Brookdale

My aunt moved into Brookdale anticipating a community providing good food, outings, activities, and new friends to share experiences. The first week she contracted COVID, quarantined with only meal delivery to her room, which was cold and inconsistent, such that one day she received in the evening all of her 3 daily meals - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - at one time, cold and inedible. A fire alarm in the middle of the night, stranded her on the 11th floor 1 hour without a means of taking the stairs and without direction from the staff (no direction from intercom systems located on each floor). Eventually, a private aide to a resident called the fire department, who remained on the line and assisted. Her unit was damaged during Hurricane Milton. Staff advised her to return - elevator broken, window seals broken, drywall removed. Respiratory issues within an hour. She's unable to reside in her unit. Several times we've tried to get clarity from the administration but no response.

Zero communication. When I brought my husband to brookdale, they management told me that they had end of life care. The last two weeks of my husband's life the staff helped me rather than I helped them. Even with hospice, the staff looked to me for feeding, diapering etc. It was the most horrific 6 weeks of my husbands life and mine.

I have lived at Brookdale Evesham for about 3 months in an assisted living room. The aides are great. However, the food leaves a lot to be desired. It typically takes about an hour from the time a meal is ordered to the time it is served. Even then, the food isn't always prepared correctly, even when a special request is made. Oftentimes it is lukewarm at best. If I were able to opt out of eating meals in the dining room in exchange for a reduced rent payment, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I would never ever recommend them to anyone. The rates keep going up and the quality of care keeps going down. Her room was always a mess. It was never cleaned. She is now at [facility removed] close to where I live and it may be older facility but it is much better. She's happy. She's doing stuff getting more involved and she ever has at any other place.

They could improve on communication about level of care and cost change but with those improvements we would recommend them to others

They kept changing administrative staff upper management there. Nobody knew what the other person was doing, or what they had promised. My billing statement was never correct the day he was finally moved in. I had to keep bringing it to their attention, which should not have been my responsibility. The first year he was there. The ladies in the office were very helpful and took care of this matter [names removed]were wonderful and helped me out a lot to get this taken care of. The next year I don't know her name she was a black lady. I told her I wasn't happy with the increase that I was giving because same residence with the same situations were not given that high of an increase. She said she would check it out and would get back with me. She never did then another lady took it Over and she wore a lot of eye makeup and could care less if she talk to me at all. They raised his rate that they had to feed him, and they raised his rate that they had to lift him to and from his bed two person. I wanted to talk to her about this because every time I would come to feed him no one was feeding him and he had food all over him. So I was paying over [fee removed] charge each month for something they were not doing so since nobody wanted to talk to me as to why my rates went up more than anyone else's, and the extra charges being added, I moved my husband. I now pay half the cost. I would have with Brookdale and they do feed my husband and they do lift him to and from bed and they do put him in a recliner once in a while which Brookdale did not. With no extra charge. They even brought in a lift machine to help when needed again no extra charge. I have sent them letters after letters explaining why I do not feel I owe the extra charges and they are now sending me to collections. Although I could've sued them for HIPAA privacy Tracy, the main guy there told the new place without my permission, my husband was a wonder and combat. My husband is in a wheelchair with dementia and Parkinson's. I had to explain to the new place. My husband does not wander the halls and he can barely lift his hands to feed himself. Please believe me. I know Tracy told her this information because he did not want me to leave the place, because at that time, the place was not full of residence. That is just a few items he never had the right clothes in his closet. I paid almost [fee removed] for a mattress cover. They didn't have it on and he had soiled a new mattress it was stuffed up in his closet, I was not happy to have a new mattress ruined because of their laziness. I could go on about other situations but it will do me no good. Please do not recommend that place to anyone else.

Equipment is broken/ down regularly. Mostly boring , repetitive & not healthy meals. Fresh fruit a rarity. Not checking on residents welfare. Facility/ staff unreachable by phone especially evening & early morning. Homecare staff response time generally 25 minutes, sometimes up to 55 minutes. Building extremely cold all year long.

This place is expensive and doesn't provide all the services they charge for. Pricing is "al-la-cart" meaning they charge for everything. There were many caring staff, but the Health and Wellness Director, [name removed] uses bullying when you have concerns. She routinely threatened to raise the price when we had concerns, and she blamed inappropriate treatment on the victim's dementia. Perhaps she is on commission, but her focus was on extracting as much money from our family as possible. When she began to fight against hospice care and insisted on changing doctor's orders to suit herself, we moved my dying father to a different facility. It was a horrible experience to deal with when you're dealing with a dying family member. I cannot recommend this place. Keep looking.

While the floor staff were amazing, the rest of the facility is not. My parents were there for a little over a month and a half, during that time the water either didn’t work or barely trickled. The residents were unable to bathe and staff would sometimes bring water to the rooms so toilets could maybe be flushed once a day, if they were lucky. Some times it would be several days before a toilet could be flushed. During those times there was no way for the residents to wash their hands. Also, they moved in during the summer and we found the air conditioning in their room did not work. It took several weeks before they had a working air conditioner in their room. Most days the room would be in the high 80s and was unbearable. It also took several weeks to get the cable working in their room. All this was despite us making multiple calls and requests to get things fixed. I would never recommend placing anyone in this place.

