Atria

My Mother and I both moved into Atria Carmichael Oaks in the middle of the Virus on [date removed]. The staff who deliver meals, pickup trash, and perform housekeeping are all very nice. Unfortunately, there is no follow through by the management/sales staff to assure that you are satisfied. It is now [date removed], and I'm still waiting for maintenance staff to hang my television in my bedroom on the wall; and they haven't ever offered to hang my pictures. The thing that irks me the most, however, is I wrote an email to the "manager of the facility" over two weeks ago listing 3 issues and I still do not have a response. Lastly, the sales person indicated we would get a refund for the days we weren't allowed to move - that has yet to occur. They do, however, enforce staying inside your apartment. I would love to go for a walk, but so far, no one has offered to take me. They have taken my Mother, however, for walks around the building on 3 or 4 occasions.

It’s a pretty nice place to live but I have to say the residents there are a bit stuffy. It’s been really hard for my mom to make friends. The Atria of Willow Glen has much friendlier residents. I moved my mom from the Atria of Willow Glen because she needed to go into assisted living and the Willow Glen facility did have any openings. My mom hasn’t been happy since she has moved there but is trying to make the best of it.

Place is beautifully decorated like a first class hotel. Staff is generally very nice, and everything is immaculately clean and many activities if one is interested. However, the food is pretty bad for the money you are paying and there are two time slots for each meal because of overcrowding in the dining room, caused by the loss of tables to construct a ‘private dining area for guests’. In addition the food is strictly kosher, and Sabbath meals are generally deplorable....usually cold food, ie hard boiled eggs, cold cuts, etc. With the money they charge, the food should be 1st Class, but is just the opposite. Other AL facilities for the money have much better meals. The management and billing department are a real nightmare. Constant mistakes in bills which are never corrected. Had to reach out to Corporate office to try and get resolution. Still trying to straighten out issues. Plus, they raise the rent 9% every year....outrageous! Hope things improve, buts its not what I have heard from long term residents there.

I was quite happy and content here till I found they will prowl your room while you are out and confiscate anything they think you shouldn't have. I am a grown man with a sound mind and have no illegal substances or items in my room.

The Atria Lynbrook is an attractive facility, and my mom has made friends and is more active than she was when living alone in her apartment. The activities are OK, though not that many residents participate in various field trips out. Most of her activities are games which she generally organizes herself. While the facility is clean and orderly, the food and dining hall is a major complaint. Continuous personnel changes takes its toll on the quality of the food and service, and many days, my mom simply can't find something decent to eat. For most elderly people, it is important to provide decent quality protein in their diet, but at the Atria Lynbrook, giant deserts (pie with whipped cream on top) seem to be their specialty instead of a decent piece of meat, poultry or fish.

The food is bad in quality and preparation. It bothers me to pay so much for food I can’t eat. I find I have to do my own shopping and cooking.

I looked at Atria Park, and I thought that the community itself looked good. It was a nice place, and they seemed to have a lot going on for the residents within the community. However, I noticed an odor almost as soon as I walked in, so I did not feel comfortable with my loved one being there,

Generally, The Patrician is a decent place but since Merrill Gardens took ownership, cost cutting is very evident. Rooms are good and the lobby dining room area looks good as well. Activities are very uneven, poorly communicated and it feels like a low priority. Showing movies periodically in should be tablestakes. I think they should try a little harder Meal Service - The food is reasonably good, but there is a bottleneck somewhere in the service delivery. Either there is insufficient staff in the kitchen or in the dining room, but bottom line - it can take over half an hour to get your meal.

Rating based on being very pricey and upping prices often, but good community. Caregivers are mostly good. They have both many new workers each month (some good, some not) and around 1/2 are long-term workers, who are excellent. Community is nice. Activities are good. Family is not always informed if the loved one has medical incidence. (like dizzy or a fall) The loved one is expected to tell family. Atria is pricey and they raise the prices and may require you pay for room updates not fixed before you moved in. Atria corporate doesn't believe in Age in Place, but in profits. Local seems to have little say. There seemed to be a major corporate change in Nov. 2016. We have seen longer-term residents move out. Both rent and care level rates seem to be based how long you are there (or what they think you can pay). Our price per care level doubled after only a few months there and found out recently others who moved in only few months before us are paying 10% less. They tried to raise the rent 10% after couple months, but we objected. [Another new resident just left.]

We were not impressed with the cleanliness and the smells at the Atria Grapevine the day we took the tour. The community itself looked well-maintained on the outside and the staff was friendly and helpful with the questions we had, we just couldn't get past the odors that we could smell.

