Vitality Living

My grandmother is a resident at St. Gabriel's in Murrells Inlet, SC. We have brought our concerns to their staff and management numerous times, and each time we are "yessed" and things are ok for a few days. Then things go back to uncaring and neglectful. Here is a partial list of our concerns: 1. Resident was prescribed a pureed diet by a doctor. She ONLY receives broth on a daily basis....once in awhile they will give her pudding or applesauce. Her nutritional needs are not being met. 2. Resident needs assistance walking, even short distances like from her bed/chair to her bathroom. Assistance is almost always severely delayed...often by 30-90 minutes. The facility claims their "response time" is under 10 minutes, but that time is the time it takes for an employee to come to the resident to ask what she needs and then that employee leaves to get the appropriate person to address the need. Resident's needs are not met for 30-90 minutes. 3. Due to Covid19 safeguards, the facility will not transport the resident to necessary medical appointments, yet they are allowing new residents to enter the facility.

Terrible ! Would not recommend

If you value your life do not be a patient here. In large part this is a dumping ground for people who are beyond help and have no where else to go. Dementia patients are mixed in with short term rehab patients. No doctors on site. All patient care is provided by one nurse, a bunch of aides many of whom struggle to speak English and a couple of physical herapy people. During my wife's 4 day stay the floor was never cleaned, her sheets were not changed, the floor boards under her bed were missing, with mrsa in a leg wound her bandages were discarded in the waste basket, she was not kept in isolation and care providers did not wear protective gowns and gloves, no iv was used to administer the antibiotic, her admittance questionnaire was not completed until 2 hours before she left and a treatment plan was never developed. Always physically inspect any rehab facility beforehand.

Can only speak for the rehab portion. Not impressed and would never recommend this place. Not even 24 hours after my grandmother was in the hospital, I visited her and she looked absolutely horrible. She was lethargic and week, could barely stay awake, and her skin was incredibly pale. The nurse refused to believe that she looked bad, and flat out argued with me. Now, my grandmother lives with me and I see on a daily basis. I am her primary caretaker, so I am pretty certain of when she looks ill. On top of that, I am also an ICU and ER nurse, so I definitely know when a patient is sick. He told me that she has looked that pale said she came in, which was not true. He was very dismissive, aggressive, and rude to me, eventually refusing to talk to me because "I am not on the facesheet.' I hit the call button because she had had a bowel movement, and I had managed to get her cleaned up and changed before anyone had even realize that the light was on. She had had to black stools throughout the day, which no one had bothered to alert the nurse to. She ended up being severely hypotensive and anemic with a blood count approaching critical levels. Clearly, the nurse in question who argued with me and said "we are trained to assess our patients" needs to hone his skills. She ended up with a severe diaper rash (which the nurse also argued with us about), and it took us staying on the staff to even get her bathed. She has been there one month and has really made very little progress as far as getting back to her previous level o functionality; her insurance is requiring her to be discharged because she somehow meets criteria for it - she can't even transfer to the bed or toilet safely and is unsteady on her feet. Makes me wonder what is in her medical record. So she is being discharged today, because she walked 150 ft once, and since she's walking soooooo well, they only arranged for her to have a wheelchair, no walker. The even knew she would have to get up stairs to get into the home. Zero effs are given as to how their patients/residents will function once they leave. Not sure how they earned high marks for their "skilled rehab," but coming from a healthcare professional, it is seriously lacking and should be avoided.

Staff was rude, inconsiderate, and lazy. I would stay away!

Okay, first off, my mom was not in this place, my father was. You are not qualified to assist people with dementia. With your facility it is all about the money. I am not really sure why my father was asked to leave, according to the reports they could not handle his memory issues---which according to your description of this place, this is your job. Furthermore, when we fired the director's husband as the realtor to sell my father's house, we believe this caused the difficulty of handling my father. I visited him several times, and unless he was to go on an outing that we had to pay additional monies for (already paying $5000 a month) he had no activities to speak of. I will never recommend this place to anyone, ever. You need to hire people qualified to work there, people who know what they are dealing with, and people who are educated in the memory loss arena. One last thing, the straw that broke the camel's back was when you required us to hire someone to babysit him at night time!!! Sundowning, folks!! Are you kidding me!! Proved to me, then and there, you were complete uneducated idiots, and nothing more than a business taking seniors monies.

No dining room manager last night. Why do you state there is always a manager in the dining room when there is not.

The servers constantly forget parts of the meal you order.

This is really just assisted living with a locked door in the memory care unit. The layout is not conducive to easy navigation for your memory impaired loved one. The staff is ill trained in memory care and some were so uncaring, made my dad cry a lot. If I hadn't bathed my dad, he would have smelled bad all the time. They would put clean clothes on him over soiled skin and never brushed his teeth. Lack of supervision at night is appalling. I stayed over night several times before we moved dad.

