NIGHTMARE AT PORTER PLACE As a nurse for 20 years, I must admit that Porter Place is the most poorly ran facility I have ever encountered. I refuse to allow another family to go through what my mother and I experienced at Porter Place without A WARNING. My mother WENT THROUGH HELL and dealing with the staff took up so much of my time and effort as a nurse and her Advocate that I felt as if I worked at the facility. ADMINISTRATORS AND LACK OF OVERSIGHT: The top administrators, the executive director, Yosanne W.; the director of nursing, Kathyrn P.; and the ADON, Charli M. are not committed to providing quality care, nor do they have the experience and knowledge of what that actually looks like. I know this because after numerous complaints on the lack of quality care my mother was receiving, the subpar care continued over a period of months. After I placed a camera into my mother's room, I found out that the lack of care was worse than I thought. The caregivers were not even providing basic care to my mom. They were not cueing or assisting her with her morning ADLs - washing her face or brushing her teeth. Oftentimes she was not receiving her showers or even asked if she wanted one. I was nice enough to label my mother's dresser drawers to make it easy for the staff to help Mom get dressed in the morning. Yet, some caregivers omitted her bra, wig and some days her socks. When I repeatedly mentioned this to the DON, her response to me was, "Well, I have relayed this information to the staff, it is on them to follow through!" Say what?!? You mean to tell me that a person can come here, and get paid for not doing their job? Of course, I received no response. I have also witnessed the caregiver staff walk around with ear pods in their ear, listening to music, talking on the phone, arguing and cursing to whomever is on the phone while working. I have had to tell one young lady to turn her music off as she had it blaring on her phone while trying to help get my mother dressed. HIGH TURNOVER ALERT: The staff turnover rate is extremely high. As a nurse who has managed a facility myself, huge staff turnover is a telltale sign that something is wrong with the administration. My mother lived at Porter Place for 14 months and 90% of the staff has changed multiple times, including the top administrators mentioned above. Yosanne and Kathyrn are new and Charli recently left the facility. This very expensive facility will hire anyone off the street to work as a caregiver, mostly "unqualified and with no experience." In fact, Porter Place does not require their caregivers to be Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) which is ridiculous. Families pay a premium for their loved one's care and they hire high school grads and other young people with no experience and provide them with 3 days of "on computer" training to take care of our loved ones. Dementia/Alzheimer's residents require specialized care from employees who are specifically trained to handle different types of behaviors; and, who are capable of patience and professionalism. Most of the nurses are new LPN grads and PRN or as needed nurses. The few good nurses they had when we first moved in, left. When asked why did they leave, their response was they could not take it anymore. The top administrators' haphazard way of running a facility is bound to run the best employees away. PLEASE BE ADVISED: Porter is very expensive as they have multiple levels of care. If families are paying $8,000 - $10,000 a month, we deserve to have qualified and vetted personnel working with our loved ones. I found out through another nurse that Porter Place doesn't even bother to check references of their newly hired staff. She was hired on the same day as her interview. This is one of the reasons for the huge staff turnover. They will hire anyone who needs a job and when that person finds something better, they quit. LACK OF CONTINUITY: Every morning, my mother had a different caregiver in her room. There is no continuity of care and to make it worse, the regional manager, Nick T. told me it doesn't matter because they have dementia. LEVELS OF CARE OR A HOLE IN YOUR POCKET? Porter will accept your loved one at a lower level of care to get you moved in, and in a few months, they will go up on the level of care claiming that your loved one is requiring more of their staffs' time. They use a point system. The more points the more money and it is all subjective as the ADON or DON decides how many points to give your loved one. It does not mean more staff is on the schedule, only that your loved one requires more attention or redirection. For example, your loved one may have to be told to come and eat dinner 3-4 times as opposed to one time. They will use any excuse to charge more money. The point system is designed to nickel and dime you into the poor house. I will try to continue my review. read more

