Novellus Living

Revisited again 8/26/13 with other family members. All staff and residents were welcoming. I don't think my Mom would enjoy living here as much as at Atria or Rio Las Palmas.

My father wanted to move closer to me in Kingwood so we chose Atria and I kept asking them if they wanted to an assessment and they would say that they'll do it when he gets here. Well when he got here they said his level of care was something that they just didn't do - so then I had to find a place! They said they're more of a "social assisted living" so they're assisted but not to the level that my dad needed.

Area was nice - Not able to accept anyone with dementia.

Director is incredibly kind and informative. Place is quite clean, and the only noticeable odor was near the kitchen. Place is undergoing renovation, so a bit messed up. Definitely time for an update. Rooms pretty small except for limited few. Activity, Elvis, was well-attended. Limited outside area, but safe. Faces extremely busy street. Good access to Scripps. Respite rooms available for spending a week to see how she likes it. Carmel Valley branch gets 4 out 5 stars on medicare site.

My husband, my sister and her husband joined me on this tour. The location is convenient. The Director was not available so rather than wait, another staff member took us on tour. She was nice and helpful. The dining area looked wonderful as did the menus! I liked the fact that the respite rooms come with a phone and cable as both of those are important to my Mom. My only concern is the ratio of "helpers" to residents. The person that gave us the tour said there were 3 on staff. I would definately consider this property if/when my Mom needs to be placed.

Very poor experience. Evaluated my wife's status as a level five, which meant she was to have two caregivers anytime she called for one. Level five is more expensive. She rarely had two caregivers and really did not need two except when had a shower. I pointed this out to management and requested a rate decrease as she was not receiving the care they were charging me for. They would only reevaluate her status after thirty days, so no rate decrease. They are by law required to name the medications they give her, but the pull givers did not know what they were giving her. They were told numerous times not to give her Parkinson's medication with food as this destroyed the effectiveness of the pill. They paid no attention to this. They are woefully understaffed and my wife frequently had to wait 30 -60 minutes for a caregiver to answer her buzzer. This was always true during mealtimes as they only have one caregiver per floor and and could not answer a buzzer because they were pushing people in wheelchairs to and from the dining room. If you continue to refer people to this community you are doing them a great disservice.

We picked this community, because I only had 1 day to get her moved somewhere else, I had no choice but to go with the first who'd accept her, sight unseen. The girls on the floor are great. Upper management stinks. They'll raise your price in two months, so it's a great place for mom to go broke at.

Out of the facilities we toured, this one felt the most depressing to us. It just looked dark and smelled bad. The sales lady was also very pushy with us.

Dark and dingy. Staff is great tho. Close to where I live.

Visited and not interested. Thought it was overpriced when compared to amenities at other facilities.

While the staff was friendly, the facility was old and in need of reapirs and updating. Parking was a problem as well.

Visited Emeritus when we were looking for a place for my Dad to live. We had an appointment on Saturday and arrived promptly. We were told that on Saturday there is only one staff person in the building (other than direct care and cleaning staff) so we met with the Activities Director. Although the Activities Director was very nice and the residents seemed friendly enough, I was disapointed by the number of/lack of supervisory staff, the strong smell of urine everywhere. Also, as we toured the building, doors to most rooms were open and we could see people being toileted, etc. I thought it was pretty terrible and so did my Dad. Emeritus was one of the first places we crossed off the list.

We had some major issues here. It was the first place we tried after my loved one had been diagnosed with dementia issues, so we were not sure what to expect. Atria Cypresswood told us they would be able to handle the issues she was having, but this did not end up being the case. We would get phonecalls at 2am telling us we needed to head over their to handle our loved one, and within a month they terminated our contract and told us we had to leave. I understand that her level of care did not end up being appropriate for the facility, but they handled the whole situation very poorly.

If you don't mind cockroaches crawling over you after repeated requests to control the pests. (With the cracked foundations flooded weekly by watering) If you need help managing your meds expect another [fee removed]/mo. The antique elevator threatens to strand anyone unfortunate enough to be on the 2nd floor (the majority of residents). The 1st floor cost an extra [fee removed]/mo. People screaming for help at all hours in the hallways. Bedlam would be a vacation. Now they show all signs of just jacking the rent and flipping the property. Their resident manager lies like some people breathe. She was the only one of 3 (Res mgr, her boss, the owner) to deny the flipping in an email. The others were silent and did not deny it. This appears to be a very shady outfit. For my [fee removed] increase on a low fixed income, I got my door painted. This is how we elderly wind up homeless. Many long-time residents have left or are visiting other facilities as did many staff. This was an OK place, once. The elevator has broken down for the, I believe, the 4th time in 3 weeks. When my son talked to Novellus, the "increase" of an additional $[removed]is now just an increase of $[removed].

awful except for the food and dining room workers. Please use this place as a last resort. They used my medicine for other people, they gave me wrong medicine. I was supposed to have control of my medicine and it took them 6 days and many mistakes after my doctor contacted them You may call me at [removed] if you want more details.

It's a horrible place and do not put a person you love in this awful facility. My loved one was left in soiled depends and left in a wheelchair most of the day. They only stayed in that facility for a short amount of time. I'm grateful I ran into his hospice nurse at the front desk and asked if they could put them back on hospice or I wouldn't have known in the short amount of time he was at Novellus that he had developed to huge bed sores. I'm sure you can tell I'm not a fan of this facility. I brought my loved one home and I have sitters 7 hours 7 days a week and my loved one is on hospice.

Our family had an in person tour with Brookdale Clairemont and it was horrible. Condensed, had to use elevators to get to the rooms. Rooms were small, no views except for a wall, she would have had to share a bathroom with another person. Carpet looked dingy, the whole placed smelled bad. No parking for visitors. Just a small garden for residents to walk around. And I didn't see a single resident that looked happy or smiled. Some in wheel chairs just looked abandoned in the hallways. Staff was nice. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Our family had an in person tour experience with Novellus Kingwood and from the moment we walked in the front door we did not even want to tour it, and that is why we rate it so low. .

They were pretty much worthless if you are looking for a physical therapy for your loved one. They told me we could have a room and everything but if you need physical therapy, we have to set it up and do everything ourselves and they do not help out with that. Definitely did not meet the needs we were looking for.

My wife cannot walk so need assistance in normal functions/activities. When my wife developed bed sores on her buttocks, they did very little about it. The one bed sore finally got infected and we had to go to the ER and had to be transferred her to a Skilled Nursing Facility so she could be treated by Nurses and Doctors, which Brookdale has neither on staff. When I gave the required 30-day notice to the Management and ask for refunds of the Personal Service Fees that she didn't use, they said YES, after the first 14-day period of not being at Brookdale. After I received my refunds, I discovered that they didn't include the Personal Service Fees refunds. After contacting the Management several times they eventually said that Corporate denied the SVC Fee refunds but wouldn't give a reason. So, if you want poor service and a denial of refunds when leave, then by all means stay at Brookdale -- otherwise I would recommend going someplace else.