The Imperial

I recently stayed at the Imperial for 3 weeks. I was sent there from Cook County Hospital after I selected it from a list of about 20 rehab institutions. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I had no previous exposure to nursing/​rehab places. I was in a semi private room on the 5^th floor. I was scheduled to be there from 1 to 2 weeks to receive physical therapy to help reduce the risk of falling. I requested and received the third week to help me get even stronger as I live alone.
I found that about 90% of the staff was genuinely concerned about my well being and my comfort. Having been a Director of Customer Service across several industries, I appreciate good service when I see it. To me, one of the hallmarks of good service is how the response to concerns/​issues are addressed. I can say without reservation that The Imperial staff performed well in this area. I cannot say enough good things about Todd and Barbara of Customer Service, Curtis the Nursing Supervisor and Ben the Dietitian. The were very attentive to any concerns that I raised.
The PT and OT staff were excellent. I only wished that my sessions could have been longer. The food was usually cold when served and that is the reason I could only give 4 stars and not 5.

My mom was here for two weeks then I had her removed. If you want to send your loved one to what is the worst acute rehabilitation center then go ahead. They deleted her only way of communicating and didn’t give her pain medication or let her go to the bathroom. The rooms are what you except to see in cook county jail and the care is at that level as well. Be careful they tried to drain my mom’s Medicare days. Even her doctor was shocked that they never removed her staples from surgery. If I could I wouldn’t even give a single star. Stay away

After reading the negative reviews below, I would like to share some of my personal thoughts about the care my Mother, Maria, received during her stay at Imperial. Today is the 4^th anniversary of my dear Mother’s, death. I have a lot of wonderful memories of my Mom as a child, teenager, young adult and as a 55 and over adult. As my Mom aged, we would have discussions of what her wishes would be if and when she became unable to care for herself. She would always ask me not to place her in a nursing home facility and I would always respond that I would not. In March 2006 after 3 hospitalizations and recovering from a stroke in October 2004, I had to admit my Mom at Imperial for skilled care nursing and rehabilitation. The hope was that after rehab she would return back to her home. Unfortunately, by the time she was nearing her third month stay at Imperial I, as her primary caregiver and health care power of attorney, had to register her as a permanent resident at Imperial. Up to this time her care was good and no issues arose. She cried a lot the first 6 months but after a while she realized that she would never be able to return back to her home. Throughout my Mom’s stay up until the morning of June 18, 2011, my Mom was eternally grateful that she was there. This is not to say that her stay there was always completely without any miscommunications with any of the staff or her doctors BUT, because I was always involved with the staff and her doctors and the care she was receiving, on the whole life ran OK for her. More importantly, I had no expectations that anyone there would go to bat for her as I would; thus, the importance of continuing to be an active caregiver during her stay at Imperial. Because of my involvement with Imperial, life for my Mom ended up being better for her than it would have been had she returned home unable to care for herself. I truly believe that she would have never lived those additional years had she not lived them out at Imperial. So, thank you to all those who got to know Maria during her stay. I especially thank those who shared my loss that morning and who comforted me. I hope that anyone who takes the time to read this review will take away the knowledge that it is a different world out there when a family member is no longer able to live at home and care for themselves. We as family members have to learn to be patient and proactive when relying upon others to care for them. BUT we still have to be active caregivers for them as well.

The Imperial was an obvious choice for mom after hospitalization because she lives next door at the Ivy. I was nervous given all the Unilocaling and complaining.
Observation: the therapy staff are creative and capable, but the administrators are hopeless. You need to be a process-​oriented advocate or you will be confused. Really, the administrators will make things up. It’s like they were reading someone else’s chart sometimes. If it sounds like BS, it probably is. Call their bluff.
Tip: don’t bring anything precious. You have to have items labeled, but even so things will get lost. I do not think theft is the big problem here. The residents are all living in close quarters and stuff gets put in the wrong drawer or your loved one forgets to collect her things from the therapy room.
Concern: how is it legal that residents have no privacy regarding conversations about their medical conditions? There are two to a room, even for long-​termers, and their beds are separated by a curtain.

If you care about your family member, do NOT send them to Imperial. Terrible nursing staff, terrible. Management seems to have no idea what is going on in —

