Atria

I looked at this facility in the memory care section. It appeared to be very nice. However after reading some of the reviews saying their loved one was asked to leave when she/he became worse I was concerned. After talking with the administrators I also found that they weren't interested in having anyone who might become agitated. This is strange to me as this is common among people with dementia. Therefore I was not interested in pursuing a spot for my husband.

Don't be fooled by appearances. When you go and visit everything is nice and pretty and everything seems so well run. BUT - - - after your loved one is actually living at Atria Riverdale for a while, you realize there is massive confusion in management. Our latest complaint is that Atria, since January 2014, has been charging an ADDITIONAL $475 to medicate the residents. What was formerly done as part of the monthly fee is now being done for an additional $5000 plus annually and the system is not working. Residents are forced to leave their apartments to be medicated, often waiting in crowded conditions amidst confusion for the person administering the prescriptions to actually show up. Sometimes you have hunt the med-tech down to actually GET your medication. Mom sometimes has had to wait HOURS for her medications and, worst of all, SHE HAS BEEN MIS-MEDICATED at least four times to our knowledge. She's even missed medications because no one followed up to make certain she received it. One time she was handed her night time medications in the morning (luckily she realized that before she agreed to take the pills) and the "staff" has trouble following her doctor's changes in her medications, continuing to give her older medicines after the doctor has changed her prescriptions. Basically she is paying someone else to medicate her while she has to manage her own supervision to make certain it's being done properly. I'm sure this is not a unique situation and luckily Mom is on top of things enough to make sure something serious doesn't happen to her. The attitude in "Wellness" (the euphemism used to call the nursing office) is not acceptable. Staff seems more concerned with their performance reviews than with the actual wellness of the people whose lives are entrusted to them. Their attitudes are at times argumentative, surly, and in general completely unprofessional and often, they don't return urgent attempts by the residents to reach them when there's a problem for several hours or even not at all. In all honesty, we are deeply disappointed and feel that we've been misled as to Atria Riverdale's ability to address, maintain and protect the quality of life of their residents. We've been asked several times by people if we would recommend Atria Riverdale and we've responded "emphatically not." The only reason Mom remains there is because of the many deeply satisfying friendships she has formed with members of the resident community and the truthfully high level of caring and commitment she receives from the aids. Her leaving now would be emotionally very stressful to her, but she finds the mismanagement and bungling by the administration at Atria Riverdale extremely stressful as well. Cheech and Chong could do a better job of running this place.

OVERWHELMING INCOMPETENCE THROUGHOUT. TOTAL LACK OF COMPASSION/RESPECT FOR RESIDENTS. Wanting to take a friend/resident to our 40th high school reunion, I called two weeks in advance and spoke to "life guidance", who had me first speak w/my friend to give her all the details. Life guidance person then directed me to speak w/the office as I would need to get approval from the resident's sister. I immediately called the office and was told that they would contact the sister and have the sister call me directly. Six days later when I still had not heard back, I called asking to speak w/life guidance and was told that she wasn't in that day. So, I called life guidance the next day and left a voice message saying I was very concerned that my friend would be waiting for me to take her at the appropriate time, but I still had not gotten approval...and to please call me. When I had still not received a call back two days later, I called and asked to speak with the "office". I was transferred to someone yelling "DINING ROOM. What? What? I can't hear you over the construction." (Sigh) Having had enough, I then called back and asked to speak w/the Director, who took down all info in a so soothing voice, apologized for what had transpired and said he'd get back to me w/an answer by the end of day. NOTHING, EVER....NO CALL BACK FROM EVEN THE DIRECTOR! Three days later, I had not choice but to go to the reunion w/out my friend, as I had never received permission to take her...although I had attempted to many times within a two week period and spoken to people from all care levels, including DIRECTOR. Who is the first person I saw AT the reunion? My friend ...accompanied by an aid. Sadly, the aid told me that my friend was telling everyone that I was picking her up to go to the reunion. The aid said no one knew anything about this, so she contacted the sister who said she would be thrilled for her sister to go to the reunion and she shouldn't miss it. The sister had never been contacted previously....despite all of my efforts/requests.

not appealing at all and expensive.

