Grace Management, Inc

Good community, too far from family and friends.

It would be nice if they had some stimulating activities for residents. Also, they are having a very hard time hiring kitchen staff. They are handing residents their meals in Styrofoam boxes and they have been out of a ton of things. Overall it has not been the best experience, we are disappointed.

If you are 80 or over you may like it, I am a bit younger so the crowd is much different for me. The staff are very pleasant and very helpful with everything, and overworked.

During the tour there was hardly anyone around the community.

Our family had an in person tour and Sumter Senior Living is huge with several floors and different buildings. It was during covid so we are not sure if that was the reason, but on the tour we hardly saw any staff members so maybe they were having trouble with staffing. Also the lady we worked with was very sales and all business.

We toured with Heritage Oaks and it was a nice place, just not the right fit for my dad.

It wasn't up to my standards. The bed was terribly lumpy and uncomfortable. The staff were mostly attentive. If you pushed your button, they usually showed up, although they might say "Okay" and leave and not come back to take care of your issue. When I left, I was really glad to leave. For short-term it was okay, but I would not want to live there. The food was terrible, and meals were way too early, dinner at 4:30 and breakfast at 7:30. You got a shower once or twice a week, and I had to beg for that, which wasn't right. They just weren't very flexible. They cleaned the rooms pretty well once a week, but they didn't like to empty wastebaskets, which bothered me. The care staff were lovely people - they were the best part of my stay there.

I would recommend you visit the community, and speak to the staff and a few residents of different tenure in the community. The chef changed right before my loved one moved in and the food is overcooked and bland since the new chef has arrived.

Their assessment in the beginning was low regarding the amount of assistance my loved one would need. Within the first week of moving in, they raised her care level by three levels, which tells me they did that just to get us in the door. Since then, we've met with them to go over her care plan step by step, and they did take it down a level. I don't feel like the staff is all on the same page. And her personalized care plan isn't always referenced in how they take care of her. If anyone were interested in bringing their loved one here, that loved one should be either very self-sufficient or you would have to be willing to help them. We're very involved in assisting with my loved one's care plan, but we're hoping that gets better over time.

Our family was able to have an in person tour and it looked to us more like a nursing home that did not have that independent environment. Their sole focus on activities revolved around bingo. Also another concern our loved one had was not having access to food all the time, but they said they had plenty of opportunities to get snacks during bingo.

We chose Acacia Springs at the time because we had a friend who was here and highly recommended it. It was also clean and the staff members were friendly. They are experiencing a staff shortage because of everything that is going on but overall I would still recommend to others looking

This is where we currently live but are thinking seriously about moving out because of lack of service. Dining is typically an one hour process. Sit, wait 15 minutes for a server. Give order for liquids and food. Wait 15 minutes for liquids, another 15 for food. If you didn't specify when you wanted desert to appear, wait another 15 minutes. Expect one or two items to not arrive as ordered or appear when not ordered. Of the most concern, timeliness of caregiving. Some caregivers respond in 5 minutes or less, if only to do triage and let us know where we were in line. Other times 20 minutes goes by, then 30, then a call to the front desk for a welfare check on the missing caregivers. Now they want to inflict an 8% increase in skilled caregiving charges - to bring them back up to the level of care we've been paying for but not getting? Wine down Wednesdays, Happy hour and the activities keep us as entertained as we care to be. While the carpet should have been replaced 10 years ago and is not as nice and bright as others in the market, it is overpriced compared to other facilities.

Going in felt like a honeymoon stage. Right now I'm not real impressed with them. During the touring process, we made sure they knew faith was an important part of our loved one's life. I just wish I had known they offered only Catholic services, and no Protestant services. I think the staff try to be helpful, and some are better than others. They've been really helpful and accommodating in orchestrating and scheduling medical appointments for our loved one, which I really appreciate. That's a big feather in their cap. Also their activities are very good, and there's plenty for the residents to do if they choose to participate. One of the biggest sources of frustration is the food. It tastes terrible. They seem to pay attention to the four basic food groups, but it's just not tasty. While they do offer restaurant-style dining, my loved one has had to wait 40 minutes sometimes to have their order taken. You're required to be there at a specific time and then to be out in an hour. So they often don't meet the deadline through no fault of their own. It might be that the kitchen is short-staffed. Cost is another area of concern. We just received a letter stating that the care cost has gone up a considerable amount. Initially they gave us a discount on the rent, but then this huge care cost increase feels like a bait and switch.

The only problem they have is they're having problems getting enough workers due to Covid. The staff they do have are good. They try hard to do the best they can, and they work with what they have to work with. They're good people. Even the housekeeping staff are cool. The place is new, it's clean, it's very nice. One thing I didn't like is the doctor there. It felt like he didn't know what was going on with the my loved one. So if your loved one needs a doctor, you'd better take them to a doctor outside the facility. They also have a lack of transportation because they don't have anyone to drive the van, which has been frustrating since my vehicle is not equipped with a wheelchair lift. My loved one has some dietary preferences, and I feel like people don't understand and kind of poke fun, and they don't provide viable options. They serve a lot of meat and potatoes, which I think is pretty common at these types of places. I was not a fan when they changed all the Covid protocols when you come to visit. They automated everything, so now I have to tap on a screen to answer the screening questions, which is very unsanitary. And you have to wait in line for everybody using the machine, and put your face right up in it to register your temperature. I just feel that's very unsanitary. As far as value, the cost is high, but it's comparable to the rest of them. I just wish they had more people working there.

Ours was a very strange situation. We were all set to move in, and they did a virtual assessment on our loved one. They decided at the last minute they couldn't care for her and weren’t going to take her. So we had to scramble to find another place in a matter of days. I feel they left us in the lurch, and I'm not really sure what went on. I'm still scratching my head about it. . .

I believe my mother would like living at this facility. She would like the location and the rooms. There were a few negatives at this facility. We were taken to the second and ground floors, where I noticed little flying bugs around. My sister was with me on this tour, and she overheard 2 residents stating that “there are another one, they don’t know what they are getting into”. When we were checking out, I talked to a resident at the front desk. I asked how long had she lived at Heritage Oaks, and she stated 2 years. Then she said 2 years too many. She continued to say she moved from [location removed] to Richmond.

There is not a lot of activities or engagement in the community. Communication has gotten better since the director has come back. The food is really good but i would not recomend this community to others

At first, they were great, but things have shifted. They just made kind of a tricky increase in monthly rent. They're no longer delivering the food due to Covid, but they're charging an exorbitant amount to do so if you request it. They reopened the dining room, and now they're charging an extreme amount, hundreds of dollars, to deliver meals. Even if you have a medical problem. and even with a doctor's report, they'll still charge you. My loved one tells me all the time she does enjoy the food though. The issue I've had with the staff is they have not been very friendly, and they're not friendly with my loved one because they don't want to be delivering her food, so they have an attitude about it. But the building is very clean, the bathrooms as well. The overall surroundings are very good and very clean. They've already starting implementing a lot of their community activities again after everyone has been vaccinated. My loved one really enjoys those. I love that they also work with her to get her to all of her appointments. They're very good about that. She still drives, but they will take her.

Brookdale Springs Mesa is a very large facility with a lot of people in it and I do not think that my mom got the personalized care here that she needed. But I would still recommend to others looking.

The activities are good they have a men's club and Bingo. This is one of the reasons we moved here. The staff is extraordinarily nice and friendly. The community is older and you can hear noise from other apts. We have a nice patio to spend time outside