I give this rat hole one star only for the 1 person there who was any good & I hope she moves on to a facility where she will definitely benefit others!
My mom needed a place to be after her long hospital stay to get strong enough to come home. Just a week was the plan.
Day one. we/​she hated it, but the time of day was such that had we left without the doctor’s ok & proper paperwork, then my mom wouldn’t get medicare to help with any home healthcare. Suffice it to say, under the misquided patient rep’s advice, he convinced us to stay.
The next day my mom was placed in a better room on a better floor, but she still hated it.
Again, we approached the staff asking them to help us get our mom home. It’s what she really wants & sadly we knew she wasn’t going to be able to be with us for much longer. We wanted her to be happy… we wanted what was best. We promised her we would get her home.
And again… they convinced us she needed just a few days of therapy. The doctor wasn’t willing to sign her out & admittedly, she was too weak to take her home without some skilled nurse in the home.
We needed to get this arranged anyway, so stupidly & helplessly we told our mom this is what was best.
It all went downhill from that day on.
They screwed up her appts with dialysis. The poor thing had to be woken at 3am to be taken & they screwed up her transport. The next day they screwed up her oncology appt. They were late, she fell out of her wheelchair & made no big deal about it. They finally got transport & I had to ride in the transport w her & they didnt have any staff i.e. a CN or anyone to go with me & her. My poor mom spent 8hrs in a wheelchair at that hospital mostly waiting for transport to pick us up.
Each day my mother was going downhill. Her attitude, her health etc. She was barely eating & they said they’d get her more choices & would make sure she ate. Really!!! If I werent there daily, she would have nver eaten. No one helped feed her. No one cared! It was seriously killing me, but to be honest, she was way too weak to get her home at this point.
Then one day I came & while I was putting on her shoes, she appeared to have a seizure. I called for nurses. they acted like this isnt a big deal. I said I want a docotr & they freakin asked why! Said she was stable. I inisisted! She had another seizure & finally the ambulance was called.
It turned out she wasnt having seizures but heartattacks & that was her pace maker shocking her!
The record showed she had 3 that day. the first @ 8am during dialysis & no one noticed!!!
Mom spent some time back at Rush before ending up in their hospice & passing.
We never got her home & I blame Imperial for it. I do think mom would have gotten stronger if we never placed her in that place!
I felt betrayed & lied to by the staff. They were two faced. What a con job!
The nurses could care less for the patients.
I would say it was clean & the therapists seemed good but the nursing staff sucked the most.
If your loved one is able to care for themselves & are of sound mind & you visit daily. then maybe it’s ok. but for anyone else… RUN AWAY… if you can keep your loved one at home do it! Medicare provides many ammenities… but not a private nurse daily.
Do all the research in person to as many facilities. amke an educated decision & don’t accept what you’re told!

Where do I begin? I feel awful when I think about the Imperial and the despicable care they provided for my grandmother. Staff members are not only negligent, they are thieves. While I understand that the facility is a private for-​profit establishment, it is caring for our state’s Medicare and Medicaid recipients and therefore, the government should intervene and shut down the Imperial. My grandmother was in their care for 4 months during which time the Imperial arbitrarily «extended» her rehab time on a weekly basis. They provided such inadequate care (and false hope) throughout her 4 month stay, that not a single staff member recognized that her leg surgery had been done wrong and therefore no amount of rehab could repair it. It was not until they released her at Christmas and a private nurse came to attend to her in-​home, that it was noted she will need to be rescheduled for the same surgery. My grandmother had two checks stolen from her drawer and cashed for over $ 1,000 as well as numerous personal belongings. The Imperial is making no effort to rectify the situation. She was left unattended on the toilet for over an hour one day when we visited. While some individual staff members we met were wonderful, the institution as a whole is corrupt. Poor care was not limited to my grandmother, she had five separate roommates during her stay that were also suffering. Clearly, not recommended!

After having concerns, I now know that this facility works with their patients and their families. I expressed my concerns and they were addressed. My father’s condition was complicated but, they are working with us to get him back on his feet.
Thank You to Dr Lidoff and all of the nurses including Inna, Luz and Lisa.

I have a VERY difficult-​to-​please elderly aunt who has done post-​hospital rehab at many, MANY facilities. Even SHE was very impressed by the attentive staff, the quality of the rehab facility and therapists and by how unbelievably clean the facility is.
She does not like that she has to share a room, but cannot think of a negative thing to say otherwise. MIRACLE!

I normally do not write reviews but it is necessary. Please DO NOT send anyone that you care about to this dump. They left my mother in law alone and vomiting for hours and had no record of it. Then they were flabbergasted when my husband was upset about it. They promised us endless opportunities for my newly paralyzed mother-​in-​law to have some recreation time. Only to find out that they were too lazy to get her into her wheelchair in time for any of them. Our only concern was that she not be left in bed all day but besides required therapy, thats all she did. As the final straw, they kicked out my mother-​in-​law citing that we were unhappy. The reality is that they have no patience or compassion. My husband and I are very young and just got married in June. We are her only family in Chicago and we desperately reached out to Imperial for help and they gave us none. The absolute final straw is that they still have the small amount of her belongings that they didnt actually lose locked up in their storage facility and are ever so rudely never available for us to pick them up. AND they would not even return ANY phone calls about why they decided to kick out a paralyzed woman.

The Imperial is a relatively large, for-​profit nursing facility at Fullerton and Southport. If you have any alternatives avoid this facility.
I had an elderly Aunt there for about 8 weeks. The staff were generally nice and her room was clean and comfortable, but the care ranged from negligent to flat-​out incompetent.
My Aunt was on a medication regimen from a hospital stay that the staff at the Imperial simply ignored. The medications they put her on caused a severe edema — so severe that anyone could see she was in real trouble — but the Imperial staff never changed them. Since her own Doc was not on the staff he could not intervene.
We tried many times to have the Imperial staff Doctor consult with her, but she was seen only once after eight weeks. By that point her edema had led to congestive heart failure and he immediately hospitalized her!
The only reason we did not bring a medical malpractice suit was that the hassle and expense would outweigh any benefit.
The Imperial does some physical therapy and has some shared social settings, but the actual clinical care we got was very oriented toward simple warehousing, not «care» per se. I think one reason was that my Aunt was elderly and fairly sick when she entered — I had the sense they viewed her «care» as terminal, and acted accordingly.
After she was released from the hospital we took her to the Lakeview Nursing & Rehabilitation Center on Diversey and had the exact opposite experience (see that review).