Sante of Arizona

My Husband had hip replacement surgery July 14th, had some heart issues afterward so his physical therapy was delayed several days. After his heart issues were resolved he was discharged from the hospital and taken to Sante' to begin physical therapy on July 21st 2014. We were a bit taken back by the fact that he was discharged at noon and Sante' didn't come to get him until 8:30pm but we were just glad to finally be there. The place is opulent and I was very excited that the hospital recommended such a beautiful place. Fountains and chandeliers abound. The first day was great, after that it was a shockingly neglectful experience. My husband is a nice, "I don't want to bother anyone," kind of guy.
The first problem was pain medication being delayed. At the hospital we were told to stay on top of the pain because it's too hard to become pain free again once you have waited too long to ask for pain medication. Also he was to have a pain pill 1/2 hour before physical therapy so it would be less painful but they continually gave it to him immediately before therapy not giving it a chance to kick in. They got him a pain patch that didn't work and when I spoke with a nurse and asked what it was and how many milligrams she got attitude. She made me feel like I had no business asking. I was worried about him having a patch AND a pain pill. He seemed so disoriented. When he asked to have the pain pill 1/2 hour before therapy, they would not. Then he developed an open wound on his heel that was causing him pain and he was afraid of an infection setting in. Our daughter discovered the wound on a visit and asked someone to come and look at it on July 22nd. They did, dressed it and were fully aware of it. However, after the first fix, they did not look at it again. On July 23rd at 9am he asked them to look at it again as it was painful and he thought the dressing should be changed. On July 24th, 24 hours later, still no one had come to look at it or change the dressing. That same day his pain meds were an hour late. Upset that my loved one was suffering. I called to talk to someone in charge at 9am. I was told who was in charge but that she was in a meeting. At 10am I called again and was told she was still in a meeting. Same thing at 11am. I began calling the corporate offices and left messages on answering machines from the CEO on down and got no human being to speak with. By noon, 3 hours after I began calling, still no return phone call from anyone. 4 hours later, I wrote an email explaining everything to the only email address I could find belonging to Sante’ and then headed to the facility to help my husband get the care he needed. By the time I got there, it had all been taken care of. The pain med schedule was changed to 45 minutes before physical therapy and his heel wound was dressed while I was there and we were told in detail how it would be cleansed twice a day every day and measured once a week to see if it shrank or got bigger. We were so happy. Both relieved that the care would be great now and we wouldn't have to worry. WRONG! The 25th came and went...no heel cleansing. Then someone came into his room and said he should be tested to see if he needed speech therapy because he hesitated too long to reply to questions he was asked. He was asked where he was. He said I know where I am but I don't know the name. (He was brought in at night, heavily medicated, no big need to know the name of the place. He knew he was just a few blocks from the hospital). She was insistent and said something about his brain-speech co-ordination and he got scared. He felt they were going to force him into tests he did not need or want. He called me in a panic. The heel wasn't looked at again until the 26th. The same day I went and got him the heck out of there! As we were leaving, another couple was standing in the hall asking why their therapist hadn't shown up at the designated time. We felt bad for them. We are especially worried about the people in there who have no family to look after them. There are usually 5 nurses, aides or whatever their function at the desk. The rest of the crew is in meetings and unavailable. We definitely do NOT recommend this place. I'm not saying everyone that works there is uncaring....just that we didn't seem to see anybody that was. We saw annoyed and defensive people! The nurse manager and the nurse coordinator apologized, promised it would be better and talked a good game....but unfortunately....no lasting action!
I feel that the people who work there have just gotten complacent and lazy and SOMEONE should step up and change that. I believe that profit is more important to Sante' than care!