer in this mismanaged facility, whomever has writing the favorable reviews for this place must be deaf, dumb and blind! The poor reviews are very accurate! Look around there must be better places. The owner of this place should be ashamed!