Emeritus Senior Facility review: Rip off 24

My 88 yr old uncle fell in his apartment (very early Tuesday morning, March 18th) )and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital. Emeritus finally called me on Friday to notify me. The receptionist who called me said she found my name and phone number on a sign out sheet from Nov. 2013. We knew my uncle was not going to make it as he was also undergoing kidney failure. My siblings and I went to Emeritus to get into his apartment so we could find his records, his burial wishes, etc. The manage stated that since he didn't know who we were, we were not allowed to go in. We had to bury our uncle not knowing his final wishes. Entire time Emeritus was non- cooperative, refused to look at the sign out sheet which stated I was his niece. Went to court, got a legal document allowing me access to look and retrieve from his apartment his will. Emeritus already went in and removed all of his papers (they were in managers file) and conducted a complete accounting of everything that was in the apartment which included going into his desk, removing the file cabinet key, opening the file cabinet and removing all paper work stating they had the right to do this as they now consider the apartment "abandoned" Manager refused to hand the will over to me stating that since it named me and my two sibling's as his only heirs, all 3 of us had to be present. Even with the court order he would not comply. Ended up having to call the police who made him hand over the will. I have no idea of how to claim his belongings (there are several high value items inside which my uncle talked about quite often) as the Manager refuses to explain to us what exactly he wants or needs.

Do not send you elder to an Emeritus owned facility, my 83 year old father has been admitted to hospice after only ten days in their care. They do not care about you loved one's well being, their only concern is their money. Not only did they neglect his care, while he was away for dialysis the staff stole his $3000 mattress and replaced it with junk. Please find somewhere else to care for your aging loved one, I wish we had.

Before anyone places a loved one in Assisted Living of any kind, please read a small but informative book titled Life and Death at Assisted Living. It is all about Emeritus. It deals with the death of a resident that could of been prevented. Please, Please read the book. Do cold call tours. Do call to make appointments. See the building and the residents as they really are. Ask as many questions as you can. Write the questions down before you tour. That way you can ignore the sales pitch and stay focused. If possible, take your loved one with you. They will be the one living there. Make them part of the decision. Make sure that an assessment is done. Watch how the staff interacts with the residents. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you wouldn't want to live there yourself chances are you wouldn't want your loved one to live there either.

There is an Emeritus Property in South Florida that has had an ongoing problem with rats in their kitchen and general disrepair of the property. From a loved on of mine whom is closely related to an employee at the property. The employee has stated that these issues have been discussed with people higher up than property level, all the way up to corporate level. The higher ups have either turned a blind eye to the problem, or have purposely allowed it to collapse in order to save money. Now it has come to my attention that the kitchen was recently shut down due to this issue by state inspectors. The employee stated that everyone was running around trying to bury the truth to what was happening. The employee feels bad because they believe that the people at property level will be escape goats for the Higher paid do nothing coat tail riders that are higher up, that ignored this problem for at least 2 years. Stay tuned to your local news, there is certainly more to this story and several others concerning this company, in this state.

As a current employee of a Emeritus property in Florida, I can say with absolute certainty that they are more interested in your money than your family. I see them play games with medical records to qualify people to move in just to make census go up. They also bump level of care to increase your cost per month. Staffing is minimal and insufficient. After reading some post on here that are several years old and still the same issues, you have to wonder what their true philosophy is?

