Bickford Senior Living

I toured Bickford of Rockford during my search for an Assisted Living facility for my loved one. This facility was so dark and dreary. As soon as you walk in, all you can smell is urine. The dining hall was very dirty (tables, floors, etc). Even the conference room table was gross and sticky, with food particles stuck on the table. The cost is high for just a basic room style apartment and that's without any assistance from staff. For that kind of money, you should be living in a Condo.

My mother has Alzheimer's and was given a false diagnosis of seizures so she could be medicated in order to not wander in their memory care unit after she was found to have eaten feces. She ended up have vertigo and multiple falls as a result of this medication. She also had elevated liver enzymes. All of this was possible since they didn't want to hire more people to watch and care for the residents of this facility. I want to warn anybody of placing their loved one in this facility. This place looks nice but predators run this place.

We waited for at least ten minutes to be let in, person we met with was more concerned with me putting down a deposit to secure an apartment instead of Mom's needs. I will be taking Bickford off my list.

Worst possible mixture of unprofessional staff and disorganized management. They are known to be the worst in town. Do not trust them. Food is horrible, main room smells. Room is tiny dingy horrible place. Bed in nothing more than a smelly cot. Overpriced.

If your loved one needs memory care continue your search. This is not the place for them. They are truly understaffed and the patients care suffers because of it. It is very costly to stay here and not worth it. No social stimulus or activities to get them to enjoy life. Lack of respect for cleaning the rooms. Too many negatives to address. Huge staff turnover.

If you are able to take care of yourself fine, if you can't don't go here. They didn't clean my loved one like they should have. The staff communicated well; however, their follow through needs to be improved.

Looks nice but not interested in a community/buy in fee. The location was also the furthest from my home.

The tour itself was awesome. The woman who led it was just an amazing, beautiful person and kind from the heart. She's still been in touch with me a couple of times since. She's just very sweet. But the facility needs help with appearance. I think it’s a downer. They could do paint and carpet and just clean it up. I didn’t feel like it would be a good influence on my loved one's mood and state of mind. I wanted him to have light and bright and cheerful. Because of that, I would not recommend them.

I placed my mom at Bickford in January thinking I made the right choice. I told them my mom needed memory care and they insisted she was assisted living. After one day, they told me I had to move her to the memory care wing. When I first saw the wing, it smelled if urine and was not as nice as the area they show you when you visit. In essence, it was bait and switch. But it gets much worse...my mom incurred many skin tears that were never cared for unless I reported them. She fell out of bed, had a broken finger, severe hematoma on her arm and they never could explain how these things happened. The management claims they run a good place but they never resolved anything. In addition, my moms room smelled multiple times due to dirty laundry sitting too long. The food is terrible Without hospice tending to my mom , the nursing staff is clueless. I ended up moving my mom home as I had no choice. Do not be fooled by the appearance of Bickford as the facility and staff are inept.

The community was nice but the rooms were not furnished. The food was about average and the community was clean. I was lead to believe there would be onsite physical therapy but we have to arrange all that and we could have done that from home

We were never allowed inside. They called us at 6:39 in the morning to tell us our loved one had passed away. They didn't tell us until 10 hours later that they had found her face down on the floor. I wouldn't recommend anyone put a loved one in this place. Later on, I found out there were allegations about sexual misconduct of a male employee involving residents. I feel like this place should have been shut down long ago.

Our loved one was at Bickford and it is unbelievable how the corporate offices and management lie about the quality and preparation of food. For $5000-$9000 per month, you get the food pictured with this review. Our loved one was not on any special diet, this food was served to everyone. We have included the link to the corporate site where they show chefs cooking and sauteing fresh vegetables and lying about meals being cooked to order. In reality, there is a kitchen that is set up like a cafeteria with metal bins full of food that is cooked in batches. It sits for hours until it is scooped into styrofoam or plates (not cooked to order). We posted some descriptions that are used on the web site telling you daily what is served but you will see from the pictures what is actually served. There is rarely fresh produce, it is mostly from cans even in the summer. Canned vegetables, fruit, and beans. Beans are a staple in almost everything because they are cheap. There are NO chefs and everything on the corporate site is a lie. The pictures posted are not the worst of what was served, it is representative of what is commonly served. We would also add that the food was the best part of what we experienced at Bickford which speaks volumes.

Knowing what I know now, I would not recommend.

Friends had their parents there and where abused. Didn't like the feel of the place and they had no openings fortunately.

No one expected my visit, as they thought I was going to Rockford. With that said I was greeted warmly. But after sharing about [name removed] I was told, they had no room for him. Then why bother talking to me?

Not to happy with the place . We decided to put Mom in Bickford the first week she was there we had to hired a caregiver to sit with her for Memorial Day weekend because they were under staffed . Mom ended up paying for a caregiver an what it cost her for the month. She only been there. Week I hope thing get better

Mom moved in in August. The food is not very good and is usually cold. A lot of times no one answers the phone in the office. Is pretty pricey which is why she's moving in November. The weekend nurse sometimes forgets her meds.

