Atria

In my 1.5 years here, rent raised twice, by 10%,while quality of food has deteriorated tremendously with many shortages.. Staff works hard, pleasantly, but are subject to harsh treatment by unhappy residents.

1.Overall Experience: Rating 2. I had to cancel my agreement to stay at Atria because I had to change the city I would live. There was no transportation within their limits to get me where I need to be. I decided to call the Director who didn't call me back. I called at least 4, 5, or more times. I got him twice. He said he couldn't make the decision and would call me back the same day before the end of the day. He never did. I started out really impressed with the entire place, but when the problem came they handled it poorly. I lost over $[removed] dollars. They didn't give me one penny back. They did let me out of the agreement. I am grateful for that. I did not find that out until the day that they would've started taking money out for a new month, no information ahead of time.

The room size was very good and had nice big windows. The staff very friendly and tried to be helpful but there is no medical care. They emphasize the social aspect of care however. It is great until your loved one gets hurt - like a fall or gets sick. They have carpeted hallways instead of hard flooring. Atria did not provide medical help to our loved one when needed. There was many administrative issues with Atria as well, communication could be improved on. Communication was abysmal. They initially told me things that turned out not to be true, some of which caused my loved ones hospital stay. "Medical Director" was ineffective and did not seem to be as knowledgeable as one would expect.

My main problems had to do with admin. [name removed] the sales director was great and was the one person I could rely on. I was frustrated with their lack of communication. They would let my parents go to the store on outings, and would then go into their room once they were at lunch and take most of the things they bought. They would then ask me to come down and pick it up. I had to tell them multiple times that I live out of state. They took the lightbulbs they bought away from them, but never bothered to ask why they bought them in the first place. So my parents sat in the dark for a few nights until they told me what happened. They took away the batteries they bought, but again never asked why they bought them. So my parents took the batteries out of their flashlight, so they could use the TV remote until they told me what was going on. They took multiple disposable razors away from my dad (he had to have surgery on his neck and stubble quickly becomes quite painful). It wasn't until I was in the memory care directors office having a rather frank conversation that she finally told me that if I got him an electric razor that they wouldn't take it from him. I asked her why it took several months for her to pass along this simple but rather vital information. I asked the memory care director if they could be given a list of what they can buy, and what they can rely on atria to provide. She agreed that this would be a good idea, and then never followed through with it. Multiple times I was asked to stop by and drop off a new inhaler for her, and once again had told tell them that I live out of state and they need to go through the pharmacy that was already working with Atria. My mom developed a UTI and had incontinence issues. She had some accidents on the carpet. Their room perpetually had a nasty urine smell. When I asked them about getting the carpet cleaned, they said that she was still having the issue so they weren't going to bother cleaning. Through my own research I found an external catheter and I hope that will help eliminate the problem. Again, they never gave professional advice on solutions, they just told me they weren't going to bother cleaning. My parents were very much against telling atria about problems. My mom had permission to leave memory care and my dad could go with her. They were afraid that atria was looking for any excuse to restrict them to memory care. I chalked this up to paranoia. A few months in I changed my mind. With the UTI It can affect cognition. When my mom was in serious discomfort and having accidents, they didn't help get her to her doctor, instead they ran a cognitive test and then called me to tell me they were going to restrict them to memory care. They never mentioned the fact that a UTI seemed to be the problem. I only got that info directly from my parents and had made arrangements for her to see her doctor. The driver [name removed] was another great help, but when he would take them to my moms primary care physician, I had to talk to whoever was at the front desk and give them the full address every time because they couldn't seem to enter basic and rather vital info into their computer system. My last bit is about my concerns being confirmed by two different companies in the industry. First was the skilled nursing center my mom was at recently after she fell and broke her hip. They told me that communicating with atria was incredibly frustrating and it was delaying my moms release as they had to get approval from atria to take my mom back based on the level of care that she would need. They actually asked me to call atria myself to see if I could get the ball rolling. The last is from the new care center here in Colorado that I just moved them to ([community removed]). They said that in the video interview to establish level of care, the nurses were unprepared and didn't know some basic info about my parents that was the basis for the meeting. They also said that communicating with atria was very difficult and actually developed a technique. The head nurse [name removed] would never pick up the phone, so when they called, they would ask for [name removed] the assistant, and then have her hand the phone to [name removed], who was right there, but would never answer. It was all very draining and took up a good part of my time. Just as an example, I listed out everything it took to get my mom released from the skilled nursing center and back to atria. The skilled nursing center was very helpful, yet it took a total of 32 emails, 14 phone calls, and 52 text messages to make this happen.

