Commonwealth Senior Living

My mother spent a month at Commonwealth memory care in Cedar Bluff, Va. I have a number of concerns. First, the aides seemed to be more concerned with cell phones than with the patients. I have arrived more than once to find that my mother was not given food because she did not go to the dining room. I had to request a tray be sent to her room or I suppose she would not have been fed that day at all. The food was one of the few positive things about the facility. It was home cooked and delicious. My mother was left alone most of the day with no interaction with anyone for hours at a time. The aides did stick their heads in the door every two hours but that was about it. There were supposed to be activities everyday, but I didn't find that to be the case. Patients were left for hours just sitting in wheelchairs. The entire atmosphere of the facility was depressing. Needless to say I transferred my mother to a different facility which I have found to be wonderful. The staff treat the patients with respect and great care. I would not advise anyone to leave a loved one at Commonwealth Memory Care in Cedar Bluff, VA.

I am not happy at all. The facility is beautiful as is the room. Quite a few of the caregivers seem to have a chip on their shoulders. You might want to do some research before choosing this facility. I regret choosing this facility for my loved one.

The rating should be zero. The memory care facility should be condemned. It was horrible, worse staff ever and they couldn't care less. I wish I never brought my mother there.

This is not a place that I would recommend and I do not believe that you should be recommending this place either. They do not stand up to their promises nor do they have the staff to care for the residence there.

I don’t like how some of the RCAs are treated they go above and beyond for my loved one and the med tech on day shift is very rude she has an attitude with the rcas sometimes or the family members when asked a question commonwealth is very understaffed and very unorganized……. Some of the head people in the office doesn’t seem friendly at all it’s 2 rcas that does a wonderful job and I really appreciate them for being so nice to my loved one

I was initially excited about having my dad stay with this facility. The salesman ensured me that the staff were well-trained to handle difficult patients with dementia, as I made clear my concerns about their ability to handle his behaviors. I was assured that this was a common concern and that within the first month, he’d likely be fine. The salesman even developed a plan with me to get him into the facility initially. However, from the time we tried to admit him, there was a lack of communication and follow through. The salesman did NOT make the staff aware of the initial plan, so we had to abort that. I do believe the nursing/caregiving staff did their best with my dad’s difficult personality, attitude, etc. However, the situation could have been handled much better. Unfortunately, we had to hear from hospital staff when he was admitted for pneumonia that the facility may not accept him back, which was the first time we were made aware of such issues. We moved him then.

AVOID this place if possible. My mother was a resident here for 3 years and at first (when it was Saybrook at Haddam) it was great. The food was freshly cooked, and the staff was nice. Since Commonwealth took over about a year ago, it has gone downhill. The food they serve now is NOT freshly cooked, it's from an institutional food service and is most times inedible. My mom constantly complained that the fish was dried up, the chicken was so tough you couldn't cut it and there was no fresh fruit or veggies. Due to circumstances that my mother needed more assistance, I had to move her out. She fell in July and was in rehab for a month. After finding out that she needed more assistance that Commonwealth couldn't (wouldn't offer), the Executive Director refused to work with me on the charges and insisted that I give a 30 day notice. I ended up paying for 2 months that my mother didn't live there. And then after being OVERCHARGED, I had to fight for the credit that was due to me.

Overcharged by a lot for everything. Sent mother to hospital immediately if something didn't seem right. Meal tray was left in room for a month so there were maggots & bananas were left out for a month too. Mother waited, at times, a long time for care that was promised much earlier.

Comment on quality of care. We were still in the first week transition period, not visiting so mom could adjust when another patient had an altercation with mom, knocking her on the ground. An aide called to tell me about the incident. I asked to speak to mom and her speech was very slurred. It was then that I asked if mom had been given a drug. The aide stated yes, per the facility's policy, all parties involved are to be administered a sedative, regardless of who initiated the aggressive behavior. Mom got out of bed that night and fell, fracturing her hip in 2 locations. Due to her age surgery was not recommended. Based on her extremely slurred speech earlier, I belief the sedative made her woozy, causing her to loose her balance and fall....After her fall, obviously the family had regular visits. During that time, the nurse and aides were very sweet, attentive and extremely helpful caring for mom. Unfortunately, due to mom's memory loss, she did not remember her injuries and fell a couple more times before passing away.

