Mountain View Centers — Local services in Claremont

If I could give this death trap a zero, I would. Many of the caretakers are wonderful but the management is inept and does not know how to maintain adequate staffing to care for your loved one. Additionally, she does not build up and encourage her staff for excellent work or hold them accountable for neglect. She will smile and tell you everything is fine but believe me, it is NOT fine.

I spent many hours there visiting my father. He was languishing. He was better cared for than many other residents because he had a steady stream of visitors. Still, he almost always smelled like urine and he got UTI’s and pneumonia over and over. He also, had lots of bruises and skin tears. Many residents go unchanged for hours and hours because of poor staffing, especially at night.

Inexperience caregivers often banged my dad’s elbows or hands going through doorways. Once my dad was near a wall and the blood from his arm was smeared all over the wall in the kitchen. I pointed it out to a caretaker before I left so she could clean it. The next day, it was still there. On the 4th day, it was still there so I told one of the ladies in the office and she had someone clean it.

Another time, I noticed my dad was wearing a blood soaked bandaid. Underneath, he had a deep gash on his thumb that was still bleeding. I asked the caregivers what had happened and no one knew, strange because it was newly bandaged.

I have seen residents get in physical fights where one lady had her arm broken. One young adult male resident would carry a 90 year old woman around and call her “baby” and “honey” then sit with his arm around her.

This place is so hungry for money, they will admit anyone. One angry and paranoid resident hit a caregiver over the head with a heavy item and she had to go to the hospital. The same man told me he would “shoot my father in the head”, if I didn’t help him escape.

Once when I took my dad for a walk, I found a resident laying on the ground and bleeding behind the building. I ran inside but I couldn’t find any caregivers! I yelled and no one came. I called 911 and finally, a resident went and found a caregiver. I was still on the phone with 911 and I asked the caregivers for the address so I could give it to 911 and they REFUSED to give it to me because “only caregivers can call 911”.

When the paramedics came, I asked them what they thought of Mountain View Center and if they had much dealings with them. The paramedic told me they were there often and he would not put a family member there. He stated that they were disorganized (never had information ready for emergency workers) and poorly staffed.

I started a Family Council at Mountain View Center to see if I could enact some change. The first thing I asked for was to have management post daily staffing in a place all family members and visitors could see it, but it never happened. When she did eventually post staffing, it was a small sheet on her office door away from foot traffic.

There are 40 beds and when my dad was there 38 residents. They had only two people on the schedule for overnight. Sometimes, there was ONE caregiver at night. ONE persons to check on all those patients and change their diapers. If there was a fire, many of those residents would perish.

Again, many of he caretakers are wonderful BUT they can not care for your loved ones the way they would like to because they are stretched thin. There is no accountability if they do not do their job and no appreciation when they do their job well.

I could go on, but I have wasted too much time on this place already. My father is now in a small board and care with 5 other elderly people. Most of them are able to walk and take care of themselves. My father is the only one with Dementia so he gets even more care. He is always clean and well feed. He no longer gets UTI’s or pneumonia. Best of all it costs LESS than this graveyard.

Please consider a small board and care for your loved one. My dad is at Genesis Manor in Claremont. I found them through A Place for Mom and I am...

I should have written this review years ago. ..and i'm still angry about it.

My mom lived there a few years back, and due to her illness of late stage dementia and parkinsons, she was only able to give "yes" and "no" answers, and she was also almost totally immobile. One day, upon walking into her room, somehow she was able to scoot her body up against the very edge of the bed (with side rails up), but her face was smashed into the steel rails. God only knows how long she was laying there that way. I moved her back to the center of the bed and then went out into the hallway and told a caregiver, but she was busy with another resident so my concern was almost completely ignored. I honestly don't even know if they understood what I was trying to tell them since many of them did not speak english very well.

At another visit, my mom was laying there groaning in her bed. ...and since she could not speak in full sentences, I had to keep asking her what she needed. "are you cold?".. she responded "no."... "are you hot?" .. "no." .. "are you thirsty?", and my mom blurted out a desperate "YES!". This very moment was nothing short of pure heartbreak. No patient should ever have to go through this. Makes me tear up even thinking about it now. I rushed to get her a cup of water. ..and afterwards, i again told the caregivers, but not much of a response was related back. If I remember correctly, I believe this is the time I decided to notify management, but there was no one available to speak with, of course.

These two incidents that I witnessed while my mom stayed there were absolutely devastating. I DO NOT, in any way, blame the caregivers. I saw how overworked and understaffed they were. It is the owner and management I blame. What's worse was that this place was ridiculously expensive. So my question is, where is all the money going? Certainly not to hire an adequate amount of staff, that's for sure.

...and this is just an insignificant addendum to this review, but the receptionist who worked the front desk years ago (don't know if she's still there, tall skinny young brunette, maybe Christine was her name, but not positive), she was the snippiest, most prissy and condescending person i've come in contact with in a long while. i'd be standing right at the glass french doors waiting to be buzzed in and she would be on the phone facing towards me, pretending not to see me. i waited and waited until she finally decided to buzz me in on her own time. BUT.. when the owner (Indian lady, don't know her name) happened to be there in the front office, of course the receptionist was just as sweet as one can be. ..ridiculous.

As stated in the beginning, this was quite a few years back. I can only hope that they have cleaned up their...

If I could give 0 stars I would! I put my dad here for 2 days, during my sons wedding. First they sent me papers to fill out and apparently not all of them. Because over the counter calcium wasn’t on my list and drs list it created a big mess and to make a long story short, kept me over an hour to fill out more paperwork which caused my heavy schedule to be thrown off and I had to stay up til 5:00 in the morning decorating. Then up by 8:00, so I was so tired for my sons wedding. Then I told them my 88 year old dad was an introvert and enjoyed being in his room and watching tv. They said I could bring tv for my dad and then refused to hook it up. He shared a room with a young guy and the room was a hot mess. I was told housekeeper would clean it up which was never done. I stopped by to check on my dad Saturday between venues and my dad was laying in bed, no tv. Sunday when I arrived to pick him up he was so shaken up for they locked him out of his room and he was sitting on his hard walker while the care givers played cards. They told him all morning they didn’t have key to get in his room so he could lay down. Yet she not only had key but roommate was sleeping in room. Big fat liers! My dads tv never hooked up all weekend and he was tramatized by the experience and slept the entire next two days. I felt so bad. If your desperate look somewhere else. When I first toured everything looked okay, boy was I wrong. Sunday it smelled bad in there, and everyone looked drugged out. I promised my dad he would NEVER go there...