I worked for an Emeritus Community for 2 years. The things I saw were terrible. As a member of the management team i tried to make things better and I lost my job. The staff is not based on occupancy it is based on a budget that makes a sizable profit and staffing hrs are reduced to obtain better bonus for the ED. In the Memory Care the dept was full (24 residents) but only 3 staff during the hrs between 7am-11pm and 2 staff overnight. 95 % of the residents were incontinent, and several of them required one on one care. Also several residents required 2 person assist and that would leave 1 person on the floor while that was taking place.(showers, bathroom etc.) Staff was required to plate and serve all three meals, do laundry, clean the rooms and dept (including carpet cleaning and extraction), pass meds, do resident care and organize and lead activities. The assisted living side had kitchen staff for meals and an activity director, but they were also under staffed when it came to resident care. They offer a ethics line but that is useless because the people in Seattle never follow up they send an email to the ED and she knows exactly what the complaint is and who sent it (but yet nothing gets better). They tell staff and management to lie to residents and family members about care, staffing issues and if you don't they make you pay. The ED is rarely available because she spends most of her time on her cell phone, and when the regional staff is there shes out of the community for hrs if she even shows up. They constantly harass the staff and managers wanting things done but do not give them the tools they need. Our building had 1 person in the maintenance dept and 2 house keepers for a building that had 120 apts. We were told that if occupancy went up we would get more staff and hours that was a lie. Occupancy climbed and we still had the same staff and hrs. Training is a joke what they provide is a 1 computer for over 60 employees (most are prn or have 2 or more jobs) and want them to take time out of the shift (that we are already under staffed on to complete or you can do it from home with out pay! They give the staff (this includes management) a 30min unpaid lunch break but expect them to keep their walkie talkie on and get mad at them if they leave the building. Bottom line the don't care about the staff! and they don't care about the residents.

The Memory Care Director..should mean expert, right?.. At our community was a 24 year old with a marketing and nannying background... The executive director had only an associate degree and face booked and planned her next party night with they memory care director and the nursing director brand new LPN...all between 24 and 32 years old..party buddies, too young and uneducated for their positions..

I watched this happen in Tennessee..C.O.R.E...ETHICS..HAHA! these poor people pay extra for levels of care and have NO IDEA that their loved ones are being neglected like this...I have so many stories just like all of these...they pay extra but do not in fact increase level of care... Also, the budget to FEED the residents... $3.50 PER DAY! Not meal...but day.. I have watched the nursing director fake the medical records before an audit...fill holes where meds were not given..lost and stolen and spilled meds..unbelievable! She did go on the get a perfect score on her audit by forging and faking... This was discussed and condoned by the executive director during morning stand up meetings...and the regional management team was the one issuing forth that idea...this company is rotten to the core...
I walked out of a position with this company after only a couple of months because I could not look into the eyes of the family members placing their loved ones in this monster den, or the residents moving in...or myself looking in the mirror.. I just went in and walked out...will work at McDonald's before staying here...rotten to the core..from the top down...

I agree with the posts. I am not an employee, however, I interviewed for a management position for their Allentown PA site. First of all I was given the wrong date for the interview. I showed up on the date I was given and due to their screw up I was made to wait 45 minutes. The interview went ok. I was told I would hear fron the regional manager in a few days. I waited one week then reached out to them to find out about my status. I was ignored. I feel their poor treatment of a potential employee shows the companies etics. I did take the time and expense to interview for the position. All I ask is for some consideration. The facility always has adds in the paper.

So much for "Our Family is Commited to Yours" - a very appealing logo with little to no truth behind it (my opinion, of course). There are, for now, very few avenues to post a complaint about an Emeritus facility. I tried posting mine on their Emeritus Senior Living Facebook page and it was off in minutes! I posted it again and it was off in seconds - now I am blocked. It seems as though they pay full time damage control monitors because I tried on a different day and time to post the same complaint from my husband's Facebook page and the same thing happened. Some kind of Gag Rule, I suppose?
Thankfully, ComplaintsBoard gives us a voice and HOPEFULLY, people will be attentive enough to read before signing a loved one into an Emeritus Senior Living facility.
If you're interested, read some about our terrible experienced at Emeritus at Hawthorne Inn at Hilton Head here on ComplaintsBoard.com. Pease contact me as well!

