Sunrise Senior Living
reviews and complaints

I have been a long time resident of Sunrise of Madison, NJ and this past September the payment center failed to withdraw my rent from auto-pay. I learned this accidentally, when I checked my balance at the bank and found I had too much money over a week later. I immediately directed my bank to issue and e-check for the amount due, but it wasn't issued for another 10 days. I notified the payment center of this issue and they responded that it was fine. When the Oct. payment came due, there was not enough money in my account for the auto-pay. Again, I asked the bank to issue and e-check and found that the payment center had not applied my last payment to my account which explained the deficit in my account. I cancelled auto-pay and have been using e-check each month. Payment center has not applied the payments and I have been accruing late fees unbeknownst to me, until today.

Since our mother has been with Sunrise, we have had many negative experiences. Below is a synopsis of some of our interactions with the Sunrise Senior Living at Lincoln Park. I want to add that there are some wonderful aides who are just overworked. Also, we are only asking what was promised when we signed the contract.

When we signed the contract with Sunrise, we were told that there is an 8 to 10 minute wait after a resident presses the call button for an aide to appear. One evening I was getting ready to leave when mom said she had to go to the bathroom. I pressed the call button by her bed and the waiting began. I walked the halls to try and get help but everyone was busy assisting others. We waited TWO HOURS for aides to appear to assist mom in the bathroom. At that point, mom had already urinated and defecated in her pants. I took this issue up with the managing director. No one at Sunrise ever got back with us about this incident.

Another evening, I was in mom's room and pressed the call button at 6:30 pm because mom needed assistance in using the bathroom. I stepped out to make a phone call. An aide arrived in mom's room while I was out and turned the call button off without taking mom to the bathroom. I returned to mom's room and found out that the aide had not taken mom to the bathroom. I found the aide on the 1st floor and the aide said that she thought I was gone for the evening and would assist mom after her break. I requested the aide help mom before the break. Once again, we spoke with management and no one ever got back with us.

Mom had to use the restroom after lunch. The aide manager (the one who does the aide training), looked at us and said “she went an hour ago'' and acted like she did not want to help. My brother explained to the care manager that mom needed assistance in the bathroom and finally the aide manager took mom into the bathroom. We spoke with management and no one ever got back with us.

Another time, I pulled the call button by mom's bed and the aide manager arrived and told me not to pull all the call buttons in the room. As I was telling her I only pulled the one by mom's bed, the aide turned and walked away. Another aide witnessed this and said “don't let her spoil your day''.

Understaffed, underpaid and frustrated staff. One aide showed me a list of the eight residents she was responsible for the day. Keep in mind, the majority of these residents are beyond assisted living and are more in the realm of nursing home care.

Another aide, out of frustration, told us that the facility was severely understaffed. Also, the aides phones didn't even work so they were not receiving pages from the residents.
Speaking of being understaffed, on October 9th the aides arrived at approximately 8 am and told mom that they would be back after breakfast to clean her up. At 1:45 pm., no aides had arrived so my brother asked the receptionist who mom's aides were. At that point, the aides arrived and gave mom a bath. During this time, mom's sons and daughter were the ones giving mom water and feeding her applesauce.

One evening, my mother was having a hard time breathing and was in extreme pain. I pressed the call button and when an aide did not arrive, I went to the nurse's station on the second floor but was unable to find anyone. I found two aides on the third floor and explained the situation. It took 20 minutes for the nurse to appear to administer the oral pain medication. When the Hospice nurse spoke with the Regional Director of Nursing for Sunrise, she told the Hospice nurse that a 20 minute wait when someone was in distressed breathing and in pain was acceptable. Because of that situation, a doctor's order was placed that two syringes of medication were to be given to one of mom's adult children at 3 p.m. so they would not have the medication on hand throughout the evening and not have to wait for a nurse to appear to administer the medication. At one point a nurse was uncomfortable with leaving the medication in the room. My brother was able to convince her it was a doctor's order to give him the medication to have on hand so we would not have to wait for help.

Because of the above mentioned situation among others, our Hospice nurse set-up an appointment with Sunrise's regional director of nursing to address some concerns (i.e., inadequate care, red marks appearing on mom's back, etc.) and also talk about mom's care so we would all be on the same page. Hospice representatives, along with my brother and I, met in the Sunrise lobby at the appointed time. That is when the regional director of nursing yelled from across the room that she had another appointment because the Hospice nurse never verified the meeting. The Hospice nurse said “Confirm the meeting? We spoke and agreed on Thursday at 10:30 am''. The nursing director just kept walking. Our Hospice nurse said she had never had to deal with anything like this before.

