ONELIFE

Alta Ridge used to be very nice until a corporate takeover. Now the food budget is bare bones and while the cooks are good, the meals are mostly packaged frozen stuff like corn dogs, chicken nuggets and tater tots. I hear the equipment is also bare bones and broken. Dont come for the food.

The administrators are very incompetent. They make excuses and pass the buck. They jerked me around. Not giving me paperwork in a timely manner which then took more time to get properly filled out by physician. They came to home wearing a name badge with Memory Care boldly written on it which I made her remove after arriving 25 minutes late. She forgot to bring the paperwork and I was informed I would have to go to the facility to pick it up. \In the end they jacked the price another $800 stating my mom was tier 3. The woman is ambulatory, she's not incontinent, she's coherent in the moment... she just can't remember things. Though she is a feisty one. \And, for $6500 they won't even do the residents laundry.

Like others I was fooled by the glimmering image Waterhouse portrays. They are constantly changing management and it seems there is a new face at the front desk each time I've visited. The Executive Director seems friendly on the phone but is very fake once you interact with her in person. It's really unfortunate as she ultimately makes promises she cannot keep. When I first came in for a tour, it was lunch time. We went into a neighborhood where staff were serving lunch to the residents. The girls seemed nice and even said hello to my family and I while we were in touring. We decided to move mom in despite other reviews we had read online about this facility. Mom seems to be doing okay, but has since been very unhappy. The bathroom in her unit always smells of strong urine as though it does not get clean. Staff are constantly trying to keep other wandering residents out of her room and we are always finding other people's clothing in mom's closet. When we bring it to the staff's attention, they say they don't know who's it is if it isn't mom's. Dinner time is a disaster with staff rushing people to eat and immediately trying to rush them to bed. Also, we pay alot of money for mom to be here and the dinner items do not reflect the gourmet meals they promise. The offered hot turkey melts that were hardly presentable with soup. Their is a substitute menu on some of the tables that say those items are available at all times, but when mom asked for a specific item from the list, the staff said they went to the kitchen but the oven is off, so she could have a cold ham sandwich with chips or the meal they brought to the neighborhood. We are already considering moving mom to a different facility. They never have activities going on except for maybe a movie in the living room of the neighborhood and staff are always coloring printed sheets or scrolling on their phones. The staff don't pay attention to the residents and it's clear they don't care. It's really disappointing and varies greatly from the day time staff who are so sweet to my mom and my family.

Scam artists - - everything looks BETTER than wonderful when you tour the lovely facilities, and you only find out later (after all the expense and emotional upheaval of moving) that this is a Circus Act of utter incompetence... empty promises of "the best" in memory care including the integration of Teepa Snow's research and programming. NOT. There's a constant revolving door of questionable minimum-wage contract aides who may or may not have a high school education and have NO IDEA who Teepa Snow is or what she stands for. It's ALL HYPE to get you to move in, and then you see the deeply disturbing truth that it is nothing more than a facade: a lovely new building, beautifully furnished, full of incompetent [removed] for caregivers--who sit around watching reality t.v. and texting on their phones rather than engaging with residents. Residents are treated as cattle, with little regard for their dignity... if this is what you want, at a PREMIUM PRICE, then go for it. Most of us have wised up and moved our parents out once we figured out we'd all been scammed. They could not even pass their state inspection, and have had "Restriction of Admission" notices posted on their front door since the first visit. Meanwhile, anyone with a shred of integrity has quit (you will notice the prominent signage "Now Hiring!" at the driveway entrance; they cannot keep any staff). Most of the residents' families have made the easy decision to get their loved ones OUT of there ASAP, and if you're smart, you will save yourself the emotional turmoil and expense of finding out the hard way that "all that glitters is not gold."

We were hoping for a facility that truly took care of your loved one! So disappointed with this Vernon hills facility! Entire original managment team with exception of administrator is gone! All fired! New hires are a huge disappointment! Can't find anyone when you are there and try calling this facility ., they don't answer! Dishes are filthy and food is bad! They have residents falling everyday and wonder why? Go visit and the staff will gladly leave you with 30 residents..alone! Horrible and terrible!

Look elsewhere!

Unfortunately when we chose this facility for my husband we were really in need of a place for him quickly. They were very accommodating and helped us place him within one day. That's about the only good thing I can say about this place. My husband was only there one week before a nurse visited him at the direction of his doctor and noticed that he had developed horrible bed sores, rashes and uncontrollable blood pressure and blood sugar levels. He had to be rushed to the hospital from there and ended up in ICU for over a week. [removed]. Needless to say he did not go back there. It was a nightmare trying to get my money refunded, which eventually it was. I would highly recommend that if you are considering this place for yourself or your loved ones, you think twice about it and run as far away from here as you can. The facility is very old, dirty, smells really bad inside and the staff is anything but friendly. I would never recommend this place to anyone.

Terrible place for anyone, if you want your parents to suffer this is the perfect place.

Employer using unprofessional and foul language to explain situation. She did not know the accurate answer so she made it up. Conflicts of interest in the employer and administrative support in building. Unprofessional one sided conflicts and outcome.