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Please provide more information about your situation.

Is this really your only concern/ complaint?

I don't want to be dismissive, but really, it could be so much worse.

Yes, it is frustrating to not have your phone calls answered. They are probably VERY busy dealing with emergencies. That is unfortunate. But it is the reality.
You are probably going to have to go there and see your sister and try to talk with the Nurse in Charge, or an Administrative Director or Coordinator or Liaison.
Usually, the skilled nursing facility will schedule meetings with family members and the care team. It depends who is the decision maker for your sister. If it is not you, then ask the decision maker to add you or include you.
If you are calling and expecting your call to be transferred to her room, like a hotel or a hospital, that is NOT going to happen! They have more pressing things to attend to than acting as receptionist for your loved one.
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Reply to CaringWifeAZ
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Prayers sent.
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Reply to Llamalover47
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Do you want to talk with your sister or the medical staff? Can she have her own pre paid cell phone or is it too hard for her to use?

At my uncles NH there is a receptionist during the 9-5 and sporadically after that and into the end of visiting hours due to staffing issues. It does take about 15-20 minutes on a short staffed day to have them answer and get the phone to my uncle. They do have call hours between 9-10:30 am where it is much quicker. Unless they have their own phone it is common to wait a long time in his facility.
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Reply to AMZebbC
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So from our personal experience (as in we actually saw it with our own eyes) - the SNF where my FIL was, a receptionist answered all calls between 8am and 5pm (M-F). And then would forward to the appropriate Nurse's Station. After 5pm the phone rolled over to a nurse's station - although they might still need to transfer because it might not be the correct station.


Now that being said, we had several experiences with trying to get through and not having anyone pick up the phone. At first it was frustrating - until we understood that at a given time every single person available was either on their rounds or helping patients.

While I suppose it could happen - I never once witnessed a situation where someone was just sitting there ignoring the phone- with the exception of when a patient or patient's family was standing in front of them and had their attention.

More often than not - and I did this frequently - I would situate myself on a couch off the beaten path (aka out of the eyeshot of the nurse's station) and work on my FIL's phone (it was every single visit that he messed something up until we finally had to take it away from him). I could HEAR the phone ringing constantly - but every single time if I glanced around the corner, there was no one at the desk, they were all helping residents.

I'm also going to be fully transparent. We ended up putting my FIL's very intrusive sister, who did everything in her power to manipulate the staff and degrade them, on the "do not call, do not answer" list. They had our permission to ignore her calls if they wanted to LOL.

I will also say that I saw the receptionist come up on a couple of occasions and let them know it was urgent that someone speak with a particular person and they would stop as soon as they could to call them back.

The reality is that they are not there to answer calls from resident's families. They are there to take care of the residents.

The approach we took was that if there was an emergency, they would call US. If we needed something from them, we would leave a message. If for some reason it was urgent we would tell the receptionist. (We never had to do that). Because every time they had to stop to answer our questions, that was another resident, including our own, who had to wait for them to finish with our call before they got the help they needed.
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Reply to BlueEyedGirl94
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CaringWifeAZ Dec 4, 2024
BlueEyedGirl94, That is very helpful and insightful information.
Thank you for sharing.

You are right. The nursing home is not set up to be a call center. And sometimes there are self-absorbed, manipulative family members who want to make every situation about them.
I, too, experienced that when my husband was in a nursing home. My Daughter-In-Law called me, crying and complaining because my husband with dementia was being mean to her. I asked her what she wanted me to do, and she responded by calling me some very nasty names.
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Try to get a few telephone numbers and also email addresses for the case manager, nurse, general floor number, etc. Call the reception desk if you can't reach people on the floor. Good luck!
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Reply to NancyIS
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They are busy . If they answer at 20 rings or 50 rings , that’s good . It’s better than not answering at all .

I never heard of a limit of rings before a phone call is answered . A nursing home is not a customer service call center .
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Reply to waytomisery
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You need to call the licensing board that licenses the nursing home to operate.
Many are short staffed.
However, the licensing board should be able to explain the Rules/Regulations to you.

You should / could also write letters to your local news papers / media. Get your concern on Facebook and other multi-media outlets in your county. Get a kid from high school to help you if you don't know how to do yourself.

