Encore

Mom did not like it here, they gave grilled cheese sandwich and soup all the time, and dessert was either canned peaches or another canned fruit. Staff was friendly and the facility was well kept. More staff and a better menu needs to be improved.

Not a bad place at all. Overall they seem to try hard to provide quality care, most of the staff is friendly and seem to be fairly patient. I believe that if HC offered better salaries and more of an organized structure with each shift having supervisors or managers present things would run much better. This would allow this HC to attract more qualified and dedicated staff members. The activities area really needs help. Finding a variety of appropriate activities would be nice. The field trips in the warmer months were great but during the winter, there was nothing much happening. Overall it's okay.

Hickory Park has done an outstanding job in resolving a challenging situation with my mother. They were able to quickly assess and accept her at their facility after a very harrowing experience with another senior living facility.

We don't use any care services, except for housekeeping. All of the residents have buttons they can press if they need anything, and from our experience, the response time is extremely slow. Based on our experience, she would have to wait a considerable amount of time for someone to come and escort her to the dining room, or other things of that nature. There are activities, such as BINGO, etc. Once a week, they cut out coupons to send to the troops. The activities are social, but they seem a bit mindless. However, they do offer trips to Wal-Mart, and other destinations in the community. They are able to adapt to the level of care that we were looking for, and with that, the price is extremely reasonable. The other places in the area charged much more for services we didn't need, so the price made the most sense for our situation.

I visited the Hickory Park community and found it to be very nice for what I was looking for in living. Everything about it from the staff to the care needs was of comfort to me. The only downside to the community was the price i was willing to pay, I just felt it to be out of my price range.

It's gone downhill since she first went in and I'm not a fan of the current director she is nasty to staff and residents but of course not in public. I used to recommend it to other people but not now

This facility was bought by someone else and it was a shortage of staff bringing agency staff they were rude and inexperienced. The food choices were terrible too. Lack and inexperience staff, lack of communication between staff and management. Really bad food for the residents!! I probably would not recommend them to others who are looking.

There is not a lot of staff, but that is probably true for all assisted living communities. My MIL complains of small portions of food.

The community is very clean and some of the staff members are friendlier then others. Some of the care givers are better and some sit on their phones. Overall the meals are pretty good, our loved one cleans plate. Some days are really fun and well organized with activities but other days not so much - could be better. Different add ons can get costly. For what happened recently we would not recommend this community to others .

This place was not what I expected. I took my husband there for respite care for a month of March. I took him home a day and a half later after quickly realizing the place was not for him. Firs day I visited him he sat outside of his room alone with wet diaper. The next morning I visited during breakfast and it was horrible. Prison food is better. No coffee was offered and the food was so dry. It appeared that most residents just sat around. There was no physical engagement. I was very disappointed. My husbands well being was more important that the $[removed] that I lost.

There were many things my brother and I liked about the Courtyard, it's a beautiful facility which seems well staffed. However when some issues arose my Mom was not happy and we ended up moving her to different facility. Shortly thereafter she went into skilled nursing and she passed away last [date removed] . It always seems very clean and well kept both in common areas and residents rooms. We found the administrators and many staff to be helpful and polite, but Mom did have some issues with some of the staff, specifically nighttime and weekends staff. We realize it's harder to get people to work these shifts, but she told us some stories that were upsetting especially about staff yelling and bullying patients. This seemed to happen after hours when administrators weren't around. I requested frequent wellness checks on my Mom and they always responded as asked. They came when she needed them. Of my Mom's biggest complaints was the food quality and quantity. As one of the most expensive facilities in the area we expected food to be the best, but it wasn't. Part of the issue was that the resident cook, who my Mom actually knew before she went there, had an accident at his house shortly before she went in, and he wasn't able to be at work making meals while he was recuperating. So they had to have regular staff do the cooking and according to Mom they weren't good at it. But more concerning to me was that she said people weren't allowed to ask for seconds, or if they complained she said they were "punished" later, such as not getting privileges, etc. We did bring these concerns to the administrators but it seemed like nothing was done about it. The staff did seem to really try to come up with things for all the residents to participate in. my Mom often wasn't interested, but she did mention they would always ask her if she would participate. We felt the overall value was very good. the amount of unlimited caregiving was a huge bonus and the rooms very spacious. Basically there were a lot of positives, and especially after we ended up moving our Mother to another facility in town we saw a lot of things we missed that the Courtyard, Being all on one floor was a bonus for residents and visitors with mobility issues, no steps or elevators to wait for. Plus I loved the setup that they had which would have allowed our Mom to come in on one level of care, and stay in the same room even as her care needs increased. We had been told that at the Courtyard even if she would have gotten to the point of needing hospice she could have stayed in her same room, which would have been much easier and more comforting for her.

Management is a bit bullheaded. We were a little misled/misinformed. The explanation of services is ambiguous.

There is an occasional good meal but it's rare maybe once a week. The food is not good and my mom forgoes many dinners and has a snack instead provided my family members. Even the people who bring her the food say 'I'm not the cook, sorry' and have admitted they would not eat it. Also the menus posted do not match what is provided at the mealtimes. One positive is they will bring meal to her room for no extra charge (yet).

Go somewhere else. They trick you into letting them handle medicine then when you realize it, you have to go through a lot to get the medicine back so the resident can take them herself. They even stole some of her controlled substances medication. When she move out they either stole a lot of her stuff or they didn't call me to come and get what she left behind. The food was cold or not eatable.

We toured Encore at Mahtomedi and it was okay. Our tour guide that walked us through seemed well informed. The overall staff were very friendly and informative.

I had to remind them to give my mom a shower during the first month that she became a resident. A little slow at getting her wash done in a timely manner. Both issues improved with me making phone calls to management. The rooms in memory care are private and very nice.

Our family had an in person tour and the community is really big with big spaces, but the rooms were all studio sized apartments and that was just not going to work for our loved one.

I overheard this weekend that the lead med tech didn’t graduate high school and lied on her application! I’m very disappointed due to my loved one being in her care. This is not acceptable at all means!! PLEASE do something about this issue. My aunt loves it there and I don’t want to take her out of the facility

I was not able to view a room.

I have lived here for 5 months, still adjusting.