Oakmont Management Group

It's clean; nice cottage style with beautiful outdoor space. As far as activities, they need to have more variety; their van is not comfortable for those in a wheelchair. Also the van only allows 2 wheelchairs per outings. Food is horrible... over cooked, undercooked, salty, bland, small portions, odd combinations of food at mealtime, I prepare food from home 3-4 times a week to take over there. They are extremely short staffed.

While overall, Ivy Park is nice- there was a 10 % rent increase with no real improvements to show for it. That's a hefty increase on a fixed income.The shower water was cold (took FOREVER to get warm) and the room was cold. However her biggest complaint was the staff turnover-she become attached to several of the staff who were dismissed for no real reason. There have been four managers since she moved in over a year ago. That's unsettling for an elderly person- they like consistency and do not like change.

Not really set up for handicap residents. Their shuttle does not take people with a walker or wheelchair. You have to get up the stairs on your own. As it is nice that the washer and dryer are in the room, some ate nor tall enough to use the buttons for the dryer. They do not give residents (in independent care) their privacy. They knock on the door and then come right in. The residents do support each other. That is needed, because sometimes the staff is not as helpful. The staff turns over frequently.

My loved one is a fall risk and doesn't sleep much at night due to Dementia/Sundowners. The fact that it has taken 5-6 weeks with 4 falls to figure out a routine has been extremely frustrating. I not only pay Oakmont, but a night time caretaker- which I'm in the process of weaning so Oakmont can be the sole provider - which will raise the price due to needing more care. Reading the contract thoroughly is imperative. Ask exactly how much care can be provided according to your needs. Everyone has expectations that our loved ones will receive the care that we provided for them. Building a team with the Administration and the Caregivers is critical.

They don't give the quality of care that they charge for. I am looking for a different place for my loved one because of this.

The staff caregivers are very kind, but there needs to be more of them The management team is just OK. I think they have certain protocol that they need to abide by which is not always good because in memory care there are people like my mom who is just starting to forget a few things and then there are the people who are disasters and can't do anything and yelling scream all the time, even in the dining room, and it is hard to control them . The med tech are great. They do a very good job at administering medicines to the residence that is not overwhelming for them. Sorry to have to report this but I think it's important. My mom has now lived there [number removed] days and she has fallen 4× one in which we probably should've taken her to the emergency. She hurt herself pretty bad her doctor at Kaiser can't keep up with my calls and emails so they just recently put her in hospice. We are currently using , the Hospice company that Oakmont Sr Living has recommended that they use Best Hospice Providers and they are doing a pretty good job

I would suggest labeling everything with clients name. So many things were missing even a large throw rug from in front of her bed. It's hard to get people to return calls so being personally involved is a must. The staff is nice but when my sister is disagreeable, they leave her alone in her room. There doesn't seem to be training for caregivers to handle a difficult situation when it arises. Laundry is supposed to be done weekly but we always have to take it to the laundry room or it won't be. The facility presents clean and orderly. I wish there was more one on one engagement with the patients and staff. Mostly as a group. I send a caregiver 3 times a week to insure she gets attention. I go once a week. My sister can be disagreeable, at times but I thought there was expertise handling all situations since many dementia patients have good and bad days

The common areas of the community are clean, but when it comes to our loved ones bathroom that would rate more like a 3 or 4. With the care services, I wish more encouragement to participate in activities would be made rather than allow her to sit in her room. Some areas they could improve on would be the food, variety of activities and getting people more involved and feeling more "alive" For example they take bus rides and just drive around but never get off the bus...another example: bingo seems to be the only game they play regularly and my mom doesn't see well thus it hurts her eyes and doesn't work well for her.

We picked it because 1) it was on the way home from my husband's work so she would get more visits. 2) the price was the best. 3) the room had a great view which we thought was a priority. The experience is mixed right now because it seems sometimes the care is not consistent. It says they will wash the towels and sheets but sometimes it looks like they are not washed.

Based on the experience we have had so far, there has still never been a fire drill. When the residents push their call pendants the time for response is way too long. Too much of the working staff team is too young and inexperienced.

My mother has been at Ivy Park at Laguna Woods for a bit over year and it is much, much worse than we expected. If your family member is very independent it might be an ok place but still, wait times are 45 minutes average once they push their pendent. Dining service is horrible. Food taste and quality is very good (once you get it.). Very nice residents and the social aspect has been great for my mom to get out and meet others, and she is shy. Residents make her feel welcome. But the care and the help overall is just awful! When she returned from the hospital once they forgot her meds for 5 days! If she needs something urgently and pushes her necklace sometimes it will take ONE HOUR for someone to come. Med Tech help is hit or miss. If you call to ask how your mother is they have no idea what is going on. As soon as her needs escalate (bathroom help or help getting dressed) I will have to move her. [removed] has much, much better care but rooms are tiny.

