Banner - University Medicine Rehabilitation Institute 1111 East McDowell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85006

"This is for the Pierpoint Location. Care is great and professional. I have had problems with Drs and the cafeteria. The medical problems stem from record systems that don't talk to each other between the hospital and rehab. This state is 20 years behind Washington in coordinating all medical records. When 2 different medical records are used mistakes are going to be made. This needs to be fixed by Katie Hobbs, now! Before more mistakes. If a Dr has to start out with zero the first time they see a patient that is a waste of everyone's time and just waiting for bodies. Arizona, get your act together! The cafeteria is also very problematic. I have had 4 inedible meals. Ordered a breakfast replacement and never got it then ordered a 3rd and got it from the hospital next door. I guess if you are unconcious that does not matter but seems this is not new. They need a website for meals that concious people can use."

"My husband Ramon sustained a traumatic brain injury and was eventually transferred to Banner University Phoenix Rehab. He was there for 3 weeks and had over 3 hours of therapy a day. The new facility was outstanding, very state of the art. The therapy gym had everything he needed to get him back on his feet. Wanted to extend a big thank you to Taylor his physical therapist and Kristi his occupational therapist, and his speech therapist (sorry don't remember name). You were all very tentative and caring individuals. He has been home now for over 2 weeks and he is now walking on his own! Can't thank you all enough for the wonderful care you gave him, thanks again!!"

"My father was admitted to ER via ambulance where he was immediately attended to. Over the course of his stay he was transferred to ICU and Progressive care, where everyone was attentive & informative, especially the doctors, who explained the situation, showed scan results, expressed empathy & patiently answered questions we asked, regardless of how busy they were. He was lastly transferred to the Rehabilitation Building. Why the one star? IF WE COULD GIVE ZERO STARS WE WOULD... FOR THE REHAB BUILDING!!! Since admission to rehab my father kept saying he felt like “they’re just milking my insurance by keeping me here”...because he’d significantly improved ...& I kept trying to trust that they were doing their job...BOY WAS I WRONG!!!! Firstly, Dr. Thakur is completely robotic, speaks in monotone & only goes over the basic bare minimum information...ABSOLUTELY NO BEDSIDE MANNER...NONE.....WE had to ask questions and STILL didn’t get proper information. A doctor should be complete confident, comfortable and informative when addressing a patient... yet you can tell it’s as if he just wants to leave the room as soon as he walks in... AND he didn’t even INTRODUCE himself until THREE DAYS after my father was admitted!! We were told by staff he would undergo 3 forms of therapy, lasting 1 hour each, spread over the course of the day, not all at once. Yesterday they brought him to therapy from 8 AM - 11 AM STRAIGHT ... no breaks, different topics, working physical and mental abilities... which was completely against what we were told!!!! He was so exhausted by noon that it broke my heart. I bit my tongue inquiring about it, thinking since he was doing so well they were just speeding things up to get an earlier release date....but no...they just have SEVERE LACK OF COMMUNICATION!!! When I asked the doctor the results of his ECHO... (which was taken over 5 days ago)...THEY WEREN’T EVEN AWARE HE’D HAD ONE!!!! They had him on carb control and sodium control BUT SERVED HIM A SLICE OF CAKE AS A DIABETIC...which caused his blood sugar to spike immediately after!!! Even the “diabetes education” received was a crash course. Nothing is personal. He was transferred to Rehab on a Fri, and because he was doing so well was told potential release Weds-Sat. Over the weekend he received NO THERAPY ON A SUNDAY because we were told THEY ONLY DO THERAPY ONE DAY OVER THE WEEKEND. ???? What??? So he just sat there for a day doing nothing. We asked about updates & was told the doctors meet on Tues to discuss all patients & we’d have more information then. When Tues came, I inquired about an update & I was told ohhh that HIS specific doctor meets on WEDS...so we had to wait ANOTHER day to just get a basic question answered about a potential release date...then come to find out the doctor DID meet on Tuesday, & the nurse that told us they met on Weds ACTUALLY ATTENDED THE TUESDAY MEETING!!! Why were we lied to??? Why was nothing done on a Sunday??? I was starting to see what my father felt...milking the insurance...another overnight stay... mmore medicines administered...that all adds up!!! It became ridiculous just ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE...if you ask something someone says one thing...come to find it was completely the wrong information & was the exact opposite...we didn’t know WHAT TO BELIEVE ANYMORE...to the point where my father said he was uncomfortable and MYSELF AND MULTIPLE FAMILY MEMBERS THAT VISITED HIM DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE...when I expressed everything I learned to the family & they stated they’d had reservations too...we flat left “against medical advice”....BUT WHAT ADVICE WAS THERE?!?! We’re going to another facility that can perform basic human communication, for starters. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE FOR A HOSPITAL SETTING!!! A patient chart is legal record...why was there no documentation of his ECHO??? We were told “if there were negative results we would go over that”.... whaaaaat?!?! EVEN THE NURSES AGREED THAT WE WERE MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION BY LEAVING!!! That says it all."

