Priority Life Care

We never know what is going on. We ask for a paper with the stages or phases and they never get back to us. Only certain people are able to go out or have guests. We don’t do that or want to until it is safe. We don’t understand why cutting back on food is helpful to this virus. There are no activities. The biggest problem is we lost our transportation, even when our doctors opened up. Things are very unorganized. I am speaking for many, many people. The cleaning staff is very nice and helpful. The new sales person is wonderful. The woman who does Maintanance is a gem. The activities director is kind but unable to do much. We don’t understand why management doesn’t let him use his budget on us.

The food is not up to par. There is not a lot of leadership or appropriate management. My mom has a great size room. The layout of the community is convenient for the residents. They have a gazebo and garden area in the back for the residents.

While I really like my apartment and enjoy the premises, there are so many issues that never seem to get fixed. residents say nothing at the meetings out of fear that their rent will get hiked. The biggest issue is food. It has gotten so bad that people are going hungry. The nutritional values are not good and not balanced. Too heavy on carbs and not enough fresh vegetables that are edible. Almost everything comes in boxes off a truck ready to heat up. Tonight’s turkey taco salad was revolting- most of the Turkey was actually kidney beans. Beans do not go in taco salad. At the very least the menu should be honest about what is really being served. There is way too much salt in the food. Once in a while they will make something excellent and then never repeat it or, if they do, it is not the same. Considering how high the rent is, you get a small apartment, 15 minutes of house “cleaning”, disorganized activities, disinterested management, and really bad food.

Overall, this place is as good as most others, I think. However, there are a few ways they could improve. We have had not-so-good experiences in the dining room. (For instance, not giving my mother her food and when we asked about it, the girl saying she had eaten and they had cleared her plate. We were there; we knew better!). There is definitely room for improvement there. My mother needs a lot of care. I wish there could be more one-on-one in that regard. And quicker response. Of course, that would mean hiring more people. Wouldn't it be great if there were volunteers who could spend time with those who can't get around or help themselves???!!! I live out of state and only get to visit about three times a year.

THis is a very pretty facility and the sales agent assured me my mom would get great care. WELL, the staff that work there are all very friendly and nice. I truly like them, BUT they are so understaffed, don't expect your loved one to get the care that the sales rep tells you. 2 aides and 1 med tech every night for 55 patients. My mom uses her call button to have some one help her to the bathroom, but no one every answers her call. So she calls me and I call the office and they in turn tell someone to help my mom. And if it's after 8 pm, forget it. No one answers the phone until maybe ??? 20 minutes later as I am hanging on the phone for someone to answer. But it's not the staff's fault. They have 55 patients to attend to and there are only 3 of them on duty, if that. So think about that.

called front desk tonight after phone call with my mother dropped and unable to contact her. asked they send someone to check on her. half hour later i called back again. said they'd have her call me. no call. called back again. no one ever asked my name during this but i left it on the first call. on 3rd call said i'd was simply calling the local police to please see what was wrong. 5 min later they called the local family member on file and they verified she was fine. had she been in a stroke it would have been more than 45 min to have her checked on. no one from the staff ever called me back nor asked my identity or contact number when i called.

My parents have been there for a month and have not been happy with the place yet. The apartment was not ready when it was supposed to be and they had an extra few weeks. They had no hot water. It was just almost warm, They get their breakfast late and my mom is diabetic. They have mentioned this a few times. Brentwood new about her diabetes before they even got there. The air conditioner does not work in the living room and if they use the ones in the bedrooms to cool off the living room than the bedrooms get way to cold. The maintenance guy knows about it. He told them it probably needed Freon and he would have someone in Monday to take care of it. That was 2 weeks ago and they are still waiting. They limit the amount the windows can be opened so that does not help. Communication amongst the staff is awful. My parents will tell them they will not be down for a meal the day before and instead of checking that it was written on the menu paper they come up and knock on the door to see if they are coming down for the meal. They had no cable when they moved in. It was not set up for them, They went the whole weekend without TV, so they were bored. Luckily I had some movies they would like and brought them over. They really have not had a good experience here.

I have a parent living at Brentwood. Initially I felt very good about Brentwood and the services, the well-trained staff, the skilled nurses, and the administration. Over the past 4 years I have seen all of this go down hill. After being bought out twice by other companies the older skilled staff is gone and has been replaced by young people. The original nurses have gone, the administrator is always in her office, the one superb employee is now gone and I'm hoping the activities don't become status quo and childish. The list of amenities that are listed are quite embellished. There is no place for outside activity at Brentwood and others that are stated as being there are not. All in all my parent is safe, it is clean, allows pets, and she is fed.

My loved one seems to be gaining weight with the food they are providing her so they defiantly have some nutritious meals at this community. As far as the staff goes I am very pleased with the marketing director and a lady named [Removed], however I am very disappointing with the overall care my loved one has been receiving. They have been providing her basic needs but other than that they do not do much. I have found my aunt in bed before seven which is way to early for her and have many times caught the aids just lounging around on there phones. I hope some improvements will be made in the future as I am very concerned with this facility.

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.

I wasn't very impressed with my tour of this community. First thing I noticed was the smell, there is a bad odor that lingers around the community. The community looked clean for the most part. It was a basic community, not very appealing to our taste. It was not the place for us.

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?

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

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

No nursing staff (LPN, RN) available after 7 or 8 at night. If patient with dementia attempts to get out of a door, be prepared to have to pay for a private sitter for approximately 48 hours. If any kind of financial or billing questions, be prepared to be ignored. Administration gives you their cell phone number to call for concerns, and then doesn't answer and doesn't return messages.