My experience with Brookdale San Ramon has been incredibly frustrating, particularly when it comes to the care provided and the unresponsiveness of the Executive Director. When I first toured the community, the Sales Manager did an amazing job presenting the facility as a top-notch, “gold standard” senior living community. Unfortunately, the reality is far from what was promised. Once we moved in, it became clear that the level of care was subpar. Basic needs and requests are often ignored, and there seems to be a lack of concern for residents' well-being. The care staff appears overworked and understaffed, which directly impacts the quality of service. To make matters worse, the Executive Director is completely unresponsive. Repeated attempts to address issues regarding my loved one’s care have been ignored, with no resolution or accountability from management. While the Initial Presentation was smooth and persuasive, the actual experience has been deeply disappointing.

There are no words to describe how horrible the experience was! Understaffed and what staff was there constantly complained! No one knew what was going on and you would get a different response on how my mother was doing based on who you talked to. All they do is wheel everyone to the TV room counting on the TV to keep patience occupied. You had to search for a nurse every time you needed something. You’d think you could at least find a nurse where they heard all the patients, but that wasn’t the case! My mother’s belongings kept coming up missing, especially here blankets. It was so disorganized to the point it was disgusting! They actually sent my mother to the hospital on one occasion and I was never notified by the nurses. It wasn’t till 4 hours later that I found out, only because I got a call from Forbes hospital! My mother sat there unattended for hours. That was only going into the second week of being there. It was absolutely inhumane there!

Highly discourage anyone to put their trust in this facility! Their number concern is getting your money NOT the care and wellbeing of your loved one. I also got cheated out of [fee removed]. Their top priority is filling the vacancies and the quality of care, cleanliness, and meals fall into the low priority category.

The place is horrible. I fell for all the BS the sales woman gave me about the place. I moved my 96 year old mom in this place and in the very first day or two she had already fallen when one of their people was supposedly "helping' her get up from the dinner table. Then another time she fell and tore the skin on her arm she was bleeding all over her bed, the chair and her clothes all day long. I happened to come in and I asked them to bandage her arm at least five times in 2 hours and still no one came. They told me no none was allowed to put a bandage on her except the head nurse .... who buy the way never did anything but hide behind her closed door the same way the Executive Director did. There were several times we asked for aspirin for my mom's headaches that never came....meals that never came. I actually witnessed one of the aids shake my mom violently one day when she didn't want to wake up. They ran the place like a BOOT CAMP instead of an assisted living. MY mom ha

The sales pitch does not match the experience. The staff walks out at 5:00 instead of a warm hand off to the people on the next shift. Communication is awful. Emails are not returned. If they are they don’t send what you’re asking for. Residents are in the dark about when laundry/shower/cleaning. Not sure cleaning is happening at all. They do not wish to rectify incorrect invoices. They simply want you to pay and ask for reimbursement later. Broken things take two weeks plus tons of begging to be fixed. Thermostats are broken in both apartments my parents occupy. Not at all what we expected in the worst ways.

Brookdale management, not in Lubbock, POOR. Room was cleaned fairly regularly. Not a great job by any stretch. Staff very friendly. They were the highlight. The care seemed pretty good! Total disaster. Quality of food was poor. The online menu and what was actually being served, rarely matched. Running out of certain dishes was a common occurrence. Being promised that standard items would be available was rare. They didn't starve so I guess they can't complain too much. Plenty of activities that neither one of my parents took advantage. I'm a cheapo. It truly seemed too high for what they got.

My mother passed away soon after moving in. This facility tried an ACH withdrawal over $[removed]from her checking the following month. Shocking. Phone messages went unanswered. Emails remain unanswered. I receive monthly invoices to this day for an amount that is not owed and makes no sense whatsoever. It’s been a year since I receive monthly invoices and am reminded of where NOT to place your elder loved ones. Just baffling, to say the least. My attorney sent a letter to no avail. How does this remain unaddressed?

On multiple occasions they were told my father couldn't chew food because he had no teeth. He lost his dentures. And they continued give him food that he could not eat. Even once causing him to require the Heimlich maneuver once at dinner from a large piece of broccoli. They had him on so many medications he was practically comatose. He was on the list for a provider in psychology and were told we did not want that person seeing him and they still treated him and prescribed him with a patch medication with a black box warnings that they ignored and still gave to him even though he had dementia. Because of this I feel they were in direct cause of his condition rapidly worsening leading to his death only a week after being sent to the hospital.

I would not take my worst enemy here. I would tell anyone looking do not go here, stay away from this facility and A Place for Mom.

This facility should be avoided at all costs. The rates quoted were not accurate. Before moving in we were given a written notice for fees that was later ignored with bills for services that were not rendered. Attempts to resolve this were met with denial that the previous meetings took place despite the presence of multiple witnesses. Our father only stayed for 6 weeks while family was out of the country and unable to visit. During the short stay, our father fell out of bed and fractured his shoulder. The night staff came by once and gave him a pillow and left him on the floor. When we returned he was in very poor condition with multiple open wounds from falls that had not been treated.

It was a negative experience, and my family wouldn't recommend Brookdale Hickory. The Executive Director was unprofessional. The Health and Wellness Director left suddenly early this year, and things for my mom went from bad to worse.