"I am compelled to write this review to call upon the folks that myself and my family interacted with, during my father's stay at Banner. I implore them to think deeply and critically about their actions, mindsets, and the impact they can have on the patients whose lives are in their hands. My father suffered a stroke in which the right side of his body was affected; he was admitted to the ER section of Banner on December 11th. We were given a choice between Banner’s rehab facility or another facility of our choosing. Given our positive experience in Banner's patient facility, we expected the same quality of care this time around. Thus, we elected to go to Banner's rehab center; he was admitted to the rehab center on December 18th. In most cases, including my father's, to increase the likelihood of recovery from stroke, you would want to start therapy as soon as possible. However, my father did not receive therapy for ELEVEN DAYS! That was crucial time wasted, and has likely hindered my dad’s ability to reach a state of optimal recovery. The doctors and members of the leadership team wrote him off as “unlikely to recover,” and forwent any treatment on my father’s right leg. That was abhorrent. The implication with their decision was “he is unlikely to recover, so why bother with treatment?” The leadership team had written my father off, and tried to kick him out with only ONE DAY’S NOTICE! My father wished to receive therapy for his right leg; my mother and I wanted this for him as well. When I tried to advocate for my father and plead with the leadership team, they were extremely resistant. When we attempted to meet with the leadership team--tasked with my dad’s rehabilitation--to have a conversation about his treatment, they employed a "divide and conquer" strategy. They separated my father from his family to get his acquiescence to discharge, without the participation of my mother and myself. At best, some of the staff members were hesitant to speak up to make a point in our interest. At worst, most members of the staff were relentless with having him discharged. They made the process unbearably stressful, and brought my mother and me to the point of a mental breakdown on several occasions. I did not feel that we were being treated with the proper dignity and respect, as expected from a reputable care facility such as Banner. We were forced to bring in an advocate to speak on my family’s behalf. Even with our advocate's support, the leadership team was adamantly hesitant and unwilling to understand our concerns. Only when our advocate managed to “rock the boat,” and take our concerns to higher management, did they finally agree to extend my father's stay and approve therapy for his leg. Again, therapy for his leg was approved ELEVEN DAYS after he was admitted to rehab! Not everyone was so apathetic and indignant, however. Various members of the therapy team (including their leadership), as well as certain RNs and CNAs, have been comforting, empathetic, and competent during my father's stay. They know who they are, and we are tremendously thankful for their service. Contrarily, the members of the leadership team, such as the doctors and caseworkers, must be looked into CAREFULLY and undergo some form of staffing change. No longer will I trust this facility to care for a relative or friend of mine, now or any time in the future. The only reason this facility gets two stars is because the lower echelons of the staff were, on average, warm and empathetic. The leadership team needs to be thoroughly investigated and disciplined for their gross negligence and malpractice."

"I spent almost 3 weeks in this facility. The nursing staff and the therapists were very good. The choices on the cable tv left something to be desired (I couldn't watch any Nascar races because there were no sports networks available) and the kitchen maybe rated 2 stars. A couple of meals were good: broiled cod and the baked lasagne. As I said, the staff that I dealt with were very nice, very professional, and very helpful. I stopped in a few weeks after I was released to say Thank you to the staff."