They do have some truly dedicated staff, but the age of the facility is really showing in terms of things breaking like the heaters air conditioners and water heaters. The nursing staff also is limited to strictly servicing those folks that need the meds administered to them. There is no true assistance like diabetes monitoring, Band-Aids and the sort, or other assistance type needs

There are some good aspects of Atria, some of the staff and the activities. The wellness center is a joke. The aides and waitstaff can be rude and very nasty. My mother is not happy there but this is what I am hearing at all of the assisted living places. The management doesn't hire enough staff and the aides are overwhelmed and they take their stress out of the residents. I am very disappointed in assisted living. My mom is paying a lot of money. She just wants to relax and feel safe and instead she is yelled at and doesn't feel like she's being taken care of, except by the management who do intervene in a timely way.

Admin staff was abysmal--gave wrong info, changed stories as they went along, disorganized, didnt follow through with promises, etc Families need to know there is NO medical care at Atria Carrollton Yes, they have an LVN labeled " medical director, who does absolutely nothing if medical issue comes up Doesnt return calls, doesnt take responsibility for anythng, wont take vitals, --nothing. To be honest, I do not think you should be recommending Atria to anyone. period. Very nice facility with many nice employees, but thats where the good things about Atria end.

I would tell a friend, to probably to go somewhere else. Pay the aids there more money. They are not happy and it reflects in patient care

The lady doing our tour acted rushed and basically told us you had no openings. Also if nursing home placement was required for additional services, we would only get a slot IF no Brandenwilde resident needed it first, they took precedent. So we felt you guys didn’t need or want our business. Also we were not taken to an office and our mother asked about to get to know her needs. It was straight “Here is this section, here is this….etc”. Within about five minutes, we knew that was not where we would place our mother.

We would rate them a 2.5. They misrepresented their nursing staff abilities. Our mother got sent to the ER twice during a two weeks day. They didn't have anybody to welcome her into the community even though it was for two weeks I had to ask for that as she didn't know where to go once we left her. The accommodations was very nice the room, the bathroom clean. Our mother wasn't very fond of the food. Communication was good. I believe it is a nice place but they over sold us some regarding nursing and we were very upfront with our needs

When they scheduled the nurse to interview my mom at the rehab center, she was sleeping. They woke her up and gave her a test. They called me and told me she failed. Of course someone would fail if just woken up. I got the impression they were not interested in having my mom as a resident.

Staff were mostly friendly and helpful, except for the head guy who would say one thing, then do something different. The facility seemed clean and fairly new, but pricier than most of the other places we visited. I was told that if I paid up front, but decided to go elsewhere, that I'd get my money back. I did eventually, but it took several weeks so I had to borrow money in order to pay the place we chose. Also, Atria didn't think they could help my husband as much as he needed.

The administration charges more for more care, which is understandable. However, they can change a resident's status from month to month. We never knew what we would be paying. When they figured that our mom needed too much care, they said she fell, sent her to the hospital, and then wouldn't let her back into the facility. They wouldn't accept her discharge. We had to scramble to find her a new place to live.

