Bethesda Senior Living Communities

The Bethesda Gardens Thornton community is going through a lot of transition. I am hoping this is a short term problem, with the above ratings and things will get better after construction is finished.

It was confusing in the beginning due to new staff learning and not enough staff. Not all details on care plans are covered on a regular consistent basis. Nothing large, but annoying, to say the least, knowing it's listed on their care plans. Again, I've been told is due to either staff turn over and or not enough staff. Nutritious, but the quality of the actual food items is sometimes questionable. They don't get involved in many. It is a nice community but there are some areas of improvement. Our family feels they need to improve initiating the details of the care plans with the residence and the staff. Also, upgrade the quality of the actual food items on the menu.

The food has a lot to be desired. They did not check on my mom as often as they said they would. They facility looks very nice and inviting.

Our experience wasn't great here.

I toured this community, but was not impressed. My overall impression was that it just seemed dark and dingy. They were just getting ready to start some remodeling, so that maybe has improved. But that was my impression during my recent tour.

I liked the location and the fact that after 24 months of self pay then when the resident runs out of money it then goes to Medicaid. I disliked the cleanliness of the rooms, lack of doing the laundry along with poor communication.

We understand just like everyone else that they are understaffed, but they could make some improvements with their nursing care

We've had several issues. Their tour and welcome packet sounds really good, but a lot of what they say they offer is not there. I feel like if we were not there monitoring what was going on, we would have no idea. It's not a place where you can leave your family member and not check on them like some families do. We had issues with medication being noted that it was given at a specific time, when I know it wasn't because Mom was actually with us at the time they noted. We were told four different stores about the situation until we presented them with our information. So we never really know if she's getting her medication or not. Activities are another issue. There is only one person who sets those up, and basically they're just time filler on a calendar. They'll have bingo every day written down in the afternoon, or some sort of card game. But as far as them putting any effort into activities, there's very little. Also, if we're not double checking to make sure that there are sundry supplies (paper towels, toilet paper, etc.) in her room, it may or may not happen. They said they would make sure she was at all three meals. But that's not necessarily what they do. They expect the resident to show up on their own. Mom has dementia, so she may or may not realize it's time to eat. So we've had to make sure she's actually getting that phone call or knock on the door or whatever it takes tot get her notified to go eat. She's not good at taking showers on her own now, which is common with dementia. And many times I'll show up to find she hasn't had a shower in a couple of days. But since we're there all the time, they know that they're supposed to be doing all of this and make sure it gets done. But I'm not satisfied that all that would happen unless we were there. The meals that we've been to are not good. They might serve a salad or a ham and cheese sandwich - things you would find at a grade school cafeteria. We spent 30 minutes or more going over Mom's nutrition requirements, none of which really mattered in the end, because they serve the same thing to everybody there. We're just not seeing really anything that was represented to us in the beginning. She's getting some socialization, which is good for her. And there are a few staff members who go the extra mile to look out for her when they can, which we really appreciate. But we were really disappointed when we started seeing all the discrepancies between what they advertise that they offer and what is actually taking place.

There's NO place for the non-memory care residents to walk outside except for a sidewalk between front of building and parking lot.... The lower level garden area is reserved for memory care residents only!! --- Renovations inside are nice but appearance isn't everything..... Front desk not always staffed so residents can't go outside or get back in ..... Mom has dementia only needing help with shower, meds and escort to meals and church (the ONLY activity she craves). When we first visited I shared how important church is to mom and was told they had Christian services. We learned it's only 1x a month and they make NO effort to get mom there.... I have witnessed 4 occasions when no one came to escort mom to eat.... I found an enormous bruise on mom's leg (she didn't know where it came from... how could they miss it if they assist her with showers?) and rang the "assistance needed" bell. I waited 45 minutes before anyone came!!! ... last visit her heart monitor is unplugged

The experience has been just okay, if we had to do it again we probably would not choose this community. Just like other places they are struggling with loosing staff and hiring staff. They do have travel nurses as aids right now and some are great and others not at all - it just depends on who you have for the day. The new director there is working on turning things around and the head nurse does the absolute best she can. The saving grace for us would be the therapy services on site. The therapist go way above and beyond their daily responsibilities. The are constantly checking in on our loved one and keeping good communication with our family. They help clean up his apartment and even help return packages. We do like how the memory care is separate from the assisted living folks - our loved one was in a previous community where they were together and it made our loved one very anxious and overwhelmed.

Our family had an in person tour and the person giving the tour was great, but the community just had a smaller feel to it. The rooms were much smaller, and we do know every place is struggling with staffing, but it just seemed more apparent here then at the other communities we toured.

This community was not as clean as another community that I was looking at. Just not really the environment that I was looking for for my loved one. The tour guide was very nice and professional it was more just the building was run down.

Our family had an in person tour and it had similar amenities to another top choice but a little more expensive. The community itself was fine but we just did not get that overwhelming feeling that this was the place for our loved one.

This wasn't the right fit for my loved one.

This community was nice it just did not have the warm fuzzy feeling four our loved one that we were looking for. They were too big and we felt she would get lost in the shuffle.

This community was nice it just felt like a hotel, it did not meet my loved ones needs and was too high class for us.

This facility used to be an apartment building. When we walked in nothing really stuck out to us, it was in the midst of covid and we did not really see anybody. The gal who gave us the tour was nice, informative, and she did follow up a few times.

I had an overall good impression after my tour at Broadmoor Court, although I recognize that they all have their best foot forward on the tours. It seemed pretty much average, generally about the same as the other places that I looked at. What sold me on another place that we ended up choosing was the rapport with the salesperson, just an intangible feeling that my loved one would be well looked after.

Our loved one absolutely loves this community, she loves everyone there and everyone loves her. However, we are quite frustrated, what they say in the beginning is not the case, nothing ever happens. Our loved one is supposed to get three showers a week, with a little assistance and that does not happen. There are no activities, they did not help us out in the beginning filling out our loved ones meal schedule, we had no idea what to do. There is just a lack of communication. Our loved one is diabetic and they are not paying attention to their dietary restrictions, but now things are getting a little more under control.

We moved in right at the height of coronavirus lockdowns. We weren't allowed inside to visit and only got to see our loved one through the glass. So there's a lot I don't know about what was going on. They did call a few times to let me know my loved one had fallen, but it was always a day or two later. I'm not sure why they would call after the fact and not right when it happened. The last call I received from them was when they took her to the hospital because she had stopped eating and drinking. The hospital found she had a broken hip, which I feel was likely due to one of her falls that Autumn View Gardens didn't do anything about. At that point, we took her home to enter hospice care. I would not recommend Autumn View Gardens. I went back to get a few of her things, one of which was a huge digital clock that gave her the day, the week, the month at a glance, because she couldn't keep her days straight. When I arrived to pick up her things, her door was unlocked, and the clock was missing. It was the only expensive thing she had there. I was not very happy with them at all.