My Grandmother has lived in Sierra Pointe for about 5 years, transitioning from independent living to assisted living. Independent living and assisted living (called legacy by atria) use the same apartments, except assisted living (legacy) gets access to the health aides. There is also a separate enhanced care wing--generally occupied by residents who need more care than available on the independent/legacy side (as noted below, this happens a lot). Grandma was generally happy when she was on the independent side, except she felt that the quality of the food had deteriorated markedly since atria purchased Sierra Pointe. Honestly i find the fool acceptable, but it does seems all the residents complain about the food--I think many are used to higher end food--and the food has transitioned to ordinary. The main problem has been the very limited assistance available in assisted living. The caregivers are actually wonderful and caring--its just that there are not enough of them. For example, at night there is just one caregiver for the entire "legacy side"==thats just one caregiver for about 70 residents getting caregiving assistance. If one needs care at night, the wait is long! ! Grandma says that when she gets assistance, the caregiver is very nice, but her caregiver gets several beeps from other residents who need care while the caregiver is with her. So there is only time for very limited help. Sierra Pointe encourages residents who need more care to move to the "enhanced care" side---but this side requires residents to move out of their nice apartments to the very tiny apartments on the other side of the facility--once there, grandma would essentially be isolated from the community she has engaged with the last 5 years. She would not be allowed to enter the independent/legacy side, could not eat in the dining room with her friends, and could not participate in any of the activities currently available to her. Many residents in legacy/assisted living seem to pay for private caregivers in order to stay in their current apartments--this makes up for the limited care available, but the cost is massive (i.e., 8 hours a day of a personal health aide costs $6000 a month or more). I think Sierra Pointe could be a good choice for anyone who is independent. (As long as food is not a top priority). But I would be very cautious if your loved one needs assistance, as they are far too short on caregivers to provide sufficient assistance--especially at night. Even if your loved one just needs minimal assistance, keep in mind that your loved one's aging will not stop--and with time they will need more assistance--You will be faced with moving them to the tiny enhanced care apartments, or getting a very expensive private caregiver.

This community has seen some decline in the food since mom moved in. They have had some staff changes. The community is three floors and they offer a push button system for assistance. The staff are nice.

Hello, My mom has been living at the Atria for about 2 years. For the most part, the services they have provided her have been fair. Basic services such as; daily meals, emergency support and cleaning services are well covered. However, a basic service which has been a struggle for the past year, while paying rent of nearly 5k/month, has been hot water. My mom's apartment has not had consistent hot water for nearly 1 year. The Atria has attempted to resolve the issue based on constant pestering from my mom and other supportive relatives, but have failed to provide consistent hot water for nearly 1 year. Hot water is a basic service people paying rent are entitled to, and ample time has been provided to resolve this issue. Thanks. [Removed]

A family member recently signed a residency agreement with Atria. It is a safe, clean, and friendly community. It is very pricey when compared to other A.L. facilities with similar features. This is primarily due to the fact that they price care levels separate from rent pricing and don't hold themselves accountable for demonstrating the hours of care provided / for the level of fees charged. In this pricing model, residents inevitably overpay based on the assistance "level" your loved one requires. This is a very arbitrary calculation and pricing method. The level and cost is dependent on the activities the resident needs assistance with, regardless of the effort expended by the aides. For this reason, we will likely look at alternate facilities this upcoming year.

Management does not have a handle on what aides do.

This community could use a lot of improvements, they are very under staffed and have poor care for there patients because of it. My mother would often wait long periods of time for the staff to attend to her needs and would receive cold food a lot of the time because there was not enough servers on the schedule. I have expressed my concern to the administration many of times and the problem never has seemed to get fixed.

My experience with Atria center city is that the pricing information given me when I signed up was deceptive in that costs that were supposed to be included in the rent (for example, export services for my Mom who is in a wheel chair) were supposed to be included in the rent and not factored into the "personal services" that were a separate charge. Although eventually her personal service charges were reduced, it was because of my prodding. I think if Mom did not have an advocate that she would just continue to be charged much more than was represented to me when I first signed the lease. Also the aides are often very slow in responding to requests for transport or other assistance.

Atria Sunnyvale is a nice, remodeled property, but feels very corporate, much like a hotel. I have had respite stays at other AL facilities that felt much more omey, welcoming, and attentive. There was little in the area of a warm welcome, and virtually no send-off. I was rarely checked in on. The bed had a liner on it (I assume for potential incontinence) that caused the sheets to slip off easily, and made me sweat. This could have been avoided by a simple question of whether or not it was needed, or a linen/soft liner between the plastic and the sheet. The TV was very, very small. Little things like needing captions on my TV were requested, but not tended to by staff, and when attempted, there was no communication as to status (a visiting family member finally figured it out). The shower handle lever was very hard to operate, which I mentioned to staff more than once, but was never fixed/made easier to operate. There was no seat in the shower, which seems like a safety issue in an assisted living facility. At times when I pressed my alarm for assistance none came, or came after at least a half hour after pressing the button. At one time a LOUD fire alarm went off, and there was no explanation as to why (no communication or assurance by staff, just them running around). The food quality at the restaurant was average (I have had much better restaurant-quality food at other AL facilities), and more than once my order was incorrect (wait staff never wrote down orders). I did appreciate the toiletries provided by staff upon check-in. Thank you for requesting this review.

Essentially positive experience as newcomer but: There was a lack of information about many of the where's and whys of atrial operation. I had to learn too many things such as putting out my laundry, etc from other renters. A brochure would have been so helpful and comforting. Also waiting a half hour or more to be just waited on in the dining room is not cool. I think we deserve better. On the plus side, the staff are all friendly and helpful as are the people living here. In summary, generally ok assessment but can we'll stand improvement.

We are very disappointed in this facility. We highly recommend that you read chapters 3, 4 and 5 in BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande. Atria is mentioned on page 100. Chapter 3 details the difficulties the elderly face in moving into such a residence. Chapter 4 talks about the level of services offered by many of these residences. Chapter 5 relates what could be, but what only exists in a tiny fraction.