When we met with [name removed] he advised us that we would get assistance if my husband's social security and pension were less than a certain amount and it was. In reality that was not true. I had to give all our financial information and we're not eligible for assistance. After my husband a resident for a few days, they threatened to evict him because he was hugging people and they had a no touch policy. My husband was like that and he had dementia and didn't understand. I had to hire someone to help him get adjusted to his new surroundings. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

There wasn't much activities. They could really do with my dad due to his dementia, but I felt like they didn't really do anything. I think they did a better job interacting with him when he was at the rehab facility in Rockville center. The food was what it was. I never really tasted it. I'm sure it was fine and the room was nice. It was a good size. How everything he needed. I had a few instances where I felt that they can care less what happens to him. That caused me a lot of concern he fell and nobody could tell me how it happened or why it happened when I finally got a hold of the head nurse. She didn't know. All she did is speculate when I asked her if she can find out for me and get back to me she never called back. Towards the end, my dad had lost a lot of weight again. I had to seek her out for his care, and apparently she had a conversation with me so she said prior which we never had. I don't think I would ever recommend that place.

He fell and they don't do a 2 person lift up. What kind of personal care or assisted can't assist a person? They're in memory care. Very disappointed because I did a lot of time researching. Activities and food were good. No one helps anyone with eating if they leave the food and walk away don't seem to be encouraged back to the meal.

I was very clear with Atria that my mother would need to transition to hospice care at some point. I was assured that Atria could accommodate this. I would not have moved my mother there otherwise. At the point she transitioned to hospice care following a hospital visit, Atria would not take her back without a 24 hour a day aide at $[fee removed] per hour. I was forced to find other accommodations for my mother in a short period of time. The staff that provided direct care to my mother in the time she was there were very kind and compassionate.

I felt like most of the staff was not educated enough to care for memory care patients. Maybe they were understaffed . I found feces in my mom's laundry , she smelled quite a bit, not enough time encouraging her to do things, or even spend quality time with her. Missing clothes, and bedding, all the time. Annoyed when we would ask for simple things( glass of water). Her room smelled, floors sticky. This is NOT how I wanted my mother to spend the last months of her life. I will never get over the guilt of placing her there. [name removed] was the only person there who showed an ounce of compassion. And we are still getting a bill for $[removed]. I have called 2 times to find out what this charge is for. Still waiting for the explanation, and they keep sending the bill. Please do not recommend this place to anyone else.

Let me start by stating that I do not have a public complainer personality and this is all based on my interpretation/opinion of the facts. My father was in memory care: The brochure I received advertised 24/7support from staff with extensive dementia training. From my experience, such was not accurate. Instead, management, unilaterally elected to immediately force very expensive 24/7 third-party care on my father with extremely little notice and without a caring effort to work with us find to locate an alternate facility. The immediate cost increase essentially added $[removed]k to our rent. I can only surmise Atria management knew such rent increase would force us to relocate. Extremely unethical and unprofessional - certainly not compassionate. I also question why there were many emergency vehicle (ambulance/fire truck) visits almost daily to the facility. At the memory care facility to which my father re-located, we never saw one emergency response vehicle. Something is wrong...

We have unfortunately had to make the tough decision to move Mom out of Atria Memory Care. We have had multiple conversations with the leadership at Atria, to discuss our concerns about the staffing level in Memory Care. Per Atria, they are compliant with state law. In [date removed], mom fell and broke her hip. "Resident had unwitnessed fall in the dining room. She fell under the table". So, I contracted with a private caregiver to help with mom's needs, due to the "unwitnessed" fall. In [date removed], she fell again, resulting in a head injury that required 5 staples. "Resident had an unwitnessed fall while in the supervision of private caregiver contracted by RP." RP: responsible person After breakfast, our private caregiver left my mom in a chair in the main living area. Mom fell, the caregiver came back, found mom on the floor - picked her up, put her back in her wheelchair and took her back to her room. No Atria staff witnessed any of this. This confirmed our concerns.