The management favors other employees and treat them like there nothing. They call meetings that dont make sense leaving the seniors unattended or when they call for help they cant be helped because they said so they run the facilty like its there own home when the call they want u to jump high. Very abusive place to work in. Robin and jay the managers should be fired immediatley they dont know how to work or even resolve problems

When the psychiatrist assigned to my mother in Sunrise retired, Sunrise hired another psychiatrist to re-evaluate her. The new psychiatrist changed her medication, which is always bad for a dimensia patient. The new medication supposedly (no proof has ever been provided) made her psychotic and a danger to other residents, and she would wander at night instead of sleep. They decided to put her in her own room without any authorization, thus raising the monthly rate almost $2000. Executive Director Frank Morosky offered at best a letter explaining why the changes were made, but refused to provide any employee statements or documentation to support his reasoning. The grossly incompetent billing department called me on more than one occasion to tell me I haven't paid in several months (basing the claim off of the balance due rather than the date of last received check). I don't know what program they use to sort payments, but apparently chronological isn't an option. Then their collection department called me and told me that I don't have an argument against the charges because I couldn't prove that I did NOT want the changes. Yes, you read that correctly. Finally, they are trying to terminate the contract because we refuse to give in to their extortion and shady ways. If you want to give them all your money, go right ahead. I'm sure the facility is nice. But from the perspective of an outsider paying for services, you are doomed.

The Director in charge Ann is unprofessional, unfriendly, rude, accuses people of wrong doing.
She should not be in charge of a facility. She has no feelings towards other peoples feelings.
Ann needs to go find another career path to follow.

On June 19, 2010 a Sunrise aide's negligence resulted in my 85-year-old mother falling, breaking her leg, and spending 4 painful months in a rehab home.

Sunrise corporate refused to consider a fair reimbursement. Not only did they never apologize, they treated the entire affair with as cold a heart as they could muster. We asked for what was fair--forgiveness of all fees during Mom's absence and reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses resulting from the negligence-related fall.

Sunrise's attorneys dragged out the process for all four months...never offering anything close to fair compensation, never mind anything extra for the pain and suffering they put my mother through. The fall also resulted in her hip replacement surgery, scheduled for August, to be postponed until the following year.

Yet, despite all this, Mom opted to go back and accept a severely reduced settlement. Two days before she was to return, three Sunrise staffers evaluated her and told her how much they looked forward to her coming back. The next day-- the day before she was to return-- Sunrise refused to readmit her until an agreement was signed, and the only agreement they offered specified that my mother could not return. This is the company professing only the best for your loved ones in their sunset years. They call it The Sunrise Difference. The Sunrise Difference is the cruelty, malice, and disdain with which they treat a resident when that resident has been wronged.

Please feel free to send this to everyone you know with an elderly loved one. Let them know how cold and malicious Sunrise Assisted Living is. Spread the word that no one else should put himself or herself in a position to be treated this way.

On June 19, 2010 a Sunrise Senior Living aide's negligence resulted in my 85-year-old mother falling, breaking her leg, and spending 4 painful months in a rehab home. The fall happened at Sunrise of Jacksonville (FL).

Sunrise corporate refused to consider a fair reimbursement. Not only did they never apologize, they treated the entire affair with as cold a heart as they could muster. We asked for what was fair--forgiveness of all fees during Mom's absence and reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses resulting from the negligence-related fall.

Sunrise's attorneys dragged out the process for all four months...never offering anything close to fair compensation, never mind anything extra for the pain and suffering they put my mother through. The fall also resulted in her hip replacement surgery, scheduled for August, to be postponed until the following year.

Yet, despite all this, Mom opted to go back and accept a severely reduced settlement. Two days before she was to return, three Sunrise staffers evaluated her and told her how much they looked forward to her coming back. The next day-- the day before she was to return-- Sunrise refused to readmit her until an agreement was signed, and the only agreement they offered specified that my mother could not return. This is the company professing only the best for your loved ones in their sunset years. They call it The Sunrise Difference. The Sunrise Difference is the cruelty, malice, and disdain with which they treat a resident when that resident has been wronged.

Please feel free to send this to everyone you know with an elderly loved one. Let them know how cold and malicious Sunrise Assisted Living is. Spread the word that no one else should put himself or herself in a position to be treated this way.

My mother recently broke her leg at Sunrise. They say nothing happened, while the hospital said it was caused by trauma.
They are lying ### who cover up neglecful care.
We are filing a complaint against them and I hope they go out of business. Do not send anyone to Sunrise - a lot of money for crap care.

Sunrise Senior Living in East Setauket is a horrible place. No family should get involved with this totally innapropriate place. The manager Frank Morofsky is completly innapropriate towards family members of residents. His relationships with family members are unprofessional and completly unethical. I highly advise anyone considering Sunrise in East Setauket to re-think their decison and consider another senior living home. Furthermore the other employees are also liar, cheaters, and engage in untheical activities as well, especially with personal relationships and finances.

i had problem with sunrise senior living in boca raton. paid over 6000.00 per month with no insurance and they neglected her to the point where she fell out of her wheelchair. called us and said saw doctor and everything is fine. went to see her and her head was bashed in. both eyes black and blue. called 911 against sunrise's wishes and the paramedics got the incident report. Of course they lied. She had never seen a doctor, no care given and she was transported to the hospital and then to hospice where she died 7 days later. poilice investigated and they found made up reports. autopsy confirmed brain hemotoma

nice, huh?

andrea parkoff
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