Often it is PUBLIC OUTRAGE that gets things done.
Also let your local TV news stations know.
Ask them to visit the nursing home ...

The key is that you are not getting your needs met FOR your loved one.
The nursing home is missing important information that concerns the / their care of a resident; this is the focus / concern.

Gena / Touch Matters
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Reply to TouchMatters
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waytomisery Dec 4, 2024
These actions are overkill. 20 rings for them to answer a phone is not unusual in a nursing home .
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Same with the hospitals here
They often blame being/looking after other patients when a lot of f the time I’ve been there they’ve sat at the desk ignoring the call- tcc bc ads not my job
i think the only thing you can do us scores your concerns to the head there and gear what they say sometimes that generates some action
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Reply to Jenny10
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The 3 NHs in my area have receptionists who can transfer calls to rooms and Nurses Stations. I find the Nurses station may not pick up right away. Why? Because they are with a patient or in a meeting. I think shortness of aides, in my area, the RN and LPNs are needed to pick up some slack. Phone calls are not high priority.

Shifts are usually 7 to 3, 3 to 11 and 11 to 7. Some staff work 12 hr shifts. Mornings are not a good time to call IMO. Residents have to be gotten up and dressed for breakfast. Med passes are done. PT is done. Then...time for lunch. Staff have breaks. The desk is usually manned by RNs. If one goes on break and there is an emergency, no phone gets answered. Or one RN manning the phones so not able to pick up other calls because she is talking to someone on another line.

Do you live near sister? Far away? Are you calling several times a day or just a check in every day. And if a check in every day why? Just to see how sister is doing? If you are the main contact, you will be notified of any fall, ER visits and drastic changes. If you visit regularly you can ask the RN at the nurses desk how she has been.

So, why is it so important to get thru to nursing staff?
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Reply to JoAnn29
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I think we get used to someone answering the phone pretty quickly when our loved one is in the hospital that we expect the same when they are in a nursing home. Nursing homes are not staffed like hospitals and from my experience, having the phone ring 20+ times before someone answers is the norm.
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Reply to Wrenee5111
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A low priority concern. She is in a safe place, getting fed.
Be glad she isn't calling you crying to "go home" all day.
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Reply to Dawn88
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They probably can't answer because they are more than likely short staffed and are running around like chickens with their heads chopped off taking care of everyone's needs.
Have you tried putting a landline phone in your sisters room so you can just call her directly? And if that's not possible for whatever reason, then you must learn some patience and appreciate that the staff are busy taking care of their patients and not just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.
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Reply to funkygrandma59
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Geesh, to me this is a non-issue, be patient they are busy doing what they are supposed to do, taking care of the people in need.
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Reply to MeDolly
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Probably understaffing which is an issue in just about every nursing home in my opinion. I would rather staff be taking care of the needs of residents than making answering phone calls the priority. If it's a chronic issue, you could contact the administrator but sadly, I wouldn't count on much changing. Give some grace to the bedside workers as they are probably doing the best that they can.
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Reply to LyndeeNew
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They’re tending to patients and doing their jobs. Not like they can just up and run to the phone right away. The immediate needs take precedence, as they should.
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Reply to LoopyLoo
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This is not a real issue you need help with. Just hold on until someone answers the phone.
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Reply to lealonnie1
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Are you trying to call during office hours, or after everyone but the people doing actual care have left for home?
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Reply to cwillie
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Because they are busy and probably understaffed. And, if it's around the holidays, very busy.

Or, you call their front desk receptionist and ask this question.

Are you calling your sister's room? Or her floor nurse station? Where is your call actually going?
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Reply to Geaton777
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I can't imagine how you can think we have any control over your nursing home or that we would be better able to answer your very reasonable question than THEY are?
As to what the limit is? I must assume they are busy; no one likes a ringing phone.

If this is ongoing and a terrible problem for you then I would call the Administration office at this place and discuss with someone who may have a good many more answers or suggestions than we do. Another idea or hint is to be certain to ask what are the best TIMES to call. I do know as an RN that "shift change" isn't it.

Good luck. Sorry you are going through this. But on a level of stuff that happens for all in elder care, this is mild, and I hope things never get any worse for you. Take good care.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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