There are some aides here that has attitudes and act like they don't want to do there job like it's an inconvenience to them not very nice at all if they don't want to do there job then why be on health care

Mom was sent to the hospital within 24 hours of checking in. And then we were billed over $[removed] for her less than 24 hours residency. What a total nightmare sorting that through. It took us weeks to finally get an accounting that was then completely incorrect even if she had been there longer. I really have nothing more to say.

Mom was discharged from home and we still have not heard anything or have gotten any money back for the 25 days. So I'm not doing any further evaluation until I hear about refund. I rated everything N/A.

The facility was designed nicely. The decor was pleasant. The staff bordered on indifferent to wanting to be left alone. The head nurse was very pleasant but her attitude didn't transfer to the staff that walked into his room. My husband was there for 5 weeks. He was very sick. I willingly paid top dollar for what I was told would be top care. He did not get it. It was a sad way to end a 56 year marriage. The night before he died I talked with his hospice nurse about moving him to a different facility. I was too late.

They always kept the reception area spotless and the nursing home part, but the locked part where my husband was disgusting. I guess if you have dementia you don't need to live in a clean area. It was awful. He was not taken care of at all. He always had wet/dirty clothes and feet. Lost a ton of weight.

This place was NOT as they promised. The place messed up my dads medicine. Luckily he and I were able to tell them. If my dad had not been aware enough they would have missed his medications. The food was promised to be great. It was horrible. They said he could choose what he wanted for each meal. Not true! Everyone got the same thing. And it took forever and was cold. [name removed], one of the nurses, was horrible. The residents were no encouraged to get out and about. Overall an awful experience. The activities they promised were non existent. We pulled dad out. Awful awful awful.

I picked this community because it was close to home. What a mistake!They should lose their license to operate.

My mom was admitted on Monday. We were advised to give her a week or so to acclimate to her new environment. On Friday, 4 days later, we were notified that she was pushed by another patient, fell and hit her head. We were not denied visitation but in so many words were told that coming there may cause more issues. Mom was at the nurses station and they did put her on the phone. She seemed in good spirits but was slurring some. When I asked if they had given her meds, the aid said it was protocol to give BOTH patients involved in an altercation anxiety meds regardless of who was at blame. Mom was a palliative hospice patient so the on-call nurse was notified. She checked mom over and said you never know for sure but her head injury did not appear that bad. Shortly after midnight we received another call stating that when they went to check on mom they found her door locked. They opened it and found mom on the floor with a laceration over her eye. They asked if we wanted her to go to the hospital. We were not told any other details so we had them contact the palliative hospice nurse again. Upon her arrival she immediately called to say that the staff had stated mom had limited range of motion with her leg and needed to go to the ER. We were never told that. We immediately went to the hospital to find that x-rays revealed mom had a fractured hip. The doctor said mom would need surgery or be bed ridden but due to her age the likelihood of her surviving surgery was not good and if she did survive the likelihood of her being mobile again was even slimmer. After weighing everything out we decided against surgery. A hospital style bed was ordered for Mom and she was transported back to the memory care unit. My brother, myself and our spouses arrived there shortly after her return. The evening nurse let us in and explained that she had just left mom's room a minute ago. She was explaining the medical orders and as we rounded the corner an aid ran out of the mom's room saying mom had climbed over the rail and fallen again. After that mom had to be given meds from that point on to keep her calm and make her sleep so she could heal. Four days later she passed during the night. While the staff there was extremely nice, majority were aids and med techs with limited trained nurses in the facility. I strongly feel that the facility contributed to mom's hip injury by giving her anxiety meds after she had sustained a head injury early and subsequently her death. [name removed], Director of Sales I believe, was very sweet and compassionate. She knew every patient by name. Likewise the staff was always nice, just not trained or not enough of them.

Mom has experienced long wait times to receive care. Under-staffed. Many have quit since mom arrived. The facility has been an ongoing issue of not having supplies. Selection and quality of meals is poor.

There was roaches on the wall and our mother will not live here no matter if my brother pays!!We are moving her out of Hampton and let down by the sales man who lied. Our mother left in tears and the toilet was broke for us to use hallway smelled like pee nasty

Management fails to provide adequate staffing. It is typical to have one caregiver on the floor on weekends. Care & activities are substandard for a memory care unit. Staff tries their best but it is impossible to provide good care for those with special needs. I would not recommend this American House for memory care.