We took a tour of Ivy Park at Palo Alto during our search for a facility for our loved one. This facility was okay. The cleanliness and friendliness was okay. However, I never felt a warmth from the facility or during the tour. We decided to keep searching.

[name removed] passed away on [date removed] . We are in dispute about the final payment. I was assured their corporate office would rectify the matter. So far there hasn't been a response. The cost was over [fee removed] per month which seems exorbitant. We were in the process of looking for a smaller facility that would provide more one on one care. However, she fell at their facility and ended up dying from her injuries. Overall the staff was friendly, especially the front desk and floor assistants. I do want to mention that the facility was transitioning from Sunrise Sabre Springs to Ivy. Maybe if we had remained things would have improved. Overall we found that for a dementia/memory care resident she was left alone for hours in her apartment. Yes, she refused to go to activities but I recommend a staff member strictly assigned to visit those who isolate themselves.

My loved one is currently a resident at Oakmont of Redwood City. Overall, the care team is excellent. The sales team is excellent, as well. The facility is clean, fresh and new. They offer lots of activities for the residents to enjoy. Oakmont of Redwood City is a great place to retire.

Right round dining room table by window are multiple dining room chairs and walkers parked. Two wheelchairs and three walkers are normally added to that table! Servers CANNOT get through. Need two square tables instead of a round!

I look forward to meals in the dining room. Good food eaten with friends. Sometimes meals are tasty but not warm. Sometimes almost inedible tough meat, hard to chew, mushy vegetables. It is improving. Services as a whole do a great job.

MorningStar of Hayward has been recently purchased and has been renovated. Many of the aspects (carpeting, walls, bathrooms, all fixtures) are fresh, new and very clean. On the Plus Side: The activities have been great. My parents have been getting involved with lots of different activities such as exercising, bingo, blackjack, etc. The food has been good for all of our visits, but my parents have said that a couple times they had to send food back. My dad gets his daily ice cream, so he is mostly happy. The laundry and housekeeping team is great. Two girls come by each week to change the sheets and take their laundry. The transportation has been working out well. They are getting rides to appointments when necessary. My sister grumbles at the work in trying to figure out issues (the bill, the Internet/WiFi) but she has so much freedom now and has had a great relief of the daily stress of taking care of my parents. The medical staff on the floors have been great. My parents are not fully "Assisted Living" but the medical staff has come by and provided assistance. They have been extremely helpful. On the Minus Side: The financial people there are rather hopeless. My sister has been working with them every month for the first few months to straighten out every bill. They have been doing things that are so wrong that a child could see their error. I think my sister finally talked to the top local administrator and figured out their errors. I think things have been better for the past month. They must be counting on a bunch of mindless people that will just write them checks every month without understanding what the costs are. The WIFI networking in the building has had issues for months now. The cable-TV is just straight broadcast cable, so I encouraged my sister to set them up with a streaming service that offers more programming. The down side is that the WIFI is so horrible that they have a hard time using the streaming service and it keeps disconnecting and causing other issues. They need to get some networking people in there to resolve the issues. As for Personnel, it's a little mixed. [name removed], the "salesperson" that convinced us to sign up, was nice and supportive when we were deciding but I think she only came by once or twice after my parents moved in. We had a MorningStar person come by the house before my parents moved in to "evaluate" my parents for the level of care they would need. My parents are on an "Assisted Living" floor but they don't really need any assistance at this time but they are on the right floor "to be ready" when they do need assistance and so that they do not need to move when they transition to actual "Assisted Living". The lady doing the evaluation at one point said "I don't even know what I am doing here if you don't need assistance". A rather *outrageous* comment for someone that is an ambassador of the company. Although the facility is being re-worked, there are still Security and Safety issues. Someone came in from outside and was roaming the building. This was very alarming. I am not sure how they fixed this but to say Security is lax is an understatement. My sister was able to pull into the underground parking (gated) only to find she could not get out of the parking area and into the building. Phones and instructions there did *not* work. She was starting to panic and soon her only recourse would have been to pull the fire alarm. Not a very good solution to the problem. Overall, I would recommend MorningStar. We have communicated to them that we will all be better off if we have more residents to drive down the costs and make them more profitable and help keep the price increases down. My parent's floor only has about 3-4 apartments occupied out of about 50-ish apartments on the floor. The other floors seem to have a lot of activity and a lot of occupied rooms. If I did recommend MorningStar, I would warn anyone that the accounting is horrible and that they would need to examine every bill, line by line to understand what the charges are. I would warn them to NOT set up any kind of automatic payment and to manually write checks or manually send payments after receiving any bills.

Communication on most items is very limited. Some medications or vitamins that I provide I get a week or sometimes 3-4 days notice no consistentency on these. The cleaniness of her apartment has been not very good looks like they just gave it a lick and a promise.

The care facilitators mess up. Communication needs improvements. Care staff is very good although. Not their fault about communication. Very nice people. They seem to have a lot of turnover though in care staff and chefs. At this moment, due to our experience, I would not recommend Oakmont of El Dorado Hills to others.