Priority Life Care

My tour of this community was a decent one, but I was not very impressed. The community seemed a bit outdated. I would say there is some updating that this community needs to make. The staff was kind and friendly. Overall It was not community for my parents.

My parents are back home with me now. The community looks great, everything was very nice and clean. The meals were nice, the food is good. The staff was kind and very nice. My issue was with the head nurse, she was not good at medication management. My parents medication was mishandled many times. It is a nice community. I would only recommend it if you don't need much medication management.

My mother has been in the Memory Care Unit for about 16 months now. We are growing more and more disappointed in the service here. It was still under the Emeritus Corp when we first moved her in and overall seemed like it would work out. There was always SOME level of frustration trying to reach and get calls back from key staff... but there had been activities, decent food and living space and overall it was decent. And affordable as Mom has a budged limited to Social Security and some other Financial Aid. Since Brookdale Corp took over there has been a lot of changes and instability in the senior exec staff e.g. Exec Directors have changed 3 times, Senior Nursing Staff fired , Memory Care Director let go more than 6 months ago and still not replaced...and new Nursing Director gone after 4-5 months. My family members that have come on visits have sometimes found her or other residents unkempt, in unchanged Depends. Not all of the time. 25% of their visits seemed to bring reports of such nature. Other times reports were OK. Long term problem: Of all her belongings, like clothes and shoes and bedding... over 80% of her stuff is missing and what is in her closet is not hers! New stuff family buys and brings, even labelled with her name and room number were found to be missing a few weeks later! I am working on seeing if the Facility will be accountable for these losses. Food is one area that we do NOT have complaints about. Unlike other reviewers Mom enjoys their meals. And it seemed OK the week I stayed in the area visiting her daily. The facility WAS having periodic entertainment, parties for the residents, playing memory games, medicine ball, taking them out on field trips etc. That was a year ago May. As of now, I have found there to be a drop in many activities offered, no field trips, etc. More aides have reportedly been hired, but, yes, the language barrier speaking directly to aides is a problem , as is general communication with staff. One of the persons fired when Brookdale took over was the Director of the Memory Care Unit and while there was some areas I had been trying to improve in my dealings with that Director, at least there was someone who cared about the residents and was there as a go-to person. I am 3000 miles away and financially cannot afford to visit as often as I'd want, and having fast reliable communication is a MUST! The new Director seems eager to improve the situation, but so had the other New Director who was there just a few weeks before leaving, and I had promises of well-intended improvements by the District Director. Now there is a New Exec. Director and I am in the process of seeing what he can/will do about all this. He's just been there a short while and I do not yet know what things will actually be DONE (rather than just talked about) to improve and rectify the problems. I will update my review as more developments occur. I am in the process of seeing what other options I have; we are hampered by having a rather low budget to work with.

Sales staff could have been more informative. They were friendly, young, smiled, but weren't all too informative. Gave me a stack of papers to sign at that was just about it. My Uncle is 84, had to go to rehab, at the same time his wife died of brain cancer. Anyway after he was released from rehab I got him into Tanglewood. They didn't tell us about the 1,500.00 "Community Fee" up front, said it was for cleaning, painting, new carpeting, and administration costs. Well I moved him in and there was no new paint, no new carpeting, and no cable hook up. The general housekeeping appears to be cosmetic. I had to pitch a fit to get his cable hooked up. I talked to a family and it took them three weeks to get cable. They also want a months notice to move out. You don't know what your loved ones body is going to do. Well my uncle fell And broke his hip So back to rehab as they dont provide that service. So we had to give a months notice and had to pay 2,000.00 for an empty room. I'm 57 years old and had to move his furniture out by myself. I left an old chair and got a call from the business agent saying they couldn't release the room till I removed the chair. What did I pay 1,500.00 for? As far as my uncles care I'll give them 8 out of 10. The administration I'll give a 4. Good riddance.

My step father is a resident of Brentwood. He has often told me someone (staff?) enters his apartment when he is not there. It is evident his things have been moved around as if searching for things, lights turned off he knows he has left on. He voiced his concern, was not taken seriously, and the uninvited entering continues. I feel this is a personal safety problem and he should be able to leave his apartment without worrying who and why (someone) has been in his apartment. It is also an invasion of privacy. Another problem that has come up is at times no one comes to assist him to meals. When he mentioned this, one excuse was they heard him talking on the the phone and didn't want to bother him. He takes insulin daily for diabetes and it is dangerous for him to miss meals. I do not live in Niles and am not able to bring his concerns to your administration. Please look into these issues so there is resolution. He very much enjoys the food served and activities that are scheduled.

