Asbury Methodist Village — Local services in Gaithersburg

I am not big on writing online reviews especially when they are negative but since we relied on reviews to make our choice for a family member, I feel it is important to share what we personally experienced since I believe our experience could be indicative of how others may be treated and could seriously affect others and their loved ones. We personally had a bad experience with the Wilson Health and Rehab facility. This review pertains to the Wilson Health Care side, not the long term residential or assisted living. I have heard great things about those facilities which made us even more surprised at the care we received in the Wilson facility. I also want to mention that we tried repeatedly to work with the staff and management directly and felt the response was significantly lacking to put it nicely. We ultimately had to relocate our loved one to another facility where the attention to detail was much improved.

Part of the issue I believe stems from their sales approach to wanting to acquire patients. The sales staff is very friendly and said yes to everything we asked. We asked if special dietary needs could be accommodated since that was a critical part of care in our situation and were told - absolutely! They failed miserably to address the dietary concerns. Our loved one also kept running out of drinking water. We would find her showing signs of dehydration and needing water. We repeatedly asked that they get her setup with a pitcher instead of the small cups they would provide since she would drink a cup and have to wait extended periods for staff to check on her later in the day for a refill. They told us they would not provide a pitcher since they were afraid patients might use a pitcher in an ice machine causing a germ transfer risk....we went out and purchased a pitcher for her to be able to have a supply of water. I have never seen a hospital type setting like the Wilson Facility without a way to keep patients hydrated! It was one snafu after another with staff bringing the incorrect foods and time and time again we would speak with them and remind them about the sensitivity of the diet plan. The next day it would start all over again with the wrong foods being delivered to the room. We alerted management and felt as though they just didn't have the ability to properly manage the staff. Management blamed it on staff being independent contractors and turnover to a large extent and said they would keep trying to get the word out about the dietary issues. We found one helpful nurse who witnessed and recognized the issue and our ongoing attempts to get it corrected and she posted warning signs at the door about the diet; staff still violated the restrictions. Management appeared not to have a reliable way to broadcast patient messages to staff and it seemed management had to remember to run down each person and say - remember, no milk products to room 100 as an example. Then they would tell us they didn't get to one of the staff that day and they made the meal delivery so they would be sure to get the message to them. Then staff changed and it happened over and over. If a patient's allergies include milk, you should not deliver milk or products containing milk to their room where dementia patients especially are likely to consume them and get sick.

We tried having conferences with management but in my opinion they don't seem to want to accept responsibility. They passed the buck to other staff or issues. They are in charge - they run the facility and they need to find a better way to communicate patient allergies and dietary problems so they don't repeatedly deliver the wrong foods to patients. We were lucky to be able to have family at the facility as often as we did so we witnessed the problem and kept reporting and correcting it. Many families don't have the ability to have someone sit with their loved one and things like our issues would go unreported only to potentially cause a patient to have allergic reactions complicating their care. There is more to the story but space is...

Where you live can make all the difference. Asbury Methodist Village (AMV), in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is an incredible campus with beautiful 134 acres of green pastures, rolling hills, lovely flowering trees, and two great ponds with paved walkway around the ponds. This 1400 residence campus of continuing care retirement community has five high-rise apartments plus an assisted living apartment, and a nursing facility, Villas, and Courtyard Homes. How one ages-health, cognition, strength, balance, happiness-is determined primarily by the lifestyle choices made not genetic make-up. My wife and I made the transition to Asbury ten years ago. After living in one of the apartment building, Edward Fisher, moved to the Courtyard Home. We were able to watch our house being built from Edward Fisher. We moved to the Courtyard home in May 2011. While many people relocate to retirement communities after they leave the workforce, some Americans are moving to one before to stepping away from the office. I for instance, live at AMV and continue to work for the Federal Government full time. There are so many factors played into transitioning to this continuing care community. The most significant is that the Asbury residents are never asked to leave due to outliving their resources through no fault of their own. The others are the design excellence of the lovely Courtyard home. Courtyard has large enough to various plants, outdoor table and chairs, large enough for our son and grandchildren to play games and cook-outs, when they used to visit prior to COVID. We quite often get together with our neighbors, having social hour, pot lucks, parties including Christmas party. COVID has not restricted us to get together in “pergola” on Fridays following social distancing, and social hour with zoom on Tuesdays. There are several main features of this 2 bed rooms with a den, two car garage courtyard home. The natural light pouring in every room, including great room with double glass door to courtyard, the den with five windows looking at Asbury campus and courtyard. Another great feature is the spacious two car garage with some store above ceiling and storage shelves all along the three sides of the garage wall. All of the maintenance work including grass cutting and snow removal are taken care of by the excellent Asbury associates. We enjoy walks around the ponds and around the campus. We also enjoy swimming, exercise in the wellness center. There are three large and beautiful dining halls, a café and a blue note to have a bite and to relax with friends. We also a café called Russell avenue café. We can walk to the Rosborough building, which houses a bank, a convenient store, a gym, a large size pool, a theatre, and a studio. We enjoy cultural programs and movies in the theater. The wellness associates are very friendly and caring. All in all residents are very friendly and take time to talk. We looked a few other retirement communities, but nothing as nice as AMV. We strongly recommend for anyone who is thinking of transitioning to a retirement community, to consider...

As we start our 8th year at Asbury, I'm reflecting on how grateful we are that we chose to move in our mid-70s. For a full 7 years we've been able to take advantage of Asbury's MANY fitness programs, all the social activities provided by both our Villa neighborhood and the larger campus. We are convinced we are healthier and happy for these years (rather than waiting until our late 70's or 80s). The friends we've made we've now had for 7 years! And they are wonderful. I happily encourage any prospects to take advantage as early as they are able of the many advantages of senior living at Asbury.

We are now starting our fifth year at Asbury. In this updated review what I want to highlight is the feeling of community that exists on the campus. In a relatively short time we have developed wonderful friendships with both our neighbors here in the Villas and with friends "across the street" who live in apartments or the Courtyard Homes. Our neighbors are interesting, involved and committed to many of the same values of caring for others and our larger community as we are. Walks on the campus typically take longer than anticipated because of the opportunity to greet and chat with both folk we know and folk we haven't formally met. Of all the great things about Asbury, this is the one I value the most.

My husband and I have lived in a villa for the past three years (October through May) and have found it to be everything we wanted in a CCRC and more. "Anticipate More" is a very appropriate motto. And what do we love: our villa and its floor plan (the Winterberry), our wonderful neighbors who are so friendly, caring and interesting, the trees -- every where on our beautiful campus, the ponds, the wildlife which is abundant. The associates are super -- from the executive director down to every single other associate. Their smiles are sincere, their friendliness part of the everyday ambiance, and their help dependable. Because we live in a villa we cook most of our meals -- an activity we enjoy, but when we go to one of the dining rooms the food never disappoints. I need to mention also the Wellness Center and its wonderful staff, the pool. As you can see I truly love this place.

Well, it's now November 2022 and we have happily made AMV and our villa our FULL TIME YEAR ROUND HOME. AMV has so many advantages our part time home on Cape Cod lacked. As I wrote above the social life with our neighbors and friends is tops. Take a class and chat with a friend; walk to get the mail and again, there's almost always someone to visit with. Evening classes twice a week with the Keese School offer interesting learning and again some socializing. If one wants to continue to serve there are always opportunities on the campus -- which means in these later years life continues to be very meaningful. The associates we see most often (for me in the Wellness Center and with the Spiritual Life department) are almost like family. Living in a villa means that we have an abundance of trees --...