Our experience with Brookdale (High Point) assisted living facility had been a nightmare from day one.
In short, I found Latisha Batts (director) shady, the staff nice but inept at dealing with Alzheimer's patients, their billing practices highly questionable, and corporate office absolutely unreachable.
They quoted us a low care rate, immediately raised it to the price you would find in a memory care facility. Never informed us that they would not be able to provide the level of care an Alzheimer's patient would require. For instance, the "Wellness Director" would call to complain about my mother's behavior and asked me to persuade my mom to take her medication when she refused. Brookdale's final act was to send my Mom to the hospital for a seizure via ambulance and evict her from Brookdale as she was being admitted to the hospital. When she was released that day and we were arranging to have her transferred to another facility, Latisha demanded we hire a one-on-one babysitter service, on top of all the money we pay them each month, to watch her until she left Brookdale. If we did not hire a service they were going to charge very high price to provide their own.
My mom has Alzheimer's, and all the issues that come along with that diagnosis. We paid Brookdale a high price per month to provide her care, but I was constantly put in the position to put out fires at a facility where their staff could not fulfill their duties.
Some key events:
- Cost before contract signing did not match cost after contract signing.
- They use block billing.
- Bills never matched what we were quoted and resolution was never completely provided.
- They sent my mother to the hospital for a seizure that had happened and evicted her in the same action.
- They are an assisted living facility but charged prices you would find at a memory care facility and did not on paper acknowledge that my mom had dementia.
- The facility would complain that my mom was difficult, but when I talked to the resident councilor they stated that my mom was at base line with no issues, why the discrepancy?
- They would call relatives to try to get them to resolve issues that arise when dealing with Alzheimer's patients.
- They did not respect POA and gave paperwork to and solicited direction from siblings that were not POA.
- When I made a surprise visit, her room smelled awful.
- They lost her mattress protective cover and did not notify anyone to have it replaced. I have no idea how long her mattress was unprotected -- the mattress was ruined.
We received a letter in the mail advising us that Brookdale currently has a class action lawsuit against them which alleges they purposely under-staff to maximize profits (look it up). If you don't decline certain areas of the contract when you sign, then you waive your right to dispute their care practices in court. I feel bad for the staff that have to do a difficult job without the support they need.
When we learned my mom had been evicted we contacted the hospital and was put in touch with a social worker. The social worker did tell us that Brookdale has been going down hill for quite a while now. We were referred to a new facility, where she is doing fine without an issue.
We are glad to be done with Brookdale. read more
