Bickford Senior Living

I have been a volunteer at Bickford of St. Charles for many years. Recently, I've noticed multiple changes in staffing and administration. This may be why the quality of care is declining. I've seen too many examples of long delays in response to patient calls and general disorganization. I know many of the residents here and they deserve better.

I was told, when looking for a place, that Bickford was a skilled nursing facility. They are not. They are charging us a level 5 and we are not getting the care of that level. There is no communication with us, unless we call for a meeting. The move in process was rough. We were told we were getting a "new" apartment, but there was no paint and no new carpet. The meals are adequate. My loved one is very picky and they try hard to get her something she likes. They need more workers. And ones that care about people. They have one nurse who is the best and one CNA that is great. Others are off the street with no training. They have one maintenance worker who can't possibly keep up with things. We can't move because no other place has apartments. The housekeeping is below acceptable. I would not recommend this facility under present management and staff.

I was at Bickford for a few weeks in 2022 as a temporary resident. While the food is pretty good and some of the staff (mainly the CNAs) are caring, the overall atmosphere is that of a prison where the prisoners are occasionally granted some leniency. You can't question anything--such as your medication, why you can't go out for a walk (center courtyard is like the yard at a prison and very depressing), why some staff members (looking at you, nurses and administration) talk down to you like you're a child, etc. Also, some dementia patients just wander around and staff seems untrained to deal with them. Finally, it is a very sterile almost church-like atmosphere, too much Pottery Barn decor--ugh-- and crosses and Jesus everywhere. They don't seem to know there are other religions on the plant.

At this time I would not recommend Bickford to anyone. They hired some new staff and I am hoping things improve.

I had reserved a room for my loved one and paid for several months, while she was in rehabilitation at the nursing home. Brighton Gardens of Brentwood sent a nurse to evaluate my loved one on 3 different occasions. The reason for those evaluations were to approve her move to Brighton. The evaluating nurse never reported findings, either to the nursing home or to me. I finally cancelled my loved one's room at Brighton and moved her to another assisted living facility.

My family member felt there was a lot of memory care patients in Bickford. The residents were in various stages of dementia and unable to hold conversations with others. .Once our family member went elsewhere we heard it was predominantly memory care from other healthcare professionals in the area. They are careful about the visiting hours not overlapping with mealtime. WHY?There is another loved one at Bickford and they have dropped a lot of weight due to the quality of food and the lack of encouragement for them to eat. When the staff was asked why they don’t encourage them to eat they were told “We are assisted living and that is not our job”. There is also the issue of Food that isn’t there. I witnessed a sandwich which was missing the primary ingredients. Broth that looked like tomato juice with big potatoes floating in it in a little cup that didn’t hold more that 5-6 oz. When we spoke with management about our concerns we knew nothing would change.

My nephew chose Bickford of Peoria for me and he chose it online. I would want others to know that they charge you for every little thing that they do. They did have some very good activities to offer and brought in a lot of bands and things like that. Overall, I would reluctantly recommend. It was very expensive for what you received.