Comment: All seemed well when my parents moved in to Atria Evergreen Woods. My mom was in independent living and dad in memory care. The staff in memory care was very kind to both my parents. However, under their care he developed raw wounds on his groin area. This led to his being aggressive when being cleaned. To be fair, he was on medication for aggressiveness but until the wounds appeared he wasn't a problem. Long story short they decided he needed psychiatric care to change his meds (no one mentioned the groin wounds) Rather than allowing the medication change time to take affect, they Baker Acted my father against his family's strenuous objections. They put an 85 year old alzheimer's patient in a psych hospital not capable of caring for patients with memory issues. Dad had no idea why he was moved, couldn't communicate with the staff and they only allowed my mother to say goodbye to him because they needed her to give them dad's information. For better or worse, he was transferred to a regular hospital the next day due to pnemonia that wasn't noticed by the Cedar Wood staff. The hospital psychiatrist thankfully rescinded the Baker Act but the damage was done. Dad stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks and never really recovered from the whole experience. He died 6 weeks later. When he left Cedar Wood for the Baker Act, he was walking and eating his meals with assistance. When I made it to the hospital 2 days later, he was barely conscious. ALSO.. the hospital staff were the ones to point out to me his severe groin sores. They said no wonder he was aggressive. It took the hospital all of the two weeks to get his sores healed. Those were a result of the care he received at Cedar Wood and his resulting bad behaviour was treated by Baker Acting him. On another cautionary note, upon his release from the hospital, I moved both parents closer to me. However, due to the Baker Act on my father's record, it was almost impossible to find a care facility to take him. As for the independent care side, it was nice for mom but when she became ill with a flu that quarrantined several areas of the facility,t hey did not care for her as I was led to believe they would. They would bring her breakfast then not check on her until 7 that night. When I called to see what the protocol was for independent care when the person got sick, I was told that they would be assisted with meals for a few days, that's why living there was so great. I had to call the marketing director of the facility to get them to bring my mom a drink and soup, two days in a row. So, it is a nice place to live until your relative develops an issue.

Deplorable! Often management or supervisors are not on hand to oversee patients/residents care. You can leave numerous messages to have mgt. call you back regarding your family members' care and the phone call is never returned. My father has been there 13 months (too long) and his overall care has been unthinkable. For the last three weeks I have gone to visit him only to find him in bed, dirty, nasty diaper (twice with no diaper at all) and filthy bedding. Two weeks ago ants were in his bed when I removed the bedding to clean him up. Last week I was told he "probably" had C-Diff. And you wonder why? I have called the GA Dept of Community Health and reported this facility to them. The Fulton County Humane Society takes better care of their animals. I did not choose this facility. My brother did, strictly for convenience. This facility does not deserve a star....

My grandmother was at Aspen for 1 year. At first, it wasn't bad. Now it is AWFUL!! The new management is pitiful!! If you want to pay a lot of money for your loved one to just exist, then this is the place. They offer no encouragement for personal hygiene, never lets you know that meds are running low (med assistance cost extra-not worth $375 a month), they wash her laundry and most of her items do not return. She actually ends up with other peoples laundry. Watch your invoices for reoccurring beauty shop charges that you paid the month or 2 before. The residents wait a long time for their meals to be served. The staff is not knowledgeable on when it is urgent to call the family. The furniture in the sitting area is urine stained and smells. This is just not a good place!! Needless to say we have found a better place for her and it's cheaper!

My father has been in Aspen Village about 5 months and I agree that it definitely isn't what was promised on the initial tour. Extremely disappointed in their assistance with hygiene. Just getting him a haircut on a consistent basis has been ridiculous. Med techs are very nice and accommodating but management is non responsive. Phone calls not returned and absolutely no assistance when we've approached them about services and assistance. Would strongly recommend looking around before putting a loved one here. By the way, it isn't cheap either.

My 87 year old aunt has been here three months. It is not what was promised. The kitchen staff are excellent. Aids not at all carrying. cleaned once a week? Very light cleaning. I'd look for somewhere else. It is beautiful and if you don't need assistance it would be fine.

I would give a 0 if I could. DO NOT let them deceive you like they did me. They seem nice and caring but they are not qualified to do the job that needs to be done. My mother fell at 5am and was bruised and cut up pretty badly and no one contacted me. I visited that afternoon and discovered the bruises and she sat there all day in pain. I had to call an ambulance to come get her. The incident was not documented and the administration did not even know about it. At the ER we discovered she has an infection in her leg and a kidney infection. Her leg was very swollen and her support stockings were on wrong for the last time. This was not the first incident. For a business of this nature to take the money they take, there should be NOTHING like this happening. VERY UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

My MIL was at The Hearth in Hendersonville for a year. We added Comfort Care (12 mo later) at an additional expense, which was horrible. Response time is well over 25 min. when she pressed her pendant button. We also added Hospice, which was much better, however it still wasn't meeting her needs. Within two weeks we moved her out. The food is all SYSCO (prepared). It's horrible and extremely limited. The nurse/health care service is not timely or responsive, and housekeeping is not good either. I would not recommend this place to anyone. There is always a Help Wanted sign out front, now I know why. I thought I selected a great place for my MIL; I wouldn't want to live there. We have since moved her to NHC and her health has actually improved. Although more costly, it's worth it.

