Serene Gardens

We had a negative experience with Brookdale. After 6 months of being there they found bedbugs in her room. They tried to blame it on my mother in law. The food was not good. Cold oatmeal in the morning. Plus much more. When we moved her out my daughter the POA emailed the director of the faculty multiple times telling them to send her a final bill. The months later they threatened to place late fees on the final bill. My daughter had proof of the emails. And she also verbally had asked for the final bill. It's been paid and we haven't heard anything from them since. We have moved her to another facility and that has been wonderful.

My mom was in Serene Gardens for several months after she left rehab due to a broken hip. During her stay there she had 2 incidents resulting from improper transfers. The first resulted in a broken ankle and after that they refused to get her out of bed. She was essentially bed ridden for 5 months even though doctors gave her clearance to put weight on the leg. I can only speculate that they were concerned about their ability to provide proper care. The other incident resulted in a disclocated knee which required full knee replacement surgery. After 5 months laying in bed she is weak and the staff did not properly transfer her to a wheelchair when we requested to have her get out of bed. Unfortunately the care is subpar and the staff's ability to own up to their mistakes is very unsettling. The staff are friendly but may not be equipped to handle someone that needs extensive assistance. The place is new and looks great.

They were not equipped to care for someone who was partially paralyzed. Nor aware of the need to give him the timely setup for his breathing treatment and then turning off the machine when it was finished. I was so disappointed. !! Quality was horrible. Not enough staff. Call light would not be answered. On his first night, he told me people don't answer the light. We waited 45 minutes. I then found people on the other side of the building. They said that they thought the light was just left on from earlier. So they ignored it. Meals were ok. Activities does not apply. He couldn't participate. Care was totally insufficient.

Don't bother.. The women that run the place are awful!!! They never watched my loved one, who was in the hospital more times than she was there.

I am not impressed by the 'pretty exterior' of this assisted living facility. The exterior facade does not mask the 'ugliness' of the inner dynamics controlled by the owner/operator. It is sad that vulnerable adults are controlled by this place. I hope the state of Michigan does a thorough investigation of this facility and how it operates.

We do know it was during covid and it was before the employment situation with any care givers got to critical shortages. There were some decent employees, 3 out of the 4 receptionist were very helpful, but once was cold and not helpful. Some of the care staff were top notch people, but the director of nursing was not. We could visit them inside a complete glass box only, we did not have access to our loved ones apartment. House keeping did not change our loved ones beds for 2 months. Not confident in their care at all.

Don't go here if you want good care for your loved one or if you want them to eat anything decent or healthy. The relationship between management and the staff was very poor. The manager just couldn't get along with his staff, so the staff wouldn't come in to work. Basically it was like a strike. The food was terrible. It was all from a food service, with nothing homemade, and no fruits or vegetables. They would run out of food sometimes. It was just a terrible value and experience. The one positive is the activities director seemed like a wonderful person. Activities were just starting to pick back up after Covid restrictions. And she seemed like she was trying to keep it together for the whole building.

The manager at this Saginaw location is terrible. She put her finger in my face and yelled at me. She is condescending and has anger issues. There has been a lot of staff turnover since she started. The dementia house needs updating. Care staff is very friendly and wonderful.

I had a bad experience with them. I paid seven months in advance for a deal and she died one week later and they did not refund any of my money which was $[fee removed] so I do not like that facility.

It was my plan when moving my mother into this beautifully bedecked home for the infirm (Pineview Cottage) that one day I would write a glowing review about the care she received. However today, that thought couldn’t be further from the truth. I won’t pretend for a moment that my mother was the easiest patient, but she did suffer from Alzheimer’s coupled with complications from a stroke. The owner, Hilde Bonesteel, claims to have expertise in Alzheimer care but she and her under trained staff were baffled as to how to care for my mother. It wasn’t until mother was actively dying and was under the care of Hospice of Northern Michigan in Pineview Cottage that she received competent, caring and companionate care. Because Pineview Cottage touts itself as assisted living, the licensing isn’t as stringent as it is in “nursing homes”. Believe me when I say that there are plenty of hours in a day when the only care being given is by a CENA or comparable. Take the time to look up the infractions Pineview Cottage has been cited for by the State of Michigan. Unless your loved one is a fully functioning elder with the ability to express him or herself Pineview Cottage should not be a consideration. They are too ill equipped to care for those who can not participate in the caring of themselves.

Very high turnover, poor care, lack of respect to family members. Lack of accountable when concerns or issues arise. Many caretekers have "attitude" problems and really run the place. Residents do not like it but afraid to tell the Management. I would not recommend at all even with the New Management.

