Stafford Healthcare

My aunt spent several weeks there getting therapy and specialized care after she was discharged from the hospital to get stronger before going home. The care was on point,
focused and I witnessed time after time patience, competence and dedicated staff members who really cared about their jobs. I came away from the experience impressed with the staff and my aunt was able to transition safely back to home

I’m a fan of Stafford Rehab — a special thank you to Marilyn and Mitch, two compassionate employees who worked diligently with my husband. He was fighting hard and these dedicated individuals did not give up on him. Many thanks for your kind words and gentle ways. Stafford Healthcare is fortunate to have found two of the best. Keep up the good reputation that persuaded me to transfer him from a subpar facility.

Although many of the lesser paid employees treated me well, attended to my needs and tried to help me during my stay, that is not enough. Registered nurses that give the WRONG medication, wrong doses, even someone else’s medication… I could go on about this. If you have a relative or even yourself that must go to a care center after a hospital stay, please be sure to check on them on a DAILY basis. Do not come at the same time each day, rather surprise visits are always the best. Check out not only what they are being served as a meal, but whether or not you would eat it yourself. Find out if you can check their medications that they are being given. I wish I would have had my spouse check for me, because they would have a hard time refuting someone from the outside checking for me. Please be diligent in keeping a watchful eye on your loved ones, as sometimes a mistake in medication can very easily cost someone their very life.

This place is poor in service. I would never recommend.

My Grandmother is staying here fir the next month, and after visiting a few times I’m impressed! Grandma is happy.
1.) The front desk lady remembered me, each time I’d been here.
2.) Stafford does not smell like SEVERAL other assisted care facilities I’ve been in… it’s MUUUUUCH better!
3.) The food is actually quite descent
4.) I had several conversations with other residents here and all three like the facility and how they’ve been treated
5.) they even had a full church service on Sunday, available if one chooses to attend
Over all, I can safely say that if I was in a position where I had to be in an assisted facility, I’d have no qualm being here myself.

We had my 94 year old grandmother with Alzheimer’s in this place for about three weeks. She had fallen and hurt herself so her doctors wouldn’t let us take her back home since we are unable to be with her 24 hours a day.
It’s $ 50 extra every month for Stafford to do the resident’s laundry so we opted to do it ourselves. They put a sign in her closet saying «Family Will Do Laundry» her stuff went missing. They put another sign on the outside of her closet, her stuff still went missing. They even took an afghan I had crocheted myself and sent that down to laundry. There was no good reason for the afghan to ever leave the room if it wasn’t in my Grammy’s hands, it went on top of all the other blankets on the bed, didn’t get dirty at all.
The «social worker» there, the one that works for the company, Judy Bloom, is rude and doesn’t know what she is doing. She is supposed to be the family’s contact with the company, answering questions and concerns. She didn’t even know the visiting hours of the building.
The aids and nurses are supposed to be monitoring how much the residents are eating at meals; they couldn’t tell us what, if anything, my Grammy had eaten.
When we checked Grammy into this place the doctor looked over the list of medications she was taking and said that they were all good and should continue as is. In the discharge papers the medications were all sorts of messed up. Pills that should have been either once or twice a day were three times a day, some that should have been twice a day were only once a day. They had put her on new medications without telling us. The pharmacist that had to fill the new prescriptions when we moved her to an adult family home said that they were the most confusing discharge papers he had ever seen.
At the adult family home Grammy is being seen by Hospice and they have told my mother to write a letter to Group Health about Stafford because of the convoluted discharge papers and the other crap that they pulled at Stafford because Group Health is referring patients to this place without knowing what happens once the patient gets there. The Hospice people said that if Group Health was aware of the practices at Stafford that they would probably cut their ties with the company completely.
If you care about your elderly relative at all you will *NOT* put them here.

My dying relative was put at Stafford Healthcare /​Ostrom Management.
I’ve visited a few times, and I personally would not place anyone I cared about in the hands of this company.
Was really got to me was the sight on my first visit of unconcerned staff, while my relative (disoriented from pain killers) was drooling all over herself while she rested her forehead on the break room table. It looks like a staff member placed a newspaper in front of herself to absorb the drool. I asked the care taker, who was watching TV, for soft towels instead of a newspaper. She was nice enough to get that.
The rooms were very basic and a bit cramped. The facility did seem a bit old, and the patients huddled around an old TV in the break room.
I would expect highly attentive staff and a comfortable environment for a decent «assisted living» /​nursing home. That was not at Stafford Healthcare /​Ostrom Management.

I don’t have personal experience with the care here but I understand under new management patient care and quality of life is first and foremost what it’s now all about. What I did experience was the new dining room, Rose’s Room, for visitors and patients, and I understand you don’t have to be a patient to get this incredible food for unbelievably bargain prices. No money changes hands in the dining room. You purchase scrip at the front desk. They have a great standard menu, full meals around $ 5 (half price for patients) but the daily specials are to die for. A new culinary consultant has this place turning out elegant meals, the quality you will not find at any other institutional dining place. Definitely worth the drive to DesMoines.