Senior Living Asset Management

When we moved our mom into Brookdale, it wasn't organized. The director, head of nursing and activities director did meet her in the next few days. But the executive chef actually showed us around the building upon move in. I explained we're paying through long term care benefits before we made the commitment to move my mother to Brookdale. The sales director and executive director both said they work with and bill LTC providers. Having invested a great deal of time contacting the LTC provider and many e-mails and phone calls to the executive director, the December and January invoices were faxed mid-late February. I was told that was unusual and things would go smoothly from then on. As of today, the LTC provider has not received my mom's February invoice. Again, I've made many calls and sent numerous e-mails requesting the invoice/claim form be faxed which Brookdale has to sign off on every month. My mother chose Brookdale North Naples because of its convenient location, close proximity to her doctors and larger room size compared to other assisted living communities. Hopefully the insurance situation will eventually get resolved.

I didn't take a lot of notes here because there was just something about the facility that made me uncomfortable. The layout was extremely confusing and I pictured my mom being lost all the time and not being able to find her room. They did offer to waive the community fee that was $3,000 which was a great incentive but I couldn't do it. Also there was again not a lot of residents out in the open. I kind of pictured them hunkering down in their rooms because if they left they would get lost. Brookdale was also about 30+ minutes away from me.

This is a good community. It is safe and the staff are very helpful. There are three meals a day served to the residents, and there are choices for the residents to choose from. Lunch is the bigger. There are communal washer and dryers on each floor of the building. The resident is able to have a microwave in their apartment. Housekeeping once a week is included as well.

We toured with Bloom at Belfair. This facility was actually my first choice, but they failed to fulfill the contract that I signed and refunded my money.

On the positive side, the activities are great and my mom is participating in a lot of them and enjoying it. For things they could improve on- when she presses her button it does take a long time for the care staff to come get her. They are understaffed and so the response time to care has been inconsistent.

On the positive side, the nurses they have are fantastic. On the negative side - the administration leaves a lot to be desired. They are there 9-4 Monday through Friday and that is it. It is very hard to get a hold of them and their phone system never goes through so it is hard to talk to my dad. Overall the communication really needs to be improved - my dad went to the hospital and we were not notified until they were wheeling him into the ambulance. We never even knew he was sick. He went without medications for 4 days because they had a miscommunication with the pharmacy. The weekends are very bad, the place is only kept clean Monday through Friday but weekends it is filthy. A lot of his things go missing too. They never have the same nurses - there is a crazy amount of turnover going on. There is nothing for men to do, it mostly about the women. The food for memory care is horrible and it is always cold. The food on the assisted living side is wonderful.

The rating might be unfair as we really didn’t get to see the facility first hand . However a video tour was sent to us. We felt the facility was very Outdated, but from what we could see clean. Several interesting items like an ice cream pallor and a vintage Ny taxi cab were displayed inside the facility along with a fountain in the atrium entrance with an expansive staircase behind it ??? Maybe it’s us but stairs and older people usually don’t mix well. [Name removed] the community relations manager was lovely and very helpful.

Mediocre food

The AL side of this property is wonderful, however the Memory Care side is dark, small and sad.

They do not do the activity bus and other things that they said they were going to do at this community. There is no adapting with the activities and not everyone is able to participate. I would say consider very carefully another community and do not waste your money. They stated that this was the best of the best and if this is it, it is not good.

It's kind of a raggedy operation. High staff turnover so there's no career professionals working there. Nice building. Nice activity program. Smells clean. But sloppy in some ways. They never cut my resident friends finger and toe nails, they let them grow for an inch! I have to bring diagonal cutters and sneakily cut them myself. It's crazy but true. The cook job is also high turnover and somethings wrong, I guess it's extremely low paid and the food has been quite shabby on the few times that I have visited. So, it's not bad but do not expect good service. Just a minimum to get by.

Sadly no activities in memory care recently. It's quite sad...the care is not perfect nor is it anywhere. I think the staff is kind. But things are lost, so much down time.

If you're younger than 85, look somewhere else. Young inexperienced management ...THEY KICKED ME OUT after 2 years BECAUSE I Didn't PLAY PATTY CAKE...I addressed core systemic issues with management and they weren't receptive....dining experience and food was always good despite kitchen staff turnover. Watch out for strange alarming behaviour of some residents in independent living area.

My overall impression, and I say this as a former senior opertions manager of a service company employing 2,000+, is the facility is poorly managed. Excellent marketing but those promises don't match reality. I'm sure they face the same labor shortages that others do, but it appears that they will hire anyone who walks in the door who can pass a background. I have ancedotal evidence that other ALFs are better or worse so I am assuming Brookdale is average. I know I don't want to end up in one of these places.

I took a tour of Gold Choice Ormond Beach when searching for a Memory Care facility for my loved one. This facility was okay overall. The cleanliness and friendliness were okay. However, it was not what I was looking for in a facility for my loved one.

The staff was very nice and caring but a little too familiar. My mother who is very formal would not have fit in.

Bad experience. Family member left sitting on toilet for almost one hour, twice. Felt more like nursing home rather than assisted living.

Poor management communication. Low staff to patient ratio. Most of staff good. But some sit around on their phones and don’t help residents like they should. Noisy, too many alarms going off. When they do it takes a long time to shut them down. Lost many items of clothing and personal items in laundry or other patient’s rooms. Not much cooperation in getting them returned.

I had to move my mother out of this community. She had out grown this facility, and needed more care than they were able to provide. There are not many aids in this community. My mother had an accident where she landed in the hospital. While she was there, they informed me they did not want her to return. This was no longer the community for us.

visited 4.16.14. not secure enough. no memory care.