Do not be fooled by the "atmosphere" and looks of this Assistant Living. Many 'attitudes' by the staff, lack of good care, chronic issues do not get resolved ie., like feces left on toilet seat and no one takes responsibility of cleaning, it up., caretakers "not my job" .. so in the meantime your loved one cannot go to bathroom...gross yes but that has been our experience. Any complaint is not taken seriously and becomes a "he said- she said" scenario. Many residents are not happy but afraid to tell the management. The new management does communicate changes and all of sudden you are charged on your invoice. It lacks team work among caretakers and the rest of the staff. At times, some staff , caretakers very rude and to the family member. Once you complain you are "labeled" by the caretaking staff and your love one will be treated unfairly. Please do not have the owners response to this review to contact the executive director, [name removed] for help since that doesnt resolve anything. Will never forget the first time meeting with new director, explaining not happy, wanting to take my mom away. His comments back "would you like a referral" . #frustrated caretaker of mom

Short staff results in lack of care. Would not recommend at all.

Short staff leads to poor care

Mom fell last night, no call from the staff when they found her on the floor. I received a call at 6 am morning she fell last night. This is NOT NORMAL for an assistant living failure to contact family. They do not know what happen and how it happen- but I am with my mother at the hospital now. Short staff leads to long waits to care for anyone.

I have first hand experience with the new administrator [Removed], very good at what she does however the new people whom just bought it a few months ago are the definition of "it's all about the money" these new owners are not concerned about your loved ones or their own employees. If you love your family member like I do PLEASE DO NOT put them there! I fact just investigate the place AND the management and the ones that are running the day to day things for yourself and you will be horrified to even consider this cold and lack of compassion this place is really about. [Removed] did a wonderful job turning this place around in such a short time that her thank you was to be walked out right after she single handed had that place pass State. They will use the suffering of your loved one and your money to fill their own pockets with little compassion for its residents.. INVESTIGATE THIS PLACE and pass on the horrible reputation this place had until [Removed] started turning this place around

I'm done with this place. They do not have a safety system in place that is adequate for residents. The food is awful and if someone doesn't like something they give them a bowl of Jell-O for dinner. It was a terrible experience. They over billed me and I'm still getting that worked out. I've had enough of them.

This place is worse then a dump my Mom who is for the most part able to care for herself [Removed] (theres a police report at the Grand Blanc police department) I am a rn my Mom called me several times because there was no staff, I would leave Ann Arbor go to Prestige Pointe only to find NO staff.. My Mom was not given her medication. On severa days which lead to a heat attack. MY Dad who is in the military had to help feed several residents on different occasions. The first day my Mom was there back in July her phone was stolen I was promised by Shannon the director and Ashley the nurse the phone would be reimbursed, I turn the recipe into Ashley before she left for vacation. It's now January 2017 I still have not been reimbursed. If you want your loved one to survive please please don't put them at prestige point! Meds are never ever on time if they are given at all

Well this is a horrible place, and they do not care about the residents what so ever and only a little bit of the care staff do. The executive director and the maintenance man think they own the place and they don't. They both suck, and need to get better work ethic . They will try to make you think it is a good place and put on a good act but really it is not a good place to put a loved one in. There has been so much down fall from this place and it should be shut down. I beg you put your loved one in a better facility where they will get better love and care. There is multiple problems with this [place, they lose the resident stuff, the medications are not properly given or ordered. They have an excuse for everything. I believe these residents deserve better and people who actually care. The upper management do not know what they are doing what so ever. They only care about themselves and what they can do to go to work making money without actually doing something.

My father has been here about 2 years. This place has problems. Wasn't very good when he first got here. Was hoping I could solve a few of the problems. Because it seems like a nice place, and they charge a LOT of money. But they keep getting worse. When the new company took over. Some things started getting worse. And now that jane has left. They are worse than that. I am forced to start looking for a better place to care for my father. The service has gone downhill and the prices are being raised. There are some employees that care. But certainly not all of them. The new manager in charge. Has refused to contact me. The nurse in charge has never contacted me. I have requested the nurse in charge go over my fathers needs about 4 months ago. But there has been 2 different ones since then. And none of them have contacted me. There are many problems with my fathers care. I do not recommend this place for anyone with loved ones with Dimensia or memory loss issues. They just made a new rule. From now on, if your relative needs diapers. You have to go buy them,(I used to pay extra and they would order them, now I have to actually shop for them) and the gloves used to change them. Since other items of my fathers are shared, or lost. I imagine these will be too. I have purchased 11 cell phones for my father. They keep claiming they accidently wash them. But I have checked my fathers phones. they are loaded to the max. With sales calls and a multitude of advertising text messages from many companies. Like some one has been using his phone. He is not able, he can barely hit the one number to call me.