An Open Letter to the Staff at MediLodge of Gaylord from Pastor Scott Distler

I chose MediLodge of Gaylord because it is closer to friends and family. It is hard to choose any one person that stood out to me because they are all great. Everyone treated me like family and made me feel at home!

I was diagnosed with cancer back in June of this year. After being at two other treatment centers, I came to MediLodge of Gaylord to get my strength back. After six weeks, I’ve been able to go from hardly walking at all to walking over 1,000 feet at a time. They are just great people, from the therapists down to the aides. It’s just a great place to get treatment. They can help you with whatever you have going on.

I chose MediLodge of Gaylord for myself to receive physical therapy and I am happy that I did. I can’t say that there was a specific department or person that stood out amongst the rest because everybody is somebody. Everyone here is very important and wonderful. It doesn’t matter what job they held; Nurse, Kitchen staff, Housekeeping, Office staff or any other job in between. Everybody works hard to do such a great job. I was very well cared for here. Everyone treated me with respect and I would recommend MediLodge of Gaylord to anyone who may need care. I would also like to add that I am very appreciative to every staff member here and they deserve to be given respect, honor and dignity for all of their hard work.

When Daniel Ford came to MediLodge of Gaylord, He had a capped off trach, and a need of therapies to regain his strength physically and confidence in self cares. Although a self-proclaimed “loner”, Daniel spoke of the bond he shared with staff at MediLodge of Gaylord. With tears in both his, and his daughter’s eyes he stated “everyone here has become like family.” His daughter added “everyone is very accommodating, to him, me and my kids. I’m so glad I could bring them in to see him” Daniel worked hard to regain his strength and was able to walk out the doors of MediLodge of without his Trach! Daniel is a true testimony of strength, hard work, and drive. We are so grateful that we were able to be a part of his healing process. Best of luck to you, and your family, Daniel.

The whole staff is terrific; they took me in as a long lost son. I couldn't be happier! It's excellent here, you ask for a cup of coffee at Sam, they get you a cup of coffee. The food was excellent compared to the last place. There's no better place to be. I can't thank everyone enough.

"The commitment to quality designated by this award is a key first step to developing systematic, sustainable, person-centered care and services. We congratulate all of our 2010 winners on this prestigious achievement."

I wanted to take a moment and send a huge note of thanks and appreciation to you and the excellent staff at MediLodge of Gaylord for all that you did for my dad, Thomas Walker. During his stay at your facility, he received exceptional care and compassion from his entire care team.  Please share a sincere thank you to each of them from me. As his daughter living 7+ hours away, I took comfort in knowing he was in a place that was taking such great care of him during this difficult time. He often spoke of how nice, friendly, and helpful everyone was towards him as well as how delicious the food was.   I know how grumpy he can be sometimes, especially with how sick he has been.  Thank you for getting him rehabilitated enough to be able to transition back to his home.  He is doing as best as he can, given the circumstances, and is grateful to be home again. On behalf of our entire family, thank you again for the great work you all do.  It has not gone unnoticed. Have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving holiday.   

I wish that I could personally thank every single person here, in every department, on every shift. The staff are tremendous and always friendly. The therapies were terrific, the food was great, five stars all the way. His wife Barbara added, They were good, to all of us. That means A lot.

MediLodge Staff, I want to thank you for the care I had during my stay at Medi Lodge. When they told me that they wanted to transfer me from OMH, I was concerned because of the care people I know had when the same facilities was TenderCare. I must say, after being at Medilodge my concerns were not justified. The MediLodge staff and facilities were above my expectations. I could not have asked for better care from the Nurses and their supporting personnel. They were all friendly and very professional. You are very lucky to have food service and dining facilities that could compete with the better local dining facilities. Even though you are not connected directly with OMH, that is not a problem since you have a nice bus and driver that will take you to other medical facilities. I hope that I will not need long term care facilities in the future but if I do, my first choice would be Medilodge.  

On December 27th, 2019, my mother suffered a significant CVA on the right side of her brain while at home alone, leaving her with full left-sided deficits. She was at an in-patient rehab prior to coming to MediLodge of Gaylord. Although she made progress there, her significant improvement started at your facility.

The person in charge of intake, Della, worked very hard at getting her into MediLodge of Gaylord and kept our family updated on the status of her intake. When she arrived, she had little to no movement on her left arm, and on the day of her discharge (2/22/19), she was able to play cards, hold things with her left hand, and walk with assistance. More importantly, she has hope that she will lead an independent life again. Anyone who has ever had their independence removed from them goes through depression and a period where they wonder if their life will ever again be the same. Dealing with this frustration and keeping a positive attitude is not easy.

The staff at your MediLodge of Gaylord encouraged a positive attitude and made her feel comfortable. Every day that I visited, I would hear wonderful stories about the staff that was making an impact on her life at MediLodge. I would hear about how Ashley, her physical therapist had worked her so hard in therapy that she could barely move, but how much fun she was and how much more fun she made therapy. I heard how her CNA, Nicole, was always helping her with the little things like getting dressed and using the restroom with dignity and other daily things. Your nursing program made sure that she was taking her daily medication on-time and was always evaluating the need for more and/or less.

The weekly care meetings that family was included in were very well done, where my mother was asked what was working and what was not. She was asked if there was anything that MediLodge of Gaylord could do to make things better for her. She enjoyed the daily activities that aided her physical therapy, like the balloon game and bingo! I firmly believe that the environment created by staff and residents alike contributed greatly to her recovery and forward progress.

Although the road to complete recovery will be long, I believe that your facility and staff have laid a stable and firm path to build on and our family is very thankful that she [my mother] was at this facility. From the entire family of Diana Salyers, we thank all of you for creating a safe and nurturing environment that has allowed her to go home. Your staff should all be very proud!

Sincerely, Pete Nicholson and the rest of Diana Salyers family!