Bonaventure

They are going through a lot of staff challenges, so the food is good when they have staff available. The people taking care of my loved one are very caring. The communication, with the administration needs to improve. [name removed]from A Place for Mom was just fabulous, and really helpful.

1. Food. The menus are planned by a central office for all Bonaventure facilities so there is no customization for local or seasonal food. Mushy canned or frozen veggies year round. The meals are carb loaded, and the corporate dietitians are unwilling to customize local meals for diabetic needs. For example, the "Breakfast for dinner" theme night was pancakes with no Low-sugar syrup available, and a brownie for dessert. 2. Staffing. The Salem facility cannot keep enough staff on hand. The new hires constantly quit. This resulted in insufficient care for the residents. For example, one Sunday morning in October there was no wait staff available to serve meals at the dining room so the residents just sat in the dining room. Medical team short staffed and sometimes nighttime medicine isn't delivered to sediment rooms until 11 pm. Also staff have to work extra shifts to cover the missing employees, and this results in hardships on the staff.

We picked this community because, It was an emergency, to get my loved one into memory care. Sometimes they do laundry, and don't bring it back on time. The personal care, and communication could use improvement. In addition, they could do better with following-up on things.

I toured this facility and the place itself was great. It's in a newer location and the building is in good shape. Cleanliness was good. However, we had a lot of communication issues with the staff. Both before and after our tour. It was hard to schedule the tour, get returned phone calls, etc. So we decided to keep looking.

This facility was more than happy and accommodating when touring and working with us to move dad in. Once he was moved in, that was gone. Communication is also not good. Also, be aware: they handle medications through an outside supplier at an additional cost to the resident/family, which they do not disclose to you. I ended up getting sent to collections and got a collections call, that's how I found out about it. I would not recommend them to family and friends.

Average at best....don't expect timely solutions to any issue....it took five months to get insurance issue ironed out..

I toured this community and it was ok. We were a little bit put off by our tour guide. She was a bit pushy. From what I experienced, I would recommend them as an option for more Assisted Living and not so much Memory Care.

1. I felt like they admitted him even though he was well beyond their ability to care for him. We were very up front with them on what he needed and wanted to be sure they were able to care for him. Good facility for basic care needs but I wouldn't suggest using them for advanced care needs such as ALS. A complicating factor was Dad declined VERY quickly. It was only about 4 months from his diagnosis to his death. 7 or 8 months from onset of symptoms. 2. They were severely understaffed which complicated the issue above. Staff nurse rarely checked in on dad even though she assured me she would. Staff couldn't get to him in time when he needed to use the bathroom and then he'd end up sitting in soiled briefs for long periods of time. The staff was great and seemed to genuinely care, but there's only so much they could do with just a few people for an entire building. [name removed], the director was the one bright spot in all of this. She visited Dad daily to check on him and went above and beyond to try to care for him. 3. They charged us a second month. Fine, we didn't give them their 30 notice and hospice failed to get their equipment out in a timely manner. But, they also charged us a care fee even though we'd pulled him out of there due to the unsatisfactory level of care. Then they tried to charge us for a third month. It took multiple calls and a visit to get them to refund the care fee and not bill us for a thirds month. I think otherwise they're a great facility. Those were just our experiences..

The biggest concerns for us was management - they had a hard time and the communication and was poor. There was a lot of change of staff and training for assistants was poor. There was a major lack of communication on what was going on inside the facility from our loved ones point of view as well. Staff was friendly and listened to our concerns, but nothing would change. A lot of the staff quit during their stay here as well.

The staff weren't as knowledgeable as I wanted them to be for my loved one's care.

The administartion sucks, although some of the staff is really good. There has been a lot of cleanliness issues, and staff has not reached back out out. Some of the workers are okay. They try to get family to do things that they should be doing. There has been a back and forth battle with communicationing with someone, and lack of someone following up on the administration team. Overall, it's beautiful and nice facility. My loved one likes the food and the activities is pretty good.

They could be more friendly. The food, especially the specials. Sometimes the meat is so hard you can't even chew it. Most of the time it's not bad. Need to add a lot more gravy. Most of these people have false teeth.

Don't go here. Not enough staff to care for patients, huge turnover of caregivers, low pay scale, also they do not provide any personal items i.e. toilet paper, soap etc. The food is really not very good. Breakfast is ok. Lunch and dinner is not. Response time in getting to room is lagging, insulin times are not regular, meals are served late. Patient has to be always asking for laundry to be taken and returned. Positives are the caregivers are very kind for the most part and try very hard to meet the overwhelming demands. Breakfast is a good meal. My friend had a very difficult adjustment initially but seems to be adapting and accepting the deficits and trying to be grateful for the positives. When thinking about moving we realize these are possibly common problems in most care facilities. I was warned ahead of time that Bonaventure South was a mess administratively. I think they have also had a large turnover there. The price per month is awfully expensive, but she feels it is worth it, for what she is getting.

My kids toured this community. They liked this community but it seemed the same as a lot of other communities and the issues that they are currently experiencing. The under staffing is one of the biggest issues a long with it being out of my budget.

My biggest complaint has been the lack of communication with family and follow through. It is a wonderful facility and everyone is super nice, but it is hard to get someone to return phone calls. We were told some things in the beginning that have since then proven to not be accurate. There has been some frustrations but overall I would still recommend Bonaventure of Albany.

My loved one was in the memory care unit, so I'm unsure of the other parts. I don't think he got the attention he needed here. They said he got combative and pushed a couple staff away and we were not there to witness that. He's not known to be a physical or combative person; he's very sweet and kind to people. He's now at a new community, where he's never been combative and we've heard no reports of such thing. There was another incident where his room flooded because staff were not checking on him, so he accidentally left water running. There was also another time where he soiled himself and was left in it for quite a while. It was just overall not a good experience for our loved one, myself, and our family.

For someone who doesn't need a lot of care, it's a good place to be retired. But the more care that your loved one needs, the harder it is for them to provide the necessary services. They seem to be somewhat understaffed. They mean well, but they don't have the ability to take care of all the patients who have the highest needs in the way they would like to or in the way you would like them to. The staff is stretched pretty thin. My loved one had no real complaints about the food, and they offered a lot of activities. So for people without medical needs who are fairly independent, it's a good place to be. But the more care that your loved one needs, the less able they are to provide it.

The Food is the worst by far. It takes forever to get your food and it is never prepared as it should be. The activities are good and they have a wonderful activities director that knows the residents by name. With a new director in place, there are improvements.

Since my loved ones have been here, they have been doing pretty good compared to prior to being there. There is a shortage of staff; however, this isn't their fault. The staff are friendly, and the responsiveness is fair.