Elegance Living, LLC

This place looks good. But after your loved one has been there a few months, you’ll see the other side. It’s not pretty. Check with the state ombudsman for residents and ask what residents are actually saying. You’ll find lots of complaints about food and resident care—including residents being forced out because Symphony doesn’t have staff trained to offer the higher levels of care advertised. That’s what happened to us. We moved my mother to another facility, which was traumatic for my mom but necessary. The staff are nice but severely overworked and undertrained. The director of sales and activities director were nice and caring. The executive director, billing director and nursing director left a lot to be desired in terms of skill, and truthfulness. We still haven’t been reimbursed for almost $2k that was paid in advance, and it’s been a year. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Symphony. There are far better places for the money, with honest directors running them.

My husband was in the Memory Care building for 6 years before he died. The first couple of years were okay. Just before Covid the care began to decline. Admin does not communicate well with staff. They have high turnover and the new caregivers are not well trained in working with dementia residents. Workers spend more time on cell phones than interacting with residents. The building itself is well kept and the food is so so. I would not recommend the Memory Care unit to anyone.

My mom’s room had a nonfunctional bathroom fan with moldy ceiling tiles around it that had been there for longer than several days. While I was there in September the hot water failed throughout the building. There were complaints about this from unhappy residents for multiple days. The rooms are nice but the floor covering is frequently peeling, creating trip hazards. The food adequate. The staffing, management, and care provided is a significant concern. During the three years my mom lived at Brentwood, there were three different Executive Directors and the position was vacant when we removed her from the facility. On [date removed] my mother had a stroke at Brentwood in her bathroom and pushed the button on her medical alert necklace. At 5:05 my brother found our mother unattended on the the bathroom floor. An independent care manager said to me, Brentwood is good at enrolling clients into their facility but not very good at providing the necessary care.

I feel they are very understaffed and should not be taking in any more residents. [name removed] is very good at her job! She sold it well. And the price was within our budget.

We are working with the upper management to make the proper improvements and the VP seems very eager to get things going so we are positive it will get better. The community could be better - sometimes it takes a week to get someone to contact us back. The sales teams promised us the moon but has not delivered, the aids are doing the best they can but the promises have just not been met yet. The cleanliness also needs improvement but they are actively working on it.

Well the first observation : regards food preparation & selections. The food is served cold from lunch thru dinner. The kitchen does not contain warming lights , resulting in cold food. Also various meat items are served under cooked, or not cooked at all . This will eventually result with patients getting food poisoning. Second improved supervision is needed regarding dietary needs. It appears all residents are provided the same meal as the entire population. There is too much salt and sugar added to each meal.

Symphony at St. Augustine felt like an old people home and smelled like it too. We did not consider them at all.

Its a nice facility but if your loved one develops an issue and goes to the hospital you might have a hard time getting them to take them back. This continues as you continue to pay rent. A hassel and not worth it

My ratings are based on my experience of during the COVID lock down. Don't Go there is what I would tell people. I'm assuming things have gotten better since my loved on was there. When COVID hit, they locked my loved one in their apartment for 90 days, and wasn't being woke up or assisted in getting up every day. There were other residents out walking around with and without masks on, even though there were other residents moving around. There were social media posts, but there were times that my loved one was able to see some of the outdoor activities going on and still not be able to participate. This is one of the main reasons I choose to remove my loved one from the community. My loved one's health had declined so much since being in this community, that the other communities weren't wanting to not admit my loved one.

Staff The administration continually changes. In the 6 months that I had my dad there the facility has had 3 different directors. This signals internal turmoil management wise or a facility that is impossible to run. It is clear that the greater organization that Woodholme is a part of is for profits and not it's residents. You pay top dollar, but get the bare bones. The nursing staff is quite good, but once again it changes often, however the aides and other support staff is another story. I will first say that there are some aides that are pretty amazing and they want to be there and want to help. However many are down right nasty. When my mother wasn't moving fast enough with their requests, they would talk to her as if she were stupid or just be downright snappy. This happened with more than several aides and the nurse tech is just awful. All she does is dispense medication. If you ask her something as simple as "Who is responsible for cleaning the bathroom", She will be quick to say that she isn't house keeping. My point is that the nurses tech will do nothing outside of her job, not even point you in the direction of something and then she acts as if she doesn't even want to be there. This isn't a one time instance, this happened on 2 or more occasions. The rude staff behavior is constant. They act as if you are bothering them, when help is requested. I have had staff roll their eyes at me when asked to drop something off in a room during a pandemic. Again this is not all staff, but several of the staff members have these qualities and it happens often enough to point out. Answering the call light. It does not happen in a timely manner. They claim someone comes within 7 minutes, but this simply is not true. My mother fell many times trying to get to the bathroom, because she was waiting for over 30 minutes for them to come and assist her. This tells me the facility does not have the personnel to meet the demands of the residents. Medication Doses were missed of crucial medicine under the guise of "the pharmacy didn't send it." I actually called behind to check and the pharmacy assured me their courier dropped the meds off producing actual documentation of such. Their medication management is quite poor. No resident should ever be without their medication. Cleanliness The common areas are quite clean and bright. The dining area is lovely and the common bathrooms are very clean and without odor. When it comes to keeping the residents rooms clean, it is horrible. My parents bathroom stayed filthy and so did the floor, countertops, and their refrigerator. These are tasks that they can not do, and the facility knew this. As a family, we didn't even bother to fight that fight with this facility as we were so busy advocating for other things for our parents. I had to hire an outside service to come and clean their room. Transportation The transport is in bad need of repair and it is quite a rough ride. It would be OK for a healthy person, but not the elderly with fragile systems. Pricing You are basically paying for an overpriced apartment for your loved one. If you are going to pay a high price such as this, then really do your due diligence or even see if you can upgrade into another tier of assisted living facilities. We kept our parents home many years before placing them here. We didn't just dump them there. The only reason they got half way decent, and I stress half way...is because we were there and present all of the time. Look elsewhere. This company does not deserve your money.