When my sister chose Atria Springdale for a short term trial of a few weeks, she was under a very intense short window of time to get my mother placed. We were trying to determine if this was what My Mother needed or could she continue to live at home with assisted care. The decision had to be made over a week and both my sister and I live out of state. The other disadvantage we faced was that our family members who live in Louisville were entirely against the decision we had made in placing our Mom in Atria Springdale. The family made it quite difficult on both my sister and I as well as on the staff at Atria Springdale. All of that taken in account, what we really needed was real support from the management of Atria. What we received instead was little to no support. My mother received little to no care, her room was a mess and never cleaned, of which we have photos. I made several calls to what I understood to be the care provider for my mother and those calls were not returned. I believe that we thought we were buying one type of care, when in fact we were buying a much less supportive type of care. My sister paid an initial $3200.00 for the first month of care. Atria has since demanded an additional $3,000.00 in payment, which is completely out of line with the type of care my mother was receiving. I still am unclear to the different types of care. When it became clear within a two week period that we needed to remove our mother from Atria I called Atria from my home in Colorado. The very first time I spoke by phone, from Colorado, to the director of the facility regarding taking my Mom out of Atria, the director told me that she would bring in her legal department to assess whether we could remove our Mother, which I understood to be a veiled threat of legal action and that our mother had no legal right to leave the facility. This was literally the first time I had spoken with the director. After speaking with our family attorney he made it clear to me that our mother could leave at any time she chose to leave, though the director was implying that my mother had no legal right to leave or us to remove her. The point I am trying to make here is that from the beginning this was understood to be a trial, and when we wished to end the trial time period, Atria made it very difficult to do that. At a time when we needed transparency and support in making these difficult decisions, we did not get that from Atria. Because of this very disappointing and costly two weeks, I could never give Atria Springdale Louisville East a good recommendation.

Beware - your loved one could be kicked out for exhibiting typical Alzheimers behavior, and you will lose your exorbitant move in fee

All seemed well when my parents moved in to Atria Evergreen Woods. My mom was in independent living and dad in memory care. The staff in memory care was very kind to both my parents. However, under their care he developed raw wounds on his groin area. This led to his being aggressive when being cleaned. To be fair, he was on medication for aggressiveness but until the wounds appeared he wasn't a problem. Long story short they decided he needed psychiatric care to change his meds (no one mentioned the groin wounds) Rather than allowing the medication change time to take affect, they Baker Acted my father against his family's strenuous objections. They put an 85 year old alzheimer's patient in a psych hospital not capable of caring for patients with memory issues. Dad had no idea why he was moved, couldn't communicate with the staff and they only allowed my mother to say goodbye to him because they needed her to give them dad's information. For better or worse, he was transferred to a regular hospital the next day due to pnemonia that wasn't noticed by the Cedar Wood staff. The hospital psychiatrist thankfully rescinded the Baker Act but the damage was done. Dad stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks and never really recovered from the whole experience. He died 6 weeks later. When he left Cedar Wood for the Baker Act, he was walking and eating his meals with assistance. When I made it to the hospital 2 days later, he was barely conscious. ALSO.. the hospital staff were the ones to point out to me his severe groin sores. They said no wonder he was aggressive. It took the hospital all of the two weeks to get his sores healed. Those were a result of the care he received at Cedar Wood and his resulting bad behaviour was treated by Baker Acting him. On another cautionary note, upon his release from the hospital, I moved both parents closer to me. However, due to the Baker Act on my father's record, it was almost impossible to find a care facility to take him. As for the independent care side, it was nice for mom but when she became ill with a flu that quarrantined several areas of the facility,t hey did not care for her as I was led to believe they would. They would bring her breakfast then not check on her until 7 that night. When I called to see what the protocol was for independent care when the person got sick, I was told that they would be assisted with meals for a few days, that's why living there was so great. I had to call the marketing director of the facility to get them to bring my mom a drink and soup, two days in a row. So, it is a nice place to live until your relative develops an issue.

When we were looking for care options for our loved one we were very explicit with Atria about the severity of our loved ones movement difficulties and that we thought she may not qualify here, and they said they'd do an evaluation to make sure she was appropriate for the community. After the evaluation they said it wouldn't be a problem. Within a few days of her moving in they called us and said we'd need to bring in private help since her care level was too high. We had to pay exorbitant fees for a few weeks while we searched for another community to place her in, in addition to the large entry fee charged by Atria. After speaking with a few social workers we learned that this behavior is a pattern for Atria Springdale, and they actually warn families away from them for this specific reason. So be very careful about trusting the results of their evaluations.