MorningStar Senior Living

The facility is beautiful and clean and most of the staff(except the nursing staff) are friendly. The assisted living is an excellent place if your loved one needs little assistance. Anyone with dementia or needing physical assistance(bathing, sometimes falling, etc) is better off in the memory care portion. There is little tolerance in the assisted living portion for dementia or physical limitations.

Below is a note I sent to the VP of Operations for the South West Region of MorningStar. We have yet to speak, and she has not returned my phone call. Ms Espxxxxx, The purpose of this note is to thank you for taking care of my father and to provide you with some constructive criticism on your operations. I found it surprisingly difficult to get contact information for any of the senior leadership team at Morningstar. The website does not provide any phone or email contacts. First some praise. There was a genuine care exuding from the original staff for the tenants. We knew them by name and you could tell they were invested and genuine in their interests in tenants and their family. The facility looked great because everything was new and clean. The newness of everything helped us get over the continuous sewer gas smell, but it looks like you have resolved that problem. In fact we liked the facility enough that my teenaged daughter volunteered her time and worked there for many months. As a quick summary we were one of the first people to put money down as pre registered customers for your community called Morningstar at Arcadia back in late 2013. My father OET moved into your facility in March of 2014. He started off in assisted living and quickly was asked to move into Memory Care due to his Dementia, and has lived there ever since. My family was very active and involved in the community in the beginning, and we knew most of your staff by name. But there has been a continuous turnover of the leadership team at the facility, and that is where my constructive criticism will focus. From my notes this is the turnover for just two positions, but it appears that nearly all senior leadership positions have regularly turned over. Executive Directors [Removed] build out to 5/2014 I understand she had a baby and might have wanted a different lifestyle [Removed] 6/2014 to 12/2014 [Removed] 1/2015 to 11/2015 [Removed] 12/2015 to present Memory Care coordinators [Removed] Opening to 11/2014 [Removed] 12/2014 to 3/2015 designated Interim [Removed] ?/2015 to 8/2016 [Removed] 8/2016 to present This seems like a substantial amount of turnover at the leadership level, and makes it hard to deliver a consistent level of service. I think that your team can do the following better: Better leadership fosters continuous improvement in service levels I have had some discussions with the line staff and many have expressed concerns with how the facility is being run, but are afraid to push their concerns to hard fearing that they will be fired. I have been in leadership of manufacturing plants and understand that you can’t please all employees, but creating an environment of fear will prevent the leaders from creating a culture of continuous improvement. Most of the high value improvements come from line level people not management, because they are too far removed from the actual work. Better communicating the leadership changes to the people who are paying the bills. Give us the courtesy to give some content as to why a change is needed and set the new person up for success by highlighting their qualifications. Julie in Memory Care was in the position the longest and had a good relationship with me and other tenants, and then one day she was gone and I still have not heard from the new person. Voice of the Customer team I think that you would be well served to form a small group of tenant family members to meet with your leadership team on some regular basis (quarterly?). This is a tried and true component of customer driven organizations the world over. This will ensure that the voice of the customer is included in the teams discussion, and might prevent misunderstandings from snowballing. For example, If I was in such a meeting and found out there was going to be a leadership change I would have suggest sending out an email communicating it to the family members. Plant & equipment improvements. I have begun to notice that much of the furniture is looking very shabby. I see blood stains and other bodily fluids on furniture fabric (in the main entry way as well as the memory care floor), and can imagine that this will not pass hygiene tests by the city. I also see trash on the balconies that no one seems to pick up. I think that you would agree this is a corporate culture set from the top. If the top person lets that stuff slide then all the way down to the cleaners they all let it slide. If the top person takes the facility seriously then everyone below them will know that it is important. As a corporate executive this becomes a red flag to me that you are hiring the wrong people at leadership levels. Here is another example of the lack of leadership or the proper corporate culture. My daughter found a dead mouse in a half eaten bag of chips in the kitchen cabinet inside my fathers room. The mouse had been there long enough that it was fully desiccated. How did this mouse get into my fathers room and then die in a bag of chips? How did it sit there for who knows how many months before my daughter found it? What is the cleaning crew cleaning, and how did they not smell it? Tenants are paying for services and when this happens to me, it makes me feel like I need to start supervising your staff to ensure that I am getting the value that I am paying for. But why should I supervise your staff that is what your leadership team gets paid to do? This type of situation erodes trust and confidence between your team and the customer. I brought this to the attention of Julie and the executive director, but not sure what changes were made to ensure it does not happen again. I should have escalated this when it happened because I did not get a good feeling that anything was going to change. I knew this was the sort of incident that might get people fired, and wanted to give them a chance to turn the negative into a positive by taking visible corrective actions. I was not informed of any corrective actions that were implemented as a result of my fathers dead mouse and the obvious fact that his room was not being sufficiently cleaned on a consistent basis. In summary, we were VERY excited to put my father into your facility when it opened. We liked the facility, liked the staff, and loved the location. Over the past 2 years the facility has become shabby and far less appealing on the memory care floor, the only people I interact with now are the line level staff. If things do not improve then I will begin to investigate other facilities as a back up plan. Thank you in advance for reading and thinking about my comments.