We had our loved one there for 2 weeks in Memory care. The experience was very negative and the reasons are: They treated our loved one (let’s call our loved one Ginger for this comments) as a person needing only assisted living, which was not the case by suffering Dementia at an Intermediate stage and being stated in the doctor’s notes. These are some examples: 1. It was asked for - and they did not provide - every 2 hr bathroom use reminders (as suggested for dementia patients) and showing Ginger where the restroom was. Ginger was expected to find the restroom independently, which did not happen by being in a new environment and being naturally confused, and Ginger ended up urinating wherever considered restroom. [That had never happened before (or after). That only proved that they were not providing the Memory care necessary for patients with memory loss, confusion, etc. When Ginger is reminded and guided Ginger goes in the right place at the right time]. They used this “misconduct” against us to justify the need for him to leave their place. 2. They did not provide any notice of Ginger needing to leave, in fact, when during those 2 weeks stay another sudden health situation occurred to his caregiver, we asked for Ginger to stay a couple of extra days and that’s when they said that they would not allow that, that HE HAD TO LEAVE at the agreed date. 3. A medication run out during the week, the nurse never called the pharmacy to refill the prescription or contacted the family to suggest refilling the prescription before the medication would finish. 4. The nurse did not deliver the hearing aids promptly in the morning at wake up time, in one occasion it was 11:30 a.m., Ginger was dressed, had breakfast and no hearing aids yet had been delivered. 5. They did not keep up with Ginger’s daily personal hygiene and care: brushing teeth, brushing hair, etc. 6. Not good room cleaning maintenance. 7. it was agreed on paper on the 1st day of our arrival to have Ginger showered 2 times per week. They only did it once a week and after being reminded. 8. Meals: nobody would assist Ginger in eating or invite Ginger to eat. 9. No laundry, linens, towels, bathroom essentials, baskets, trash bags, Kleenex, bed stand, chairs, hangers, soap, cleaning products provided during the 2 weeks stay. 10. The Bickford of Carmel certainly did not get out of its way (or do the bare minimum for the price charged) to catch our attention as potential “customers” for the future. 11. Bickford of Carmel strongly invites you to visit as frequently as possible and to “feel” like it is a new home for the loved one and for family members, so we did visit almost daily. Then they used that against us saying: because you were there so frequently, we did not perform all the care we generally do because you were there. Which is only partially OK as a reasoning, we should have still arrived at 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. and if Ginger was awake by then, Ginger should have had the teeth brushed, the hair combed, the disposable underwear pulled off, the hearing aid provided, etc. What about the times that we were not there? They did not take charge and care of Ginger (as appropriate for a dementia resident), hence the urinating accidents. This was our experience, hence the skepticism on any place that offers both Assisted living AND memory care. We were suggested to stick to MEMORY CARE ONLY facilities if your loved one has dementia or Alzheimer; they have the proper care for such patients. TIPS: - READ AS MANY REVIEWS AS POSSIBLE BEFORE MAKING A DECISION - HAVE YOUR LOVED ONE EXPERIENCE ANY POTENTIAL FACILITY FOR 2 WEEKS (IF POSSIBLE FOR YOU) AND ONLY THEN YOU WIL HAVE A REALISTIC IDEA OF THE QUALITY OF CARE THEY PROVIDE - VISIT FREQUENTLY AND UNANNOUNCED, THAT’S THE BEST WAY TO WITNESS THE QUALITY OF THE FACILITY, STAFF, ETC.

This place is way over priced. Amy Orlando says anything she can to get your money. That's all they care about. Half the staff is incompetent. For the money that is paid the residents deserve so much more. I would not recommend this place to anyone. Definitely go elsewhere!!

It was awful. They had bed bugs and they couldn't get rid of them, his glasses broke, they were hard to contact. The billing kept getting confusing, and the billing itself, they'd nitpick one thing after. He was never shaved, and he'd lose things constantly. When we went back to get his things after he passed, he was missing his vets hat and they couldn't find any of his belongings but his suitcase. When we went to interview, it was beautiful, but it is not suitable for a person with Alzheimer's. When you get off the elevator it's very cluttered and they don't have closets, they have armoires on wheels. Once those come in the room they completely took over. It's a memory unit, but it's not good for any kind of memory problem. He got in a fight with one guy and he got in trouble and they made a huge stink about it, but that's just part of the disease. They never changed his clothes. He had pneumonia and they said nothing was wrong, but eventually he wound up in the hospital. Sunrise threw all his medicine away while he was gone so he had to pay for all new medicine. It's part of their protocol. He'd just got new medicine, hadn't even used them, and they had to toss them. That medicine cost well over $300 out of pocket. We were very unhappy and took a long time to get the billing correct. He wasn't even there a lot of the time, he was at hospice, and they charged for everything. It comes on looking very good, but once you get there, it's not.