Arbour Health System

AVOID.
I was here in 2014 for about a week. I was transferred from a local ER for some physical symptoms I was having, but I was also unable to sleep and eat so they gave me a psych consult.
When I was checked in, I was stripped down in a small intake room that had just a curtain, and given a johnny to wear. Their policy is that they launder any clothes that you bring in because of a bedbug and lice problem. You won’t have any clothes for hours after being admitted. While my intake was going on and they were searching my belongings, people were passing through the small room from the outside. Before I checked in, while I waited, I could hear/​see the intake for the person who preceded me. Horribly unprofessional. The whole thing was done by a mental health worker and not a doctor or even a nurse.
Not allowed: phones and other electronics, most makeup, bags, shoes with laces.
Another patient was given my clothing after it had been laundered, and actually put on my clothes without staff intervention.
I had to wait hours until the bed in my room was cleaned and re-​made. They only made the bed with a loose top sheet over the plastic-​covered mattress, no fitted sheet, so the top sheet kept coming loose and I slept a lot of the time on the bare mattress.
This place is the worst I’ve ever been for inpatient. I saw the doctor maybe three or four times while I was there, for five minutes or so each time. He basically prescribed medication that wasn’t helpful and then left me to my own devices.
I saw a social worker two or three times. I explained to both her and the doctor that I had been referred from the ER and was having physical problems (trouble walking, weakness), but that was completely ignored.
I’m not sure what unit I was on, but there were about four female patients and about 15 male patients. It felt very unsafe. There was a severely psychotic/​out of touch male patient who kept going into the female rooms, including mine, several times. Minimal staff intervention.
One patient shit himself in the main area/​in front of the staff desk on the weekend. He walked around, smearing shit all over the carpet. Staff covered it with carpet powder and towels/​sheets, but it was there for several days before it was cleaned up.
My roommate freaked out multiple times and they failed to contain and de-​escalate her in a timely and safe manner. Patients got into physical altercations regularly. There was VERY little security presence.
One night I couldn’t sleep (despite being drugged) because my roommate was snoring. When I complained, they didn’t even have earplugs. Snoring is a common problem in inpatient units. When I protested, the mental health staff offered me Benadryl. On top of the particular medication I was taking, that could have killed me. Thankfully I knew that and declined.
Groups were a joke. There was very little access to food outside of mealtimes (which was a problem for me because I was barely eating), and when they did save food it was kept unrefrigerated in the staff office. The food itself was cheap and sub-​par nutritionally, absolute slop.
They allowed smoking during the time that I was there, and I think they went outside about six times a day. I was pressured to go out by the «occupational therapist,» but when I told her I couldn’t walk well, she continued to pressure me and harangue me to go outside. She said «Well, we can get you a wheelchair,» but that never happened.
The day I was discharged, my husband got a Zipcar to get me home because of my problems with walking. The staff ignored our timeline, and failed to retrieve my belongings in time to let me out, so I had to leave belongings there.
Overall, the place was horrifically unsanitary and dirty, the staff were phoning it in, the groups were unhelpful, I wasn’t listened to at all, and there was a huge failure to manage potentially unsafe patients. This is basically the place that they dump MassHealth patients because they can get away with it and collect money for their hospitalizations while providing the absolute BARE MINIMUM of care.
Avoid all Arbour services.

Holy Jesus, these people are unhelpful! No stars if only it were possible!
My doctor referred me to them for further care. I called the day I got the referral, had some unbelievably unhelpful and downright sketchy guy (after going through about 4 other people, each directing the call in the wrong way). He’s asking for information I know he needs as well as info that I don’t see how it matters. Finally he tells me he’s going to call my insurance and call me back in 15 minutes.
And doesn’t. Big surprise.
So I try again the next day. I called and got bounced back and forth between the department I needed and the general receptionist, each time getting asked for information I didn’t have. I’m sorry ladies, but no matter how many times you transfer me, the information isn’t going to just appear. Finally, they tell me to call the referring doctor to get the information.
I call back with the information, and YET AGAIN they bounce me around and ask for even more info I DON’T HAVE. FINALLY they send me over to someone and it’s a voicemail box I get. Am I expecting a call back? No, not with how shitty these people have been doing their jobs.
I’m just hoping that when I can FINALLY be seen by one of their doctors, he/​she isn’t a complete moron like their support staff seems to be.