Parker started out as a wonderful place. It has consistently gone down over the last year. Although the caregivers are good, caring people, they are short staffed and underpaid so they don't stay long. More and more people are day care which makes it hard on day staff which in turn takes away from full time residents. Prices increase so often that it's hard to keep up and of course their money isn't growing. My parent was the victim of several medicine mistakes by new caregivers and there were no consequences. My parent was seldom handed a plate of food that they were able to eat. When I dropped in one day for a visit and found my parent lying in their own feces I decided - enough.

My father only lived here about 6 weeks before he passed away and it was during the pandemic so we only got to visit the first week. First, the good. There were a few excellent caregivers who took an interest in my Dad and were wonderful. His physical space was very nice. Now the bad - they are seriously understaffed which is not the fault of the caregivers. The administrative team was extremely helpful and solicitous while we were looking at memory care but became disinterested and even hostile after we placed my father in the facility. They did not return phone calls or respond to emails, when we had questions or issues. My Dad needed help with FaceTime during the pandemic and while they communicated relatively frequently by email, they asked that residents initiate the desire to FaceTime. My Dad was in memory care and could not do that so I responded both by phone and email and the administrative team NEVER responded. But for a staff member who was unbelievably helpful we never would have spoken with my Dad on FaceTime. The last straw was this - my father wore a Cochlear implant which cost upwards of $20,000. He could not hear without it. The implant was lost on a Tuesday but no one contacted us about this so that we could arrange for a replacement. Unfortunately, my father developed sepsis on Saturday and was taken to the hospital and passed away the following week. We did not find out about the missing implant until my Dad was in the ICU at the hospital and could not communicate with us or the caregivers at the hospital because his implant was lost and he could not hear. The administrators at Morningstar did not return emails or calls about this, and once we were able to speak with them, they did not apologize for not letting us know the implant was missing. Except for the one caregiver who was a hero, no one reached out when my Dad passed away - no card, no call, nothing. Granted he only lived there about 6 weeks but my feelings were very hurt that no one reached out.

Wanted a place closer to our home for mom. They were so anxious to get us in there they paid for moving. My mom, they said after a month, was having issues so they were going to raise her rent by 50% a month. Mind you my mom was coming from independent living to assisted just to help her out a little. Wow that move-in was NOT free!! Food is barely adequate, bathrooms went for weeks without being cleaned they would tell you that they only had one person for cleaning the facility. At times they would not have a L.P.N. at all on staff for several days in a row.

A family member of mine used to lived here, and has since passed away. When I would visit my family member at this facility, I noticed that the staff were often rough with my family member, and frequently had a bad attitude. The staff also often failed to do such basic tasks as helping my family member with teeth brushing, changing adult diapers, bringing coffee or breakfast in the morning, getting dressed in the morning, picking up the dirty laundry from the overflowing hamper, etc. The staff would often be seen hanging out and joking around with each other instead of doing their jobs. The supervisors were made aware of these issues numerous times, but nothing ever improved. I would NOT recommend this facility to anyone!

Change Management, hire polite employees, perform the services that the client is paying for. My husband's bedsheets and towels were changed once in 6 weeks. Certain staff members on the medical team were not nice at all. The marketing director lied to me about several policies. The account lady was obnoxious. The whole experience was very stressful. I can't believe Morning Star is a Christian based organization. I would never recommend them.

Friendly at the onset but as fall hazard arise they are mean and pushy

A senior care facility should prioritize compassion, respect, and professionalism, but unfortunately, that was not our experience here. If you’re considering this place for a loved one, I strongly encourage you to look elsewhere. No family should have to go through what we did.I Regret placing my mother here. The level of care and attention she received was far below what was promised. Her needs were not properly met, and the staff seemed either overwhelmed or indifferent to her well-being. Communication was poor, and concerns were often ignored or dismissed

The experience is that of my family members who have voiced concern over the safety, well-being, of it's elderly. Magagement's attitude portrays an illusion of care and fails to address the needs of frail and needy seniors. It has been a huge disappointment. Those who have noted this blatent disregard of management's self serving, self involvement with "partiality" to family members, friends of the resident elderly and manipulation of elderly needs to accommodate their short staff problems; leaving responsibility on the shoulders of the few caregivers who demonstrate a moral obligation to care for the seniors requirng immediate attention and care. Their level of care is heavily regulated with contracts signatured by the senior residents power of attorney. No provision for seniors lacking in the ability to chew or having diatry restrictions. The reply is "we are short staffed" only have soup of the day; Cannot cater to the needs for less sugar/salt. Many Seniors have moved.

They did not perform the care I was paying for, they did not know how to handle dementia patients, the director did not handle things professionally, the marketing director was misleading For a Christian based company, they did not represent that. I would not recommend them to anyone.