Too expensive and environment wasn’t our favorite

My grandmother is a resident here, and the only reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1 is because of the amazing CNA’s here. While Bickford is a gorgeous facility and I cannot say enough wonderful things about the CNA’s, something absolutely needs to change with leadership/management here. The turnover of staff is so high that the CNA’s are expected to perform not only their job description, but also pick up the slack from being so understaffed that they’re expected to cook in the kitchen, clean the cafeteria/eating area and do residents laundry. My Aunt takes all of my grandma’s clothes with her weekly and washes them at home to alleviate some of the stress on the CNA’s and because we can’t trust that it’s going to get done. Not to mention their washers are often broken for extended periods of time. We have seen so many good CNAs and cooks come and go because of the amount of work that’s required of them. It’s especially difficult for the residents that have memory loss because they will finally get used to a staff member only for them to resign a short while later. It’s a total revolving door and it stresses the residents and their family members out. Understaffing has also lead to multiple residents walking right out the front door without notice, which is very scary for being on busy a busy intersection of Hunt Club and Gages Road. When family members sat down with management (including the District Manager) to voice concerns and ask what was going to be done, family members were given typical corporate blanket statements with no real sense of urgency or care. It comes off as though all they care about is the money and cutting expenses (staff) to increase their profit, even if it’s at the expense of their residents. For what we pay monthly at Bickford (which is a VERY pretty penny), we will be looking for another establishment for my grandmother if management doesn’t make changes soon. This area has plenty of nice assisted living facilities to choose from and we’d gladly give our money to one who cares more about the wellbeing and care of not only their residents, but their staff as well, rather than greed. Bickford has huge potential to be run the right way and be a wonderful facility for residents, but even the nicest facility with beautiful esthetics can’t outweigh or hide the real issues that are happening.

Appeared somewhat run down. Seems like there are staffing issues as well. Did not appear to be maintained as well, and there were several vacancies.

My father was only at Bickford for 16 days before he died. I have waited to submit a review because I was too angry and emotional. I want to first say the floor staff that attended him were very good....the CNAs etc.....even though they were terribly understaffed. But the office and administrative staff over promised and under delivered. I did keep a journal of our experience and would be happy to share it. I would not recommend this facility.

My mother was cared for during the day but at night she frequently sat on the commode for over 45 minutes before getting assistance. That is unacceptable. We were charged for a new carpet after she passed; no one informed us of this cost of $700 nor did I ever get an invoice even though I asked for one. There were other issues ie, staff ‘forgot’ to take her for her doc appointment. I was told laundry was included however that meant sheets only. For the high cost, I expected stellar service.

only one bedrooms

The director, [Name removed], was very kind and knowledgeable. The facility, however, was dark and not cheerful. The rooms were very small and a bit dingy. A small facility. It could be a good solution for some, but not what I was looking for for my mother.

I toured here and thought the community was nice, but I was worried by the fact that the memory care unit is two stories and that there was nothing to keep residents from going up the stairs. Overall, I just did not feel that this would be the best fit for us.

The staff at this community were very nice. This community did not have a clean room to show us. The room we saw was small and it was a shared room. I did not see how you were able to get two beds into the room. I did not get the best feeling from this community and I would not recommend it.

The Bickford of Rockford was in the middle of a remodel when we visited. The community was nicely kept and clean throughout. Our first impression was not the best. As we walked in there were several residents sitting in their wheelchairs at the entrance. They did seem to offer some activities for the residents but they obviously needed more to keep the residents entertained. Our loved one was looking for independent living and the first impression did not make it feel like that type of community. The meal plan that they offer is for three meals a day and we only wanted one meal a day.

Our experience with Bickford of Carmel was not a good one, overall. The facility itself seemed like a nice enough place, it was well kept and clean, and from what I saw it seemed like they did a good job with the food. However, I was not impressed with what I saw of the care and management staff. I think they could have been much more thorough when evaluating the needs of my loved one. They told us it would be a good fit for him, and then within a few days of him moving in they told us we'd need to hire 24 hour outside help for him. Based on our experience I'd advise families to really be sure their loved one is a good fit when looking into placement here.

We never spent one day there, our loved one passed before she got the chance to move in, and we lost almost five thousand dollars. They were a very nice group to work with, but it's the reputation of nursing homes that they are in it for the money. It was not a good experience for us. It would be a good idea to make sure you will be able to move in for sure, before putting money down.

They promise more than they can deliver. The food was fine. I think they could screen their staff better. The organization of the way the place was run was very lacking. I told them my needs to be in bed within an hour of giving her medication. They didn’t remove the medicine cart from the medicine room, so they go from the room to the resident’s room. They left my mom in a chair for a long period … I found the staff argumentative. I had trouble getting my mom out of Bickford… because there were no good places to get my mom out through a covered ext.