If your loved one needs minimal, this is the spot to go for price and services. The building is constantly understaffed and rarely meets state-required staffing ratios. They have been promising for over a year to get everyone's CPR and First Aid up to date and have not. This means a lot of "nursing staff" who have not fulfilled the requirements of receiving their licensure. The corporate headquarters cares about the immediate bottom line and nothing else. During the COVID outbreak they charged every resident $3 per day for masks- masks they never received. Their reasoning was that it was for staff masks and they never even offered to provide any kind of masks whatsoever to residents or their family members. Family members and other visitors were charged for masks as well. The worst is that they never really provided masks for staff either. When they did provide masks, staff were told to label it and keep it for a week- cheap 3 ply masks, 40 hours a week- but then they never replaced the former mask. In general, only a couple of people even have access to the supply closet so if something runs out and that person is not there, the staff and resident are just SOL. The bottom line here is that corporate cares about the money and not the residents. When they decided too many residents were eating in their rooms (9), the regional operations manager said to tell those residents to either come down to the dining room or they would not eat. The regional operations manager has also turned down, time and again, turned down resident requests for various things. The residents at the location can also not have their food preferences met because it is not made by the one on the ground who knows what they want. As a result, they not only generally dislike the thawed and/or heated food which is the only allowable resource per corporate from GFS, but no actual cooking takes place. Food is often a complaint from the residents because they want different food, but due to the lack of resident-centered care from corporate, the poor dietary manager can do nothing about it because corporate doesn't care. At other times, Memory Care has been put on the back burner for activities because, in the words of corporate, "they don't know the difference anyway". Also, if you are looking for activities in the building, good luck. It is not that they don't exist, it is that corporate does not want them seen. This is also the reason the whole place looks so institutional. They want it to be run like a hotel and every time residents or staff point out a shortcoming, they say a hotel does not do it that way. Well, quality hotels also generally don't have people living there for years on end. You could complain, but who to? An ED said if they saw residents with the Ombudsman's phone number one more time (which is required by state law BTW), that the person who gave it to them would be fired. (In Paramount's defense, that ED is no longer there, but the directive always trickles down from above.)
As for staff, again, good luck. Turnover everywhere is high, but it is very high here. Staff are very overworked and underpaid. You can easily find the job at every other location in the vicinity making, on average, $1-$3 more an hour. Put in your notice? Well, be prepared for the company to say they accepted your resignation early and then mail you a letter saying you were terminated so they do not have to pay out any of your PTO. Then, when you leave, corporate will suddenly going from saying how great you are to how awful you are and how this had been planned for a long time. In addition, you get to deal with micromanaging with way too many meetings which could have been an email so they can dictate every little move and depleting the time you actually have to accomplish anything. Of course, accomplishing is not their real goal anyway (refer to the above uncaring resident attitude). If you are just looking for a job where you can go in, punch the clock, and leave angry and feeling abused daily, then this is the job for you. If you want to make a positive impact on the lives of others, even out of your own time and effort going above and beyond, find somewhere else that cares because you will get burnt out or phased out in a hurry. No one wants to make additional effort as a result of the ones in charge- corporate- only being driven by the almighty dollar. I have never experienced a place with a more toxic work environment fraught with gossip, cutting management off at the knees, and abusive language which leaves staff feeling unfulfilled and helpless to do good things.
Best of luck in the search, whether it be a place for a loved one or a job! read more