Our experiences with Emeritus Senior Living at Hawthorne Inn, Hilton Head, SC

This afternoon, just before 5:00pm, I tried posting the following review on the company's Facebook page. The first time, it was removed in a few minutes. The next three times, it took just seconds to disappear. I feel as though it is fair to always receive "the other side of the story" so I am posting the same review yet again.

On appearances, this facility seems to an attractive place for you or your loved one to live. I am usually very discriminating and I was "sold" nevertheless. I believed the pitch (a very good one but, hey, how could the chairman of the company otherwise live in a $6 million + home?) and should have gotten EVERYTHING in writing...too late for that now...

I had to pull a loved one from this Emeritus facility, Emeritus At Hawthorne Inn on Hilton Head, SC, after 100 days of discouragements such as pleading with them to properly administer my husband's medications and thinly veiled assurances such as an August 15 (Day 51) email reply from the director saying, "It will get better"!

Interestingly, after emailing the director of yet another medication error, I was told I may not communicate with the facility any longer by email because of "company policy". You can figure that out, I am sure. There's more on that...The record has been "corrected"...

Rather than accuse in this brief, I can show you things which may astound you - even frighten you away from this facility quicker than the skeletons draped in black cloth and cobwebs which hung from their entranceway on Oct 1!

Unfortunately, it does not help to elevate your concerns with this company. Their legal team must "review" the resident's entire record before you receive copies. For some reason, some very revealing records which I know to have existed in my husband's chart have not been forwarded. A subsequent request to the Emeritus legal representative resulted only in repeatedly asking me which "missing" records I know exist...

I would like to show you. Please contact me (I am EmeritusComplaint and have a gmail account) if you find their tactics to be manipulative and/or greedy, their administration of medications sub-standard, your loved ones' records manipulated and/or contrived, if you think that their facility and/or corporate motivations are seriously flawed... or, most importantly, if you are thinking of placing your loved one in a caring community in the Hilton Head area.

To be fair, there are a just a few wonderful women (oblivious to what's behind the closed doors) who are employed at this facility. One in particular of whom I became especially fond is dear Lois who is usually at the reception desk with a sincerely warm welcome. For them, I've added a star (from one to two).

Signed, "Concerned for those still in an Emeritus facility"

i know some one work at EMERITUS at orange park in jacksonville florida and i would not want my family member in there... for one they short staff all the time AMANDA KING pushes things under the rug they had one girl push water down a lady mouth and when the aid told AMANDA KING what she had seen she said don't TELL any one and the girl still WORK there and the aids do not take care of the PEOPLE good that place is NASTY i do not know how they still OPEN i wish someone will do something about it... the pay is bad .. the money is going in AMANDA KING bank account i am going to call the news stations and REPORT them if SEATTLE WASHINGTON don't care who will! IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY DO NOT PLACE THEM THERE I REPEAT DO NOT PLACE THEM THERE EMERITUS @ ORANGE PARK JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA

We just placed my mom here and she hates it. There is no security, they don't know how to care for dementia patient's, they treat them with no respect or dignity and I would say they treat them like children but if this is how they treat children then CPS would take them away. I have complained and complained but never get anywhere nor do I get a response. My next stop is the local TV consumer hotline. If you have a choice don't place your loved one here if you have an ounce of love for them. I had no choice and as soon as I can get her out, I am.

I think everyone should also know that your facility in hutchinson kansas had a resident doing the secretary jod where she also signed for meds that containd narcotics...Now what facility would be stupid enough to do that...And what about a nurse telling an aid to remove a cath from a resident...or what about a facility that has house keepers coming in to do aid work cause they dont want to pay the overtime to their aids...oh and that aint all...they dont even pay all there overtime...if the employes dont keep track of there time, they dont get paid for all of it...and, there is a resident there by the name of Donna Hand, that i went in a found sitting in her own BM...her bathroom had BM all over and her bed was made with BM in it...The aid that was to be takeing care of her that day was Jenna Rueber...I had reported her, but do you think anything got done, , , , , , You guessed it hell no...She is still employed there still to this day