Below you will see my previous review of Porter Place before Tamika, Laporsha and Charli left. Since their departure, this place has turned to garbage. I loved this place for my mom before. She had exceptional care from so many and all management and staff knew her and me. Now you walk in and it's like night and day. There are still some phenomenal staff who should not go unappreciated (Bre, Porcha, Dell, Mercedes, Alexis, Dawn, Tamika, Mariah, Kiana, Keesha, Aneidra, Jomiece, Brittany, John - spelling could be wrong and I apologize). These people will go above and beyond. As far as the others - it's a paycheck and their behavior shows that. They don't care about the residents or the family members. My Mom was on hospice and her final days there were miserable for her and me. I spent day and night to be with her. The lack of compassion and humanity is overwhelming. The lack of professionalism is mind blowing. "Attitude reflects leadership" and let me tell you from personal experience, it shows! I would never recommend this place to anyone and it's heartbreaking because this place used to be a place of peace for me, knowing my Mom was so well taken care of. It changed. It showed. I hope they learn from this and make the appropriate changes for the resident's sake and their families. Original post...how things changed..... Where do I begin on how incredible this place is. My Mom started to decline and I had to make a tough decision on what to do next. I met with Kelly to go over options and tour the facility and attended a free support group for families at the facility. It was a perfect match from day one with Kelly, Brittany up front (now promoted), and meeting with Tamika during our in home assessment. I cannot say enough about Nurses Bri, Keesha and Aneidra. Porsha is a gold star who is always there; whether on a unit or up front. Dawn up front is my son's favorite person to see and she always has a special treat for him. Tori has gone out of her way to make my Mom comfortable on numerous occasions and Danielle (god love her) always ensures my Mom's room is clean and picked up. Those not named are such as special as the others but I'd be writing all day. If you're looking for a place where staff truly care - this is it. Also, Laporsha - thank you for stepping up into your head role. You're killin it! read more

Absolutely horrible. The care is ok, but the place is run by a bunch of con artists. She has been there less than a year and has already had her rate changed 3 times. They state it's because she needs more care, but is at the same level of care as when she went in. In addition, they lost her wheelchair when she went to the hospital and refuse to pay for a new one. You cannot get a straight answer out of any of them, they just keep talking in circles of lies. read more

Porter Place is hands down the best in the business of taking care of loved ones with this horrible disease read more

Porter Place Memory Care - My mother after a year @porter place. I am not understanding the bad reviews. - Assisted Living Facilities Near Me - Tinley Park, Illinois

I have stopped in at different times very frequently. Residents are always engaged, the food that is served is fresh cooked, and a caregivers are amazing. This facility is absolutely managed beautifully. Just found out that they won awards, I can understand why. read more

Recently visited a friends mom at this facility. Everyone was very welcoming. It was very clean and appears to be very organized. The caregivers were sweet and monitoring everyone I could see. We played bingo as another group played table volleyball. My friends mom is very happy there and spent a lot of our time together telling me about the food. She raved about her lunch of chicken with a champagne sauce. It made me feel so good to see her so happy and taken care of. I only hope that when I need a facility I end up here, I want to play more bingo! read more

No staff. The front desk girl always on the phone with her boyfriend. Disrespectful when answering phones. No manager gets back to you when you call read more

Poor care,poor mgt,poor staff and all those poor residents are not being taken care of Staff have bad attitude always setting and on there phones or none are around,they don't do anything with the residents like most places do ,the activities they have is more like a school class and most of time she is watching residents,personal hygiene poor,food nasty 99 percent of employees not caring and loving there with mgt it's all about the check,Which it is suppose to be about the residents Each and everyone,Whomever owns this company needs to wake up and start seeing what is actually taking place in your facility,What if this was your mom or dad or family member or loved one,would you want them to be mistreated ignored not cared for or taken care of as they should be every one of them read more

My mom was here for about 6 months. This place is very expensive you would assume good quality of care. The care was horrible. The activity director hardly ever did the scheduled activities, she was either out smoking , giving tours or playing cards with the two more with it residents (while the other residents just sat). The staff is incredibly lazy and literally sits most of the day doing nothing. They are clueless about interacting with the residents. Do not put a loved one in this facility!! The entire staff from top down is lazy and uncaring. read more

We moved my mom here after she was receiving poor care at another facility. Communication was amazing during the transition, and we were able to get my mom moved quickly. Before she moved in I had the opportunity to meet with administration to discuss my mom's care. My mom was already on hospice and needed a very high level of assistance, and the staff was conscientious about making sure that her needs were met as well as offering suggestions and strategies to improve her care plan. Staff engaged her in outings and activities at her ability level despite the severity of her condition. When I came for unannounced visits, my mom was always clean and in the common area instead of just being left alone in her room. My mom recently passed away, and the staff went above and beyond to make her comfortable during her final week. Staff frequently visited her room-some even coming in after their shifts or on days off to visit with her. It was obvious that although she lived there for a short time, the staff genuinely cared about her and the residents. Highly recommend. read more