They misdiagnosed my wife's level of care needs, she fell and broke her arm there requiring surgery since she wasn't supervised properly, they left her in pain an entire morning before my private caregiver got there and called an ambulance.

The friendliness of the CNA's is a 5, but a 1 for management. Initially was really good then was worst experience. She was not given her meds every day. Trash in her room a lot. Got told we had to move her out because she fell too much and they cannot care for people that are fall risks. Will not use alarms and wanted us to pay the [fee removed] a month plus pay for an outside person to be with them 24/7 to watch if they fall. Not helpful with facilitating for her care and for the money we paid would never send another loved one to that facility. The daily care people the CNAs and aids were good but management is horrible and will not help families.

Not a good experience. Was good at first and the intake but we are no longer there. They don’t have ability to help seniors if they are fall risks. If they are prone to falls be prepared that on top of the almost [removed] per month they want to require you to provide 24 hour one on one fall watch care at their facility and pay for that through a outside company and still pay their monthly rate. They will not use bed or chair alarms. When we moved her out they gave us her meds and multiple days were not given to her. [name removed] was great but the others that facilitate the care were very difficult to work with. Dirty dishes in her room a lot and her room would be a mess most of the time. Their experience in this field was misleading by the lead nurse and facility director.

Lack of staff to patients in memory care resulted in my father being found on the floor in his room for an unknown amount of time. They sent my nonverbal father to the hospital in an ambulance with no paperwork and no one to go with. The hospital nearly entered him in as a John Doe because of this. The day he was discharged back to memory care he fell again due to lack of care to assist resulting in another hospital stay. Again no paperwork sent with him. This happened a third time and the staff advised ambulance care that my father's nonverbal condition and right side weakness was sudden and onset so he was nearly unnecessarily airlifted to a specialty hospital under suspicion of a stroke. Thankfully I called the hospital before that happened. When we cleared out his room, it was filthy. Shoes were missing. Clothes were missing or not his despite other men's names written on the clothing tags. My father had been urinating in drawers and other inappropriate places due to his dementia and it was being left there. No one brought this to our attention. They advised they cleaned every day. I would go and clean it when visiting my father. My father's toilet handle was broken for weeks. I had to address this with maintenance 4 times before it was fixed. When we would visit my father would be wearing other people's clothes and his nice clothing was missing. When I asked why no paperwork was sent with him the staff told me that the printer was broken. These facilities are supposed to provide families a peace of mind that their loved ones are being cared for properly. This facility did the opposite. Some of the staff were incredibly nice and caring, it seems as if the issue fell from higher up in management. It was a lot of overpromising and under delivering, and I unfortunately fell for the initial sales pitch. Do your research and look up other reviews and official reports/claims made against this place before committing.

This is basically a repeat of the details provided by Anonymous of [date removed], and backed up by Anonymous of [date removed], and others. The staff are mostly very nice and the facilities pleasant. The people that can get about by themselves seem fine. But if your loved one needs more care please put them in a nursing home or somewhere else prepared to care for them. I would have rather just moved on and forget this and not done a review, but I think it is important for people to know what goes on. And if you think you can just have a camera put in the room, know that I called many times and talked to someone in person a couple of times, only to get a run around each time over the course of a week or so. Then it was too late. I don't blame the staff. This is a management issue. I need to stay anonymous to not stir up any more pain or trouble for anyone.

I moved my father into Morningstar Assisted Living last spring, and unfortunately, our experience has been disappointing. The facility has faced ongoing issues, such as non-functional transportation and a staff that seems ill-prepared to handle residents with health problems. The management appears disorganized, often reacting to problems rather than proactively addressing them. One staff member, [name removed], has shown a lack of compassion and professionalism, even discussing residents' personal matters openly with other residents and junior staff. It reminds me of middle school. My father's health concerns were met with threats of cruel and unusual treatment rather than support. The advertised amenities, such as fresh produce, are not provided, and the nurse is rarely on-site. Overall, I cannot recommend this facility based on our experience.

My loved one was previously a resident at MorningStar of Littleton. The staff stole jewelry from my loved one. Management promised to make things right with mom regarding theft. They reneged on that promise after she passed. The food was okay and the activities were good. The cost/rent was very expensive.

As pretty as it looks, it’s the worst place you could put a loved one. Management is so under educated and trained it could easily be an unfortunate situation for your loved one. They’ll promise you the world and tell you everything you want to hear, then never do any of it. Room was never vacuumed in a year, meds mismanaged, food is awful, no activities accept movies, no stimulation, and lies upon lies. Go elsewhere!

I think Morningstar had a staff change. Things went bad in July-August and my father in law broke hip due to construction in memory care area. He did not recover and passed away on [date removed]. I would NOT currently recommend morningstar to anyone. The carpet they put in memory care causes me to fall and I'm in perfect health!!! 0 on all ratings. For [removed] a month this was a joke. Ac was out for two months in heat of summer. They said they were out of trash bags every time we visited. They lost his hearing aides. And sent a med tech to double dose his pain meds while we were there! Don't recommend them!!!