It didn't seem like they were ready for us when we moved in. The room was kept pretty clean, and a couple of times the room was rather a mess. The nurse Linda, I was not too happy with her. There were medical procedures that were conducted without my permission, or even notification. Michelle was most helpful and cooperative, Celeste was outstanding, I can't compliment her enough. A few others did well, if you are somewhat healthy, you are probably fine. They have great activities, the activities director is wonderful. Calvin is an outstanding young man, what a great C.N.A. Todd is a terrific director of food services, the food was delicious. The maintenance was good. Stephanie was always concerned about me. Brenda did a fine job. The receptionist was wonderful. The rooms were nice, I liked the accommodation and size. The doctor they have on staff there is outstanding, very proactive. It's a beautiful facility.

So far Emeritus has been fairly good for my mother. There are two items, however, that could be improved for her. First she says the food isn't very good. I'm not sure what is likely to be done about that. From my experience, my mother is more likely to eat because the food is delicious, not because she "needs to eat something". In her active, earlier life my mother was an extremely good cook and baker. The other problem I feel could be solved without inconvenience to the staff: She could be given her evening sleeping pill at a more favorable time for her. At first it was given to her just about every night about 8 pm which meant she must be ready to turn off the TV (and miss her favorite shows) and go to sleep much earlier than normal for her. Now she is given the pill anywhere between 8 pm and midnight! When she receives it so late in the evening, Mom still must rise early for breakfast when she's not had a long night's sleep; consequently, she falls asleep after breakfast during daylight hours. This is all my mom wants: TV, reading, good food, and a quiet, safe life. For someone who is 95, I don't think these are unreasonable requests. I feel very confident she is being cared for and help is only a push of the button away, but I am concerned for the other creature comforts she most desires. So far, better food and a more definite evening time for her sleeping pill is all she would like. I realize that people in the same situation (assisted living, nursing homes, etc.) are probably prone to wanting and yearning for their past situations and tend to complain-- at least this is what I have heard from families and neighbors with whom I've talked since we began the search for "a place for Mom". But can't each person be treated a little more personally? What would YOU want if you were in my mother's place? What would YOU expect? What would make YOU a little happier?

Dining in main clubhouse is different than what they serve residents in Assistant Living, very disappointing. Have addressed issues but with no resolve. When you tour facilities they sell you on the idea that assisted living residents can dine in their building dining room from same menu as clubhouse dining room. Not true. The food is terrible in the 2 AL buildings. Very sad to see your parent be unsatisfied with their dining experience.

We did not have a good experience at Celebration Villa of Newburgh and moved our loved one out.

Memory care Staff warm & welcoming at interview & tour but after move in it was difficult to get a return call from the Director of Facility No natural light in common area where residents are sitting & eating Very dark & depressing Limited activities Had to ask to have bathroom cleaned ( in residents room) Night shift in memory care not well trained to redirect or handle difficult situations at night Did not adhere to diabetic diet when needed

The patients hospice nurse could see her there, which is why we picked them.

My mom was safe there, and the caregivers were kind. The room was very small, but a greater disappointment was the director.

To be honest if you are ambulatory and can take care of yourself it would be fine. In my aunts case she needed help and they just didn't provide it. They do have activities that seemed fun for an ambulatory person. The food looked good but all my aunt could eat was soup and they put in the microwave and sat in front of her and did not help her eat. The room was very nice.

There have been significant staffing issues there and my father has been extremely vocal about the medical care he has received and pays significantly more to receive. Current management seems to be trying but there are still issue

Staff is overloaded. Food was not standard for healthy residents. They need better nutritional meals and more aids. Im not happy with care mother received. I was an aid so I know. Premises was fairly clean. Medication was 95% accurately provided.

While the apartments are nice and they did was OK, I thought they were abusive in the administration. I was offered a special of [amount removed] dollars per month. One month later my rent was raised by [amount removed] dollars per month. Who could afford that? If had to go through the pain and expense of moving twice in 3 months. As a disabled person this was horrible. Further they tried to transfer [amount removed] out of my checking account the first month and [amount removed] the second month. There wasn't enough money in my account to cover t those payments so I was put in the CHEX system for writing bad checks. My experience was nothing short of a nightmare

The Good (in my opinion) was the most of the care takers who ( not all) seemed to care for the residents and tried to develop relationships with the families ,on the down side of that many of them worked back to back and sometimes three straight days of 16 hour shifts which of course led to them being exhausted and not being as attentive as normal. I tried bringing this up with the director and they said that the employees volunteered to do the extra shifts but my argument was how could they be competent after working so many hours to be able to care for the residents safely.

The people staying there are horrible, not all but a lot of them. My rooms were nice.

Some of the aids were very friendly and attentive. The clients were not allowed to stay in their rooms and had to sit in the common area all day except for meals. They were given water only a couple of times a day.

Well, if placing a loved one here anytime after September make sure to ask how much the cost will increase in the next year. We were blindsided when a month after mom was here to find out they were increasing every cost by 10% in the new year. Care we were told could be met is not. Major staffing changes continue to occur but we are not formed of them. We just find out. Bottom line if I had to review this place I would not recommend it for someone that really needs assistance on a daily basis. We are in the process of looking at other places