We did not have a good experience with this community at all. We had numerous issues with this facility, all of which left us with a very bad taste in our mouth. First off, while they said they were able to monitor her blood sugar level what that meant was that they could monitor her while she did the test, but not assist in any way. This wouldn't help at all if she got to the point where she could not do it herself. Another issue we had was that although they have an LVN, he was always very hard to get a hold of and I ended up spending quite a lot of time making sure documents from her doctor ended up in the right hands. They were very very slow in getting her room prepared. It took over a month, which we had to pay for, before she was able to move in, and they wouldn't even offer any sort of discount. They said we could bring her in the weekend we signed the lease and they would house her in a temporary room until her permanent room was ready, the lock on the door did not work and when I did get into the room, the doorknob fell off in my hand. I was locked in the room. The LVN never pay attention to the updated medication list that was sent to him. When we got there the medication list was still incorrect. We were told on the day that we were going to move her into the temporary room that my mom could not use her half guard rails for her bed without a doctor`s note. We should have been told this in the beginning. We ended up having to find some emergency respite care for her at a community that could handle her while Atria Hillsdale continued to try and get things ready. After all that happened we decided not to move my mom to this facility. We pay a month`s rent and a community fee and never got the apartment or services we were promised. They seemed to have some serious organizational difficulties, which may be due to their being seemingly understaffed with a very high rate of staff turnover. I would not recommend this facility to anyone.

They take in a lot of people who don’t belong here. The activities are very low level, very mundane. Before choosing a community, please do a lot of research about the community that you consider. The ratio of men to women is low.

Their staff is very - well - they shouldn’t be in a position to work with families. I was very unhappy with this community! My mother is in a much better community now! If you’re thinking about this community, please visit with them and really make sure it’s a good match for your loved one’s needs.

No, not interested. Hard to tell what it is like and seems they are pushing for their new memory care facility. I prefer my mother be with others that may also be in wheel chairs.

We were told that if my loved one was here for a short stay we'd be refunded a large portion of the fee, we had to pay the whole month up front, in addition to a deposit, and we ended up not nearly as much as we were promised back despite the stay only being 2 days. We only got a portion of the deposit back and no refund on the months rent. 2 days cost $3705. Outrageous. I don't know if we were lied to or if there was miscommunication between the sales staff and the administration, but our experience was not a good one.

Atria's Memory Care Facility seemed to be the best choice for us at the time, however, they promised a lot and did not deliver. They are not able to accommodate our mom's specialized needs, and we are now looking for another home.

I wish to share our experience with Evan Granucci, Executive Director at Atria Grand Oaks. I called him to find out if we could move Mom’s belongings on Saturday the 2nd of November as we both work during the week and Mom had just passed away on the 30th. We are also making the many arrangements that needed to be made when a family member passes. Mom was paid up to the 31st of October. Evan told us he would charge us two more days rent if we did not move her belongings by “close of day” Friday the 1st of November. We are hurt and stunned by his cold and over the top attitude. He treated us this way he will treat your families the same when it’s their time to move your things. I urge you to share your feelings with him and the management that writes his paycheck. In our opinion he should not receive another one from Atria. We had to stumble around in the dark in the back of the building to get Mom’s things loaded in a van. She has paid close to $250,000 to Grand Oaks for a small apartment that had a dangerous bump in the carpet that she tripped on and was never fixed. Both sinks we found had been leaking water for many months. Please check yours. And in return for never missing a rent payment Evan made the career choice to insult our Mother and her family. Don’t let him treat your families the way he did ours. Thank you.

My husband was thrown out after being there for two days. They didn't have the kind of staff they needed. It happened on a weekend and the person that was there to deal with things was the handy man because there was no staff.

This was not the place for me. Too many people all around. Parking was crazy. I call out side of the Atria Center City and cancel my appointment. Did not like area not all.

Cost prohibitive

To be truthful I did not like this place. It seemed dirty and very old. Also there was no outside areas for people to sit or walk around.

Being more upfront when applying I put her on there to be watched then they told me I had to come get her because she needed somebody to be with her 24/7 I feel like they wasted my money and my time. I told them everything.

We were told by [name removed] saying it was independent living but they offered assistance if needed. In the beginning we were handed all these papers showing the different types of assistance, but when the time came when I needed the assistance they just starred at me saying they could not help because it was independent living.

It's unsafe, irresponsible. They do not communicate. There is no planning involved. There is more concern about soap than the residents medication. My loved one was allowed to have soap in his shower until QA came. Then they locked all his belongings in a cabinet. This is not an environment to put your loved one in. There is no supervision. The quality of the staff is bad. They do not follow through on anything they say they are going to do. The caregivers are always on their phones or watching the television. They moved my loved one out of his room and into another one without even consulting us. No one seems to know what is going on. I think it's awful.

We were all signed up and at the last minute they decided they would not be able to care for my mother. I would tell others looking into any facility to make sure you talk to the nurses before you sign any papers.

Atria Harborhill as the worst experience our family could of ever possibly dealt with. Our loved one had dementia and the communication was completely non existent, it was the worst thing of all.