This facility is always short handed. We just figured our that they cut the nursing staff. Families were not told. There has been a stomach virus in memory care, with many residents ill, but doctors were not called and families not told, and now we can't visit. Workers are frustrated because medical care was not provided to residents. Management did not want to call EMS for the dehydrated dementia patients. They finally called for one after she passed out.

They did a good job selling us on the facility but as we moved my mother in the things we had been been promised did not happen. The intake/movein system was non-existent. There was no orientation provided for Mom. We were told the activities person would welcome her and accompany her for the first day and then she she would have a resident buddy to help her with routines and adjustment. We were told at a later date that the activities person was involved in a car wreck, but there was no plan or attempt by staff to fill this void. Within the first 24 hrs we had issues with medication being properly provided on two occasions. There was no respect for personal space. Workers would knock and immediately enter the room without wIting to be acknowledged. We expected a situation where Mom would be treated with dignity and respect- as a paying guest. That was not the case. Let me add, Mom has some dementia but is generally able to function on her own with some support (such as meds and reminders for meals.)

Mom was there for a while. Place was nice, activities were good, staff was ok, constantly changing though. The food, the care, the management.....they just can quite seem to get it together.

My mother in law has been at Symphony Manor in Baltimore, MD for three years in their memory care facility. When she first arrived it was great. They had interactive activities for the residents and would even take them off campus to plays at Center Stage and for country drives. Then there was a change in management. The new facility manager has cut a lot of these programs for the residents as well as staffing. This is where the problems began. My mother in law's care has really been effected in a negative way. The staff on the floor are all very nice, but they are over worked and under staffed. They can't give the residents the care that they need and deserve. This isn't their fault however. They are understaffed. The problem is my wife's family went to management to have these problems addressed. Rather than putting patient care first and fixing the issues, management blamed the resident and demanded that the family pay for increased care. Medical professionals have told the family she doesn't need that additional care, but they do not want to see their love one being neglected. When told of the expert opinion on 24 hour care the woman who runs the facilities response was to kick my mother in law out. If you care about your loved one, and want them to get the care they deserve do not send them here. I've never experienced a medical professional or patient care advocate who, rather than care for a patient or resident of a facility would kick them out. Don't be fooled by appearances. The place is beautiful. And the floor staff is great, but until there's a change in management your loved one will not receive the care they deserve.

A family member was a resident at Symphony Manor. Everything seemed great at first but after being there for some time noticed a very high turnover in staff, very inconsistent care, and a lack of awareness from management. We looked at many facilities and Symphony Manor says all the right things but don't live up to it. I would not recommend sending a loved one here unless there are no other options.

What they promised us is not what has been fulfilled. My father is dirty. They don't change him. It's just not been a good experience. He has fallen and they said they were attending to him, which was not true.

Our parents lived at Symphony Square for about six months. For regular assisted living it is fine. The staff are all very friendly and very accommodating, the food is good, the surroundings are beautiful. The activities staff work hard to provide fun and different activities for residents. We DO NOT recommend the "memory care" unit. The design is poor with hallways leading to exit doors that have windows. One windowed door looks out to the main activity area, with lots going on. The other leads to their garden. This is not a good design for a dementia patient as it leads to distress, they want to go through the door but they can't, especially if they can see activity going on. There is one main area where they can be and no place to wander without ending up with a windowed door. The staff are very nice and accommodating, however they are not well trained or supervised. There is always a schedule of activities posted but never actually done. They park the residents around the TV (dementia patients have visual disturbances and often find TV frustrating and confusing as a result) while they talk among themselves or are texting on their cell phones. There have been significant lapses in care. For regular assisted living, no complaints. We WOULD NOT RECOMMEND for DEMENTIA or ALZHEIMER'S CARE. Poor physical design with poorly trained and supervised staff.

They went through all new help – from the administrator to the caregivers they had a very high turnover rate. The turnover rate contributed to my loved one’s agitation and anger issues, which then caused them to evict him.

The facility is nice, however their memory care unit is not yet certified by the state and they were not very good at giving concrete information as to how the memory care unit will run (staff, activities, etc.). Also, the residents currently in the memory care wing as very old & there is not really anyone for my father to interact with.

Most of the staff is nice but there's a huge turnover, and this facility seems to be short staffed. Dealing with Pharmerica, the drug company that provides medications is a joke most of the time. A person should not have to wait days to get needed medications. Getting back into facility after a hospital stay is ridiculous. Loved one paid for services that were never provided. There are times when food ordered is not food received. Fresh fruit is practically non-existent.