Good they rang to let you know, your telephone conversation must be fresh in their minds so seems to have worked, lets hope it stays that way ? What a shame for your mum though, and a shame they didn't know she had proper stout shoes. Hopefully now they've noticed her going over and know she has them they will encourage her to wear them instead.
I noticed the difference in reviews and cqc report with some of homes I looked at recently too, its so hard and a hard decision to make picking one isn't it. I looked at a few on facebook as well as carehome site and cqc site. Some have closed group pages so couldn't see anything, but a couple with open pages had FB reviews too. One that had a good cqc report had some bad FB reviews and some of latest ones stated that some of the staff had been changed and they'd come from another home which had a bad report before and they were not giving good care at current home. Some of the home that had the bad report that staff were supposed to have come from had new FB reviews saying staff had been changed and things were improving.
Another home that had a good review last time done in 2018 is currently being investigated by police and some staff have been arrested and questioned over neglect. My sister had contacted it for a brochure about respite the other week. When she told me we didn't know about arrests there, they happened afterwards, but I said I wasn't sure about it as hubbys aunt had been there (not for dementia) and while family seemed happy with the care she got it was often closed for few weeks at a time for tummy bugs that went round and sometimes when in laws visited they said it smelt of wee. I was surprised to hear about recent arrests though. When I looked again at cqc site the other day I noticed the previous report in 2017 had requires improvement on most things except 'is the service caring' which was good so it looks like it improved enough for good report but things had gone wrong since.
My old neighbour went in a home not far from us a few years ago. She had lots of medical problems as well as dementia, she had been in bed with carers coming in multiple times a day before moving to home. Her daughter lived abroad and when she came over to visit her mum she told us she was doing much better in the home and was up and about a bit since being in there. She had photos of her sat in lounge in home looking well and said she was happier being in the home. When sis and I first looked at respite last year I looked at that home but it had a required improvement cqc report, though some reviews on carehome site were good about the care their family had been given. The bad points on report did seem more to do with record keeping, plans and home upkeep rather than care given. When I was looking again recently it had a good review done this year. A new manager had been put in place, home had been decorated and bad points had been worked on. There are two homes near each other owned by same company and other still had a bad report though some points had been rectified and when I looked that'd also got new manager but later than other home so it may just not have had time to up its game yet before report. I thought that it was good had improved but then I do worry if they had worked hard to get good report but company running them both might let things slip again afterwards. Its hard to know without a crystal ball really. I find it all mind boggling, we want whats best for our loved ones but how can we know.
When I look at reviews for holiday places I look at if the good and bad points are about something that I would be bothered about as some things people complain about are not important to me, or things they shouldn't expect anyway and sometimes when you read them you get impression they are just moany people. Sometimes I'll look if they've reviewed other places and if they consistently moan about things with not much reason I ignore their reviews. That won't work with care homes really though will it, there's no trip advisor for care homes and most people won't be able to review more than one so there's no way to know if someones a serial moaner or has a genuine gripe. I rarely leave reviews on things and I bet loads of people don't either, whether they've had good or bad experiences so it's impossible to know really.
Oh dear I've depressed myself now,
Hope I've haven't you. Sorry x Good luck with it all ?.