Watermark Retirement Communities

My overall experience with this place has not been very good. The facility itself looks nice and the aides are all very friendly, however the care my loved one has been receiving feels sloppy and hasn't inspired much confidence. There have been mix-ups with the frequency of her meds, and she keeps being served dairy despite me telling them she is severely lactose intolerant. Also, I'm really not a fan of the doctor that serves this community, he really is not on the ball at all.

I like the staff, they are very friendly and knowledgeable but the problem that I am having is the price. They have raised the rent and the care tier levels substantially. I have gone over the cost, and they brought it back down for two days before they raised it again. It's $2000 more than what they said that they would be. If I would have known this, I wouldn't have moved them in. If money wasn't the problem, I think that it would be a very good place. I am very happy with the activities. As far the actual care, they do a nice job but there are a lot of things that I have to do myself because of the price. Any kind of doctors appointment, which they go to a lot, I have to take them to. Otherwise, it would be close to $100 visit, since an aide would have to go with them. They have a one bedroom apartment in the facility together, which is nice because my mom has dementia but my dad doesn't. The food is great. My father is very happy with all of that.

It's wayyy too remote. It's not close to anything and they didn't offer as many meals, I think they only offered 1 to 2 meals a day so they offered less services for the same prices as other places. They were clean, the problem was everything was in a seperate building so that was also a concern. They weren't guaranteed that they were going to get an apartment in the main building so we were worried that they would have a hard time getting around.

They're doing an update, the legacy purchased the GrandeVie and it definitely needed a facelift. It was dark and more of a depressing atmosphere but they're doing a good job with the remodel. Maybe because of it they weren't really responsive to our needs, they were tearing bedrooms down and maybe just didn't need our business.

I was really seriously considering them for a respite stay for my mom because they were on the bottom floor with courtyard access. The director there was kind of so-so. Then he told me they didn't have anything available anyway but he would call me a month before I needed it and let me know either way. I never heard from him.

appears to have potential for us. Did not have meal so am unsure as to quality of food. Still not open to committing. It does provide the transportation and amenities that seem vital.

It was clean and everyone was really nice, they have a lot of amenities for their guests. Cost was a little more than the first place we looked. Dad liked this one because it is so close to home. In fact he has decided to move in with Mom so he is looking for a one bedroom.

shuttle to Nativity BVM parish; furnished apts available; dog friendly; updated living space; housekeeping once per week; self-service laundry on each floor; full kitchen and separate bedroom; requires price includes meals but not cable and telephone. Respite care is limited to 90 days, then Mom would move to an apt

Assisted Living; 1 & 2 BR. CATS allowed. Communal Dining, First Alert wristband w/ checks multiple times daily. Light gold walls in hallways. Washer/dryers; full service beauty shop on site; Watermark University; can have own PC or use theirs. Focus on stimulation/learning/ socialization.3 nurses daily until 9 pm. Basic is weekly housekeeping and linen changes; assist with hygiene prn; transportation to shopping, MD, etc. Tues & ThursCoumadin blood work done on site. Clean; fresh smelling; 30 day trial available. Apts unfurnished. Not much staff around. one at desk, one w/games, one in empty exercise room. ~600 sq ft apt. country kitchen to cook if desired. chef's club. art classes,etc. pvt pay; no aset reqrmnt. one time community fee. 12 month lease. 60 day notice to move out. cable and phone ready. internet hookup available. Apts have no cooking facilities. apt size fridge.

Was very impressed with facility but not the shared bedrooms..want a private room.

hotel like... high community fee! residents looked good... alert

So far it is a good fit and going well. However, they need to improve on everything. I ask them to do things and they don't follow up with the requests. They promise things and don't do it, we have to go there all the time to make sure they do the basics like showers and changing the sheets weekly. It seems like nothing changes even after we talk to the administration.

The problem with the place is they don't have enough help for meals, You have to wait an hour to be seated, 15 minutes to get a drink, and 15 minutes to place an order. I was in the hospital recently they have better food. For my apartment, I have to housekeep every 2 weeks. Monday nights are laundry nights, they give you a bag where you could put your sheets and towels. They wash them and return them the same day. They will also do personal laundry for a fee. They have activities such as bingo and cards, also a lot of outings. They will take you to the grocery store but you have to ready to go by 9am. Before I moved in, I was told they can take you to appointments, but they want a notice a long time before. They have a gym on site.

