Urine Smell at Memory Care Tour

[Anonymous]

I had a parent in memory care, and it didn't smell. I'm surprised it didn't because the care there was so so. They didn't appear to do much.

At the other parent's AL, the places never smells. Not once in three years.

[Anonymous]

My mom is in a nursing home in a small town - the only choice there. It never smells.

[Anonymous]

Pretty common. It happens so much it’s tough to keep on top of it.

By the way don’t sit on any of the chairs in the common area, 100% chance a resident has peed on it at some point.

[Anonymous]

I can tell you that my parents both have dementia and their house doesn’t smell like urine. We have home caregivers

[Anonymous]

My mom is at Brighton Gardens. It smells fine, even in memory care

[Anonymous]

Just like a daycare, it is because they are not changing the residents often enough and keeping things cleaned up. If you don't clean up urine, feces and vomit well enough, the furniture and carpets reek.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just like a daycare, it is because they are not changing the residents often enough and keeping things cleaned up. If you don't clean up urine, feces and vomit well enough, the furniture and carpets reek.

Right. It's a matter of cleaning. My dad was incontinent the last two years of his life, and my parents' home never smelled. We (Dad when he was able, Mom and I) changed the briefs regularly, disposed of them promptly, and washed/wiped surfaces that had contact with bodily fluids-we also used disposable chux where he sat regularly.

In the last month of life, he was in one facility that stunk (I did not choose this place and moved him in 3 days) and one that was clean and did not smell at all. Care there was much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would question whether their HVAC system is working well, is it replacing stale air with fresh air as well as it should.

If someone soils big furniture, a couch or mattress, that may take the staff a while to have removed.

Nature's Miracle will take that smell out. No need to toss it.

[Anonymous]

Continual smell is bad and could mean either the flooring is damaged (yes it gets under the LVP and sometime behind the moisture backing on furniture and carpet into the concrete) or not attending to care needs

To be fair, after changing someone’s brief the smell can linger for a few (10?) mins. Multiply that by residents in a wing and it can just hang even if everything is perfect.

If you tour a couple times and it’s there - bad sign. Once in a while - no big deal.

[Anonymous]

Very bad sign.

[Anonymous]

if the smell hits you EVERY time you enter the facility and permeates the whole joint and never goes away then hard NO. If it's sporadic when someone is being cleaned that's acceptable