Brookdale

It was okay community community, it was smaller than we wanted.

Our family had an in person tour and it was just as impressive to us, it just wasn't able to compare to the community our loved one is currently at

I toured with Brookdale East Niskayuna and I thought it looked like a dated facility. I also just did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling from them like I did from the facility that we ended up going with.

My loved one was there for a short amount of time, due to a fall in the community. The community found my loved one had fallen, and tried to contact the family in a reasonable amount of time to update us. The care the community was able to provide was medication management, dressing, and bathing assistance for my loved one.

I'm disappointed so far with this facility. Housekeeping doesn't clean thoroughly, I usually have to clean mom's room myself at least every other week. They also don't fold the laundry. A lot of times mom's clothes are wrinkled and I have to take them home to re-dry and fold them. The meals are cold often and they don't offer much variety. They have very few activities. The staff is nice overall. Communication with the family is pretty good, other than with the doctor. It's hard to get information to and from the doctor. My biggest problem is with their billing. I finally had to take them off of autopay. Their monthly invoice isn't clear and I have to sit down with them every month to go over it. I've caught errors/overcharges. I'm not sure I would recommend them to friends and family, maybe so depending on their loved one's needs.

Brookdale probably would have been my second choice out of the 3 that I looked at. I did not see many people of color here which bothered me - the only person of color was the memory care director. There was also a story about a patient being attacked by another patient in the news at this facility, so it made my nervous to put my loved one here.

I toured this facility and it was ok. The staff seemed friendly. The rooms were pretty small and I noticed very little interaction between the residents and staff.

There have been several incidents where injuries occurred without explanation as to how or what happened. Sometimes personal hygiene and cleanliness of wheelchairs and surroundings seem neglected. The staff is always caring but it seems like weekends are when the least attention is given to residents.

We were not happy with the whole situation. My friend cannot walk and she needed more care than what they were providing. She was evaluated and they said she could come there. Whenever someone stepped foot in her room to do something for her, she was charged. It became very expensive. When she pulled her cord, sometimes it would take 2 hours for someone to come to change her. I have had to call sometimes at 2AM to try and get someone to go and change her because no one would. The care that she got was not a standard of what she was paying for. She did have some good aids, but the 3rd shift was bad. During the daytime, those aids were definitely better. I would tell others that if your loved one is able to move about, go to the bathroom on their own, and walk up and down the hall on their own then you make like it there just fine. If they need any type of extra help, it is not the place.

My loved one lived here for awhile. Housekeeping wasn't always timely. Our biggest issue was the pricing. It's a la carte vs a flat monthly rate. We put together a package in the beginning and were told the pricing wouldn't change. However, within 4 months the cost went up significantly and became unaffordable for us. We didn't expect that and were disappointed. Ultimately, we had to move our loved one to another facility that was more affordable.

The activities were fine. We picked this community because, it was recommended and everythng was going fine. The billing was questionable. Theywere an okay facility, and it was cheaper than other places.

This was an acceptable community. The community appeared short staffed and overworked.

They have very nice staff members that work here. There are times that the community is short staffed. There has been an ongoing request with maintenance and this is still waiting to be updated. The staff communication with the family has been okay. It did take a bit to establish a routine for my loved one. Some of the care services include medication management, bathing and dressing assistance.

We've had issues here. I will say, it's a safe facility. They do have some wonderful staff here and those members are doing the best they can with the time that they have. They did a great job during the hurricane, a handful of staff stayed over night to make sure everyone was safe and taken care of. I visit everyday and I see how things are run. Overall, this place is so understaffed. We have now brought my loved one's regular Dr and Cardiologist on to take over care. While I was out of town, there was a med change. Same kind of medication, but they decided to stop the one my loved one was taking and try a different one. Long story short, the individual who inputted the med change removed the old medication from the computer but not from the med drawer. As a result, he gave my loved one BOTH of the medications for 10 days. When I got back into town and went to visit, I could tell something was wrong. My loved one seemed out of it and confused. That's when we discovered the error. The director assured me that the individual who made the error would no longer be running the med cart. A couple of days went by and he was back to doing the med cart. We're still working with them about that and some other things. Things get lost often. Housekeeping could be better. Overall, things could be much better than they are here right now.

I toured with Brookdale Folsom and I did like the facility. They were undergoing renovations at the time which was no fault of theirs - everyone has to at some point. I just felt that they were not totally put together and were a little scattered. The lady who was giving me the tour was great and full of a lot of helpful information.

They really did not tell us to get the things ready that we needed when our loved one was moving in - meaning what we needed from for we could not use and it messed up our plans. Our loved one had two rooms and the AC unit was on the wall in the other room is it was difficult to control the AC and heat in our loved ones bedroom - it was just not the best set up. Also our loved one would have to wait a long time for someone to come and assist and it took them two weeks to do our loved ones laundry when it was supposed to be done every week.

The people are very nice here. The financial department is the only concerns, as it isn't set up very well. The billing isn't as accurate as it could be for us. There are three meals a day served to the residents and there are choices for the residents to choose from. There are activities such as music and happy hour for the residents that would like to participate in them.

I toured this facility. Initially, they came to speak with us when our loved one was still in rehab. She had a neck brace on and they knew it would be needed for a little while and said it was ok. When she was able, we toured the facility. On the tour, they mentioned the neck brace and said it didn't meet criteria and they couldn't accept her. It was just frustrating.

My loved one is not invloved in activities. They are still trying to get use to the community. I like the place because,it's a single level, and you don't have to get involved with elevators and stairs. Also, the closet in the master bed room is larger.

Dietary has been our biggest struggle. My loved one is diabetic and we were led to believe there would be a well-rounded menu to choose from but it has not turned out to be that way. I have not been real impressed with the nursing staff, especially the director. We have had some concerns there with the follow through. It is not what we thought it was going to be, but we are trying to still make the best of it.