My tour of this community was a decent. I was very impressed overall. The community looked decent, it did have a homey feeling. The community does need some updating. It was decent tour, but not a community I would had felt comfortable placing my father in.

My mother has been at Watermark for over two years. During that time, there have been three directors. At the current time, we have as a community, have witnessed a dramatic firing spree of several of our favorite people, including receptionists, med techs, activity directors, servers, and chefs/cooks. These sudden changes have caused great upset among the residents and staff (the ones remaining) alike. It has been a disappointing and distressful time for this community. If it were an easy move to make, I would be looking elsewhere, but the difficulty of finding another setting at this stage is far too difficult. Watermark behaves like a business, a corporation that is invested only in monetary gain, not human care.

When she was in there they had night nurses but she got hurt one night and they didn't even know about it because the aide didn't report the incident. She had to call me herself. They are constantly changing management and help, their turnover is amazing. She needed help getting up and they would bring more people than they needed and the extras would be standing around talking about their boyfriends. This was not a great experience.

MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION: Seems to be a systemic issue + lack of proper channels of communication between Doctors, Assisted Living Facilities, Caregivers (and what they can / cannot do by law--i.e. the rules they are bound to + restricted by). Example: My Mom’s neurologist had her on Parkinson’s meds since she was exhibiting some symptoms; the thinking behind this was that—since there’s not a test for Parkinson’s, if the medication alleviated her symptoms, it would (could) indicate that she had Parkinson’s. In his office, he said he would start her on 1/2 tablet 3x/day for 3 weeks, then reassess. At the end of the first 3 weeks, we had seen no changes. So the neurologist increased the dosage to 1 tablet 3x/day for another 3 weeks, then reassess. Again, no change… so the last trial was 1.5 tabs 3x/day. The issue with this—with regard to being at an assisted living facility—is that the medical staff + caregivers at the facility can legally only give guests the dosages listed on the actual medication bottle. The disconnect is that the neurologist gave US instructions regarding upping the dosage every 3 weeks (verbally), but those changes were never updated with a doctor-signed prescription each time and therefore there were never any updated electronic instructions viewable on their computers indicating the dosage change, and therefore the caregivers at Watermark could not legally make changes to how many pills they were giving my Mom’s each day. In this case, I had to coordinate with her neurologist’s office, the nurse @ Watermark, the NP who was treating my Mom @ Watermark, and the caregivers and finally got the neurologist to send in a signed Rx change so it would show up on the electronic medical records and therefore allow the caregivers to increase the dosage. In this case, it was a matter of my Mom not getting prescribed increased dosages. The opposite situation happened with her being over-medicated with 3 of her blood pressure medications because instructions and subsequent changes in administration of those pills were not explicitly detailed in the electronic medical records—the information had only been given to us verbally in the doctor’s office during my Mom’s follow-up visits. Even though I provided a detailed chart upon arriving at Watermark (which was requested by them) listing the parameters for administering these 3 supplemental meds, spoke with medical staff + caregivers on numerous occasions, made calls to doctors’ offices requesting official changes, nothing was resolved. So unless I was there to intercept med administration, my Mom was given 3 additional BP meds without determining if they were actually necessary. In short, the correct information only existed in my written notes during those in-person visits, and the doctor never made official signed changes in the electronic medical records files that could be seen by the caregivers.

This is a new facility and has already been through three memory care directors, showing a real fracture in leadership. Communication between leadership, staff and the families is poor at every level. There is a lack of transparency regarding the care of your loved one and whether the service plans are being followed by staff. Many of the direct care staff go above and beyond to care for residents, but it is clear that they are intrinsically motivated and not being consistently trained or educated in nuanced dementia care. There is high staff turnover, causing a lack of continuity of care and abundance of agency staff is utilized - it's clear the unit is not staffed for the current needs of the residents. The food is mediocre, there are often housekeeping and laundry missteps. There is a lack of engagement and activities for residents. Our loved ones deserve a lot better!

The biggest issue we had was that after we placed her there, we found out that the memory care unit she was in was "assisted living". To this day, I can not figure out how you have a memory care unit that is assisted living

The furniture smells like urine. My mom doesn't get her meds at the right time and was not being showered. The food is always served cold. They just seem to turn on a tv and that's the effort for entertainment for the residents, while most the staff is on their phones. They are what my mom can afford, but yet she is not even given the services listed for this price. My mom has majorly declined since being there. I wish there were other options.