hey Emaritous Senior living what you stated is a lie and you know it

I have read alot of these cnts and i do agree with the complaints...I am a former employ of Emaritous and trust me, I will never work there again, nor would I ever place a loved one in any of there facilities or advise anyone to put a loved in one of there facilities. Everything they say they stand for is a lie...They do not care for the resident, how can they when they employ known drug fellons and known aids they are neglectful and abusive...One aid by the name of Jenna Rueber, that was found giveing alcohol to a resident along with 2 other aids, but was not fired along with the other aids...She is also known to be very neglectful and abusive...She has been complained on many times, but they just brush it under the carpet...It has been said, the reason they do not fire her is because her parents are rich...I say, when it comes to your loved one, that should not matter.But she is not the only neglectful aid there, most of the aids on the first shift are neglectful...I have even heard an aid say( I aint doing it), talking about takeing care of a resident. I call that neglect. I have went in and found residents sitting in their own urin and B M...I also call that neglect...What i have seen at this Facility tells me that a resident could get better care in a nursing home...This Facility that I am talking about, Is Elm Grove Estates in Hutchinson Ks, another thing, is the Corperate Office shut off the oncall phone. witch is the phone to get ahold of the nurse after hours...so now the aids have to try to get ahold of them on their own personal phone, witch half the time they have no luck, Another thing you need to know about this Facility is it is infested with cockroaches, , , , yes cockroaches...they are everywhere...in the kitchen where they prepare the food, in the dinning room where the residents eat...in the residents rooms, , , , i mean every where, , , and yes i have reported that too...Trust me, you do not want to put you loved one in any Emaritous Facility...I even call one of the people in the corperate office ane just hung up on me, what douse that tell you, , , his name, , , , , Eric Mendelsohn...

I am a current Executive Director with Emeritus. Looking for a job and a way to get out! Yes, they are only concerned with the bottom line. The regional and corporate staff could care less about the actual CARE of the residents. They preach CORE=Care Over Real Estate. What a joke! 7% annual rate increases are a must. No deals this time of year. Have you tried calling Ethics First? Yes the calls go to regional staff and then they call the ED and we know who made the complaint. Then we are expected to bend over backwards so family members dont call the State and complain.
IF you signed the contract they will go after you. Staff are paid bonus on their collections and the marketing staff are paid bonus based on move ins and deposits or community fees. ED are paid bonus for financial performance. What doe$ that tell you.
I am only weeks away from leaving this corporation and the writing is on the wall in terms of finances. Check their stock history! Poor management at the TOP has gotten them in the MESS we are in now. I have a friend who was made to go in on Saturday and Sunday to get units filled!
Good Luck to you guys! You CAN move your loved ones out, we the staff must wait for another job in a stripped industry.

Thanks for your comment Brenda. I just happened to find this complaint and posted a review that I wrote just in case Emeritus won't leave me alone about collecting the months rent 5 months after the fact.

I placed my 85 year old mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s and dementia/delusions in Emeritus of Las Vegas because they told me they were trained to deal with people like mom. Being my first experience with any assisted living facility I walked into Emeritus and the community relations manager hustled me into his office that turned out to be twice the size of the room he placed my mother in. I was paying $2000 a month and the $14 an hour community relations manager had a bigger room than moms. I never thought to look at the rooms and he never offered to show me one. He placed mom so far back in the facility she needed a wheelchair just to get to the common areas.

Mom became so depressed she wouldn’t leave her room. It was a physical challenge for her to get around. The employees were not only ignoring mom but also the paraplegic roommate mom had. This poor woman would lie in bed pressing her button over and over but no one came. The staff started bringing mom trays for her meals and charging me $5 a tray. I was paying for her meals in the rent and paying again because they had to bring them to her in the back of the place. Employees would walk in hours after meal time and throw the cold tray on the dresser and walk out, ignoring mom. Mom would smell because the staff would only bath her once or twice a week and I started to notice black and blue marks on her arms and legs after the staff handled her..

