Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center

Laguna Honda is coming into its own. The new LHH was unveiled this year, federal oversight of the hospital has ended after fifteen years, and the spirit of the place has been injected with some much needed positivity.

Gone are the endless wards, lack of privacy, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-ness. Patients now have their own rooms with actual doors, the decaying towers of yore soon to be demolished, already replaced by a green, spacious campus.

Patients will tell us themselves if the care has improved. Laguna has always been the death knell for many of my clients, many of whom had terrible experiences there in the past.

The hospice has always marched to a different drummer, and with the upgrades at the center their spectacular care has gotten even better. They maintain their collaboration with Zen Hospice Project, another stellar hospice in the city. Patients at the Laguna Hospice receive excellent care, now more comfortable with the improvements to the edifice.

A person close to me for many years stayed here for his final two months before passing away from metastatic prostate cancer. When I visited him here, I was touched by the care from the entirety of the Hospice team, and was aside myself with shock from seeing the old Laguna turned upside down and inside out.

As I was sitting next to him as he lay in bed, I noticed a tattoo etched into his left calf that said 'Sally'. It looked like a child had drawn it, to be honest. I asked him about it, and he said that he had done it himself, after dancing with a beautiful girl in Seattle when he was a teenager. He said that she was so tall that he had to stand on his tippy-toes. Never had I occasion to see this unpolished tattoo prior to this, but thanks to the fantastic care that the Hospice provided, we were able to have this discussion. His needs were attended to; he was comfortable and his pain appropriately managed. I have since thought about 'Sally from Seattle' more than once. Sometimes it takes something like sickness to unveil parts of ourselves that remain obscured by our present concerns.

Had the conditions at Laguna been what they once were, I doubt that we would have been able to take pause for this conversation to happen. Things need to be just so before we can peer into each others kaleidoscopes and shake them around. At this Hospice, the scene is set perfectly for the dying to be comfortable enough physically to pass peacefully and naturally.

Poor Dears, come here if you like living in a room without a secure door. There are no doors in the rooms, only a sliding door that doesn't shut completely. How are you suppose to rehabilitate with a noisy environment? My Loves, it's very difficult to think clearly when you can hear people in the hallways talking. Been here 1 mo. so far and had stitches pulled from my toes without local anesthesia? Is that even legal? It was very painful and I screamed in pain etc.

an addendum to nurses who have helped me:jason,adm. asst. a true mensch,always thinking how to help,a good person,from activities,chris,latrese ,we'll miss her,moved to another position,helped me in pool ,sheldon,head of pool project,all staff
of south six,lisa clerk a doll,jean,pt,kind,
jay.s.

As a resident of Laguna Honda Hospital. I must say that most staff are really great people. However, there are some problems that Laguna Honda needs to work on and fix. Like they have tried to do a no smoking on campus program which over steps city ordinance, as well as any residents that do smoke and are using walkers, manual wheel chairs etc, to go all the way off the property to smoke. When there has been residents break hips, legs, arms by doing this. And the city ordinance states you have to be 25 feet away from entrances, exits, openable windows and ventilation shafts.

Also on September 24 2014, I was having chest pains and was discharged from Laguna Honda and was admitted into California pacific medical center and when I first tried to be re-admitted I was turned away, by them saying they don't do evening admissions and I have seen It done. They kept refusing to re-admit me back in Laguna Honda hospital and I had to stay at California pacific medical center until Monday September 29, 2014.

Does that show how much they care about residents, it's very sad to have been put through this

Update :My mother died 10Aug17 from complete organ failure. She also got pneumonia from her spit they told me @ UCSF. She had kidney disease I wasn't told about. I blame UCSF &Lagunda Honda. Don't send your loved ones to LHH. It's death trap /I almost died here at this hospital in 1988 because they refused to believe I was having a relapse and I had come from a 3 day observation and I was not told, I had to have another procedure. So when I told the staff I needed to go to the hospital no one wanted to hear it. Now I am trying to advocate for my mother who is here. If I had known she were to be going here I would have told her no not to do it. It is too late for that now. I don't know what to do to make it better for my mother now. She was ambulatory when she first entered Lagunda Honda, and continent also.
( I cut most of this out since she is dead now. They killed her. and almost killed me when I was 18. Risk those you love lives if you want. I won't ever again. )

My estranged mother was a resident here. I was called and told that she was altered from her normal mental state so they called 911. I called the ER she was taken to and the ER doctor told me she presented as an opioid overdose. Once my mother was more alert she remembered receiving an extra dose of methadone on top of her normal dose from the nursing staff. I called Laguna Honda several times, asked to speak to everyone, house supervisor, head of nursing, head of quality, head administrator, no one was available on this Thursday morning to speak to me. Finally Around 4 in the afternoon I get a call back from a nursing supervisor who said no one returned my called because they wanted to investigate the situation before speaking to me. (Which is ridiculous) This nurse said that the ICU doctor at the hospital my mother had been transferred to agreed she presented as an overdose , but it was because she was in kidney failure that her body didn't process out the methadone at its normal dose not because she got a second dose. So I called the ICU doctor myself and he told me that my mother wasn't In Kidney failure she was just a little dehydrated. So her body would have processed the methadone out just fine. UNLESS SHE ACTUALLY RECEIVED THE EXTRA DOSE SHE REMEMBERED GETTING. At this point I called Laguna Honda back and they said basically their staff wasn't responsible and stuck by the kidney failure story or said maybe another patient gave her their meds. Which is strange.. why wouldn't their nurses WATCH their patients take their medications? I feel that the whole experience was them trying to cover their butts and take no responsibility. Sadly, as I am a medical professional myself I understand mistakes happen. If someone had just said you know we aren't sure what happened we will do a full investigation and let you know what happened I would have been satisfied. But to lie to me about the kidney failure is ridiculous. Especially when I could call the other doctor and speak to him about it!

they putting their employees at risk by not giving them mask and being aware that they could get expose on covid19... they only give mask on nurses who's only job is to distribute the medicine and for the other employees who watches and stay at their patients room got NOTHING!!!! BE REASONABLE!! BE FAIR!!!

This is the first time I've visited Laguna Honda Hospital since I was a kid and WOW... It sure is different. The new building is state of the art with some of the latest technology in design, architecture, and health care. No more of the eerie, haunted towers of the old building. The new building will definitely have an impact on the quality of life of the patients at Laguna. I was very impressed. 5 stars for LHH, and I wish I had more hands so that I could give this hospital 4 thumbs up!!!

I have been volentereing her since I was a kid. If you have the time. Please help here and the older people are usually lonely and in need of a new face.,

Extra ordinary hospital! Staff are friendly and this place is looks like a little heaven :)