First of all, this is being written 4 months after my MIL's death. I have had time to process. This review is based on facts, not my opinion. Secondly, my MIL lived at Sunrise La Costa for 8 1/2 years. It started going down hill about 2019. As bad as we saw it, Sunrise was her home and elderly people don't like change. We couldn't convince her to move.
Having said that, I wouldn't recommend Sunrise to my worst enemy. My mother-in-law lived there 8 1/2 years. What we saw occurred over years, not a short period of time.
In 8 1/2 years, her room was never painted, recarpeted and nothing was done to maintain the bathroom. They recently remodeled the common area, but if you go into a room, the carpet is worn, stained and probably smells. Weekly cleaning consisted of vacuuming the middle of the room and a quick wipe down of the bathroom counter.
Her care levels would be increased (along with her monthly fees), and we were not notified until after it occurred and I got a higher bill. When I called to inquire about why the bill was higher, they said 'we talked to your mother-in-law. She agreed to the new care'. As the responsible bill paying person I should've been made aware of levels of care and costs. At one point, they overcharged me $8000 for a one month bill. I called to disputed it, I was told it would be taken care of. Then my bill next arrived. The overcharge hadn't been taken care of and a day later, I got a letter in the mail saying I was being sent to collections. Sent to collections over their billing mistake! Two days, 5 phone calls to Sunrise, none of which were returned and finally a phone call to corporate the mistake was cleared up.
There was only bus service for drs appointments on Wednesdays. My MIL's cardiologist wasn't in the office on Wednesday, so she had to change doctors.
The staff, especially after Covid was a revolving door. I never knew who to talk to. I would call talk to one billing person or Care staff, a week later I would call us to talk to the same staff, and I was told they were gone. This happened time and time again.
As far as care? When we were paying $10,000/ month, we'd expect decent care. My mother-in-law fell at one point. I was called. I was told of her fall and I was told they were taking care of it. My daughter happened to visit my mother-in-law five days later. My daughter called and asked if I knew my mother-in-law hadn't left her room in five days because she was in so much pain. The staff never called to tell me this. I drove down from Los Angeles, took my mother to the doctor and found out she had a fractured pelvis and cracked shoulder blade . On her last illness, she called me at 9:30 in the morning. She said she didn't feel good, she'd been throwing up for two days, she had been refusing her medication for two days. She had told four staff members that she didn't feel good, no one did anything. It wasn't until I called and talked to the head nurse that they looked at her. I asked the head nurse why they didn't do anything for her. His response was that she never complains. I asked if she never complains, why wasn't she heard or listen to when she did complain. He had no answer.
When we learned of my MIL's final illness and she was moved to hospice. No one called from Sunrise to check in on her or us. When I called to tell the director she wouldn't be coming back, there were no words of sympathy or care. All I heard was the room had to be emptied in 30 days. I know the director had only been there a few months, but my MIL was a long term resident. I got more words of sympathy and concern when I called to cancel her Mastercard!
Other Sunrises may be different. My experience with Sunrise La Costa is that they are a money making operation, not the family atmosphere they advertise. read more