Then came the norovirus and the residents were confined to their rooms for 4 months and visitors were advised to stay away or buy masks and gloves if they wanted to visit their loved ones. Mom started having symptoms of the infection including diarrhea and one morning the staff alleged mom threatened suicide and around april 15th they called 911 and sent her to the hospital without calling myself or my siblings. Mom was forcibly taken by police, ambulance and firemen from the property and committed without so much as a call to her family from any staff members. I had been promised that the staff was trained to deal with dementia and delusions like my mother had. Mom was in the psychiatric hospital almost a month and no one from Emeritus called to see how she was.

On april 30th I removed moms belongings so they could rent her room for may and again the staff ignored me. Now 5 months later Emeritus turned me over to collections for may rent claiming I didn’t give 30 days’ notice when they had mom forcibly removed from their facility for emergency medical treatment and they expect me to pay them $2000 for may when mom was in the hospital being treated for an attempted suicide that was deemed unfounded and diarrhea (I believe) from the norovirus. I was warned that there are assisted living facilities that only want to fill beds and couldn’t care less about the person in them and Emeritus proved to be one in our case. Please don’t take their word for anything, check everything. Assistants come and go because they are over worked and under paid and it shows. They sprayed mom’s room 3 times for bugs yet mom still saw bugs in her room and eventually in her bed. Emeritus claims to wash residents clothing but the few times they did only half of them would come back. My brother had to was mom’s clothing.

we placed my father in law in december 2010 at emeritus at jensen beach, fl and was requested to put a down payment of 5, 000 to low his rent then after 2 month they up his rent this is a scam to get the 5, 000 and my father had a breakdown on
jul and was told they dont want him back in the facilities after being in the hospital 2 1/2 dehydrated and his room always smell like pea they didnt clean well either well we request that $ because now he has lots of medical bills and we have not got a straight answer back i personally think they get your money and run please i advice people to check in to this emeritus before placing your family member in here they are for your money about the care not good at all.

Unfortunately Emeritus does not seem to walk the talk, I worked with them and found that the people that worked on the floor, regardless of department really cared about the residents. The disconnect seems to be between the management (at local, regional, or corporate level) and the employees (actual people who preform the work). The disconnect also is seems to be between the local management and the residents. I found myself respectfully defending the director numerous of times from comments made by the residents. I personally blame the Emeritus Corporation for the problem, just try to contact or file a complaint with Daniel R. Baty, any corporate executive, or any corporate dept (LIKE QC Dept. Hello), You will be sent right back to the local level with out ever reaching them. They have built a wall around themselves which replicates itself all the way down to the local level., leaving its residents and local employees on the outside.

Hom E: What address as This Emeritus, by Walmart on US 19

I believe they should have nanny cams throughout their facility. My father-in-law (Leo Gardarian) who passed away this past Sunday, had his expensive walker stolen and was given a cheap one. The one replacement was a cheap version, without the seat and hand brakes. They never offered to replace it! His new watch for Xmas was stolen along with his wallet with cash in it. He was constantly asking for money to which we believe a staff member was coaxing him to. He had no place to spend the money and he was always out of cash Hmmm. He was 93 years old and was truly a victim of Senior abuse. The cost is thru the roof to stay there and they don't even provide the Depends a resident needs to have while living here. San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Viejo Rd. Facility.

At Emeritus, we are passionately committed to caring for our residents. We truly regret that you and your mom had this experience at one of our communities. With more than 40, 000 residents across the nation, we rely on standard refund policies to keep our transactions consistent throughout the 43 states in which there are Emeritus communities. That said, our regional directors have been in conversations with you, and have honored the move-in-fee refund because of your mitigating circumstances. We are sorry it became this sort of situation. We hope this will help you put the matter behind you.