Benchmark Senior Living

Within the last month, there has been a huge turnover in staff, with upper management. There has been a lot of inconviences, due to renovation taking place. There needs to be better commnucation with the residents, with any changes going on with the renovation process. Someone needs to be more sensitive, to the needs of the residents. I am really hoping that the renovation process is nice, and the staffing issue gets resolved. The current staff is friendly and hardworking.

Benchmark is understaffed. When we came to them with concerns, I think they listened but couldn't really correct the understaffing issue quickly. Maybe they don't pay well or employees leave because of the understaffing. I'm not sure. We moved our loved one out of Benchmark because of the understaffing issue. Her care was sub-par and we had several instances there.

This facility is a good place, I really liked it. Mom was happy here and she loved it. They were good to her. There were a few times where I had to advocate for her to get things done. And I feel like her Physical Therapy could have been better. But it all worked out. They had some really good Aides here who worked with mom to help her be mobile often, she loved to walk. They also had a lot of good activities and always had something going on each day. Mom loved the exercise class. I would recommend this facility to family and friends.

My loved one has a debilitating illness, and we were disappointed by the lack of understanding from the care providers. For example, he can't move his legs. And when they moved him, they continued to tell him to move his legs, over and over again. They just weren't willing to take the time to listen to what he had to say. He's as easygoing as they come, but they didn't have compassion for him living in a body that just doesn't work, which is frustrating to him. I didn't see the nurses doing things to meet his needs, nor was I educated on what I could do to help meet his needs. The front desk staff were very friendly, but the care providers not so much. The cost was higher, yet the quality of care was significantly less in terms of respecting him as a human being. When I would talk to them about my concerns, they responded positively. But there seemed to be a disconnect between administration and caretakers, because we just didn't see results.

It is a place for someone who was not in the condition of our loved one. She was not properly assessed and died there. She needed more care than we were aware of for bed sores and Sunrise did not assess properly before she was admitted that she needed more care than she received.

It is very expensive. I believe the staff care about their clients but they are very poor at communicating with the family. Any changes in med of behavior are not communicated to spouse or POA. Even internally there can be a communication void, ie between PT and nurse.

I toured this facility and it was ok. I didn't care for the looks of it overall. It felt very 'clinical,' not what we were looking for.

I would not suggest the branches to a friend or family member.

Overall, I just feel like we were a bit oversold. Upon moving my loved one in, we were promised one on one care and that issues would be addressed. But that hasn't been the case. I feel like everyone there is pretty nice and my loved one has a roof over her head, but most times that's about it. My loved one needs help with little things, like using the phone/dialing the number and she doesn't get that. To be fair, she's not good about asking for help. But I've told them that several times. I was hoping that communicating that to them would help them be a little more proactive and that they would make it a point to check in on her a little bit more. But they don't. So it seems to be a problem on both ends. Every time I call, they are very nice. But the issues still remain. I'm not sure if it's a staffing issue or what the problem is. I will say their food is delicious and my loved one is very happy with that. Also, housekeeping is very good about tidying up and asking her if she needs laundry done, etc. At this point, I'm not sure if I would recommend them to family and friends.

I am not happy with the care, that my loved one has been receiving. They are not getting what is required. The food quality is fine. Sometimes, they are not notifying my loved one during meal time. They are short staffed. It's a great community for anyone who requires less care. I am more concerned about the care services, and they have not been following through with assisting my loved one. Overall, It's a nice community, and they are down to earth.

I have experienced a general lack of communication from The Branches. I also feel like they're understaffed. While they might meet minimum state requirements, the staff are overworked. I expect the corers to be caring for the people there, but they seem to have additional duties, such as doing the laundry, serving the meals, washing up, things that I would class as housekeeping and catering duties. And that takes away from their ability to care for the people there. For instance, lots of time after dinner, everybody is assembled in one area, and there's no staff keeping an eye on them. They're all off cleaning up after dinner.

I found Benchmark Senior Living at Split Rock to be very depressing inside.

We just did not like the environment at this community for the fact that there is one caregiver for so many residents so we did not feel like this was a good place for my loved one.

The people are very nice. Some of the aides are very nice, and some are very rough. The private aides called one of the aides in the community to assist with moving my loved one up, and the aid at the community couldn't assist due to an injury. They did laundry; however, they didn't do it well. The director and administrative staff were excellent. The apartment my loved one had was great. The community offers a lot. If your loved one is more active this would be perfect for them. If your loved one is hard of hearing, or hard of understanding of accents it might make it harder for the resident to understand the staff.

The facility is clean, and they were very responsive, but they were not really good at communicating in-house We took our loved one out for a planned week away, and we locked his door so no one would go in there. But every day we checked on it, and it was open. The staff was still going in and out to do things and hadn't been communicated with about that planned absence. After talking to the director, she said they have a lot of agency people coming in to help. But I still don't understand why that wouldn't have been communicated to them. They were kind of slow in getting back to us, especially regarding billing issues, although they have a new financial director and it seems they're still working out the bugs with that.

The selling points did not come through. They said they had Yale lecturers coming there. That didn't happen. They said they have the Yale acapella group come. That never happened. My loved one needed the social interaction and that didn't happen. You could walk down the hall for forever and not see a single person. They made promises they couldn't keep. The director of nursing was very nice and helpful. Some of the staff were really nice and some of the CNA's. Meals where good. The activities where bingo and knitting, not the things they sold in the tour. The activities schedule always looked full. The room would have 1 or 2 there to participate. This is not worth the price. We were being charged almost double the price they listed on their website.

Seemed like a hospital with an order and didn't seem clean.

We have had a few issues so far. My loved one had an incident where she went into congestive heart failure in her room. She never pushed the call button, but a family member just happened to stop by and see that she was in distress. That family member pressed the call button three times in half an hour with no response. That is unacceptable. Those call buttons should be top priority. She had to call the front desk to say there was an emergency, and our loved one ended up in the hospital for a few days. Also there was a Covid case, and my loved one called me to tell me they were giving her a Covid test. I never got anything official from Carriage Green. Her POA in our family never got anything from them either. So we emailed them to see what was going on. One of the staff said they had sent an email to me. But I never got it. They should have at least notified her POA right away. So there are problems with communication with them. They're not keeping us informed of what's going on, and I would like to see that improved. I do like their activities. My loved one is very pleased with those, and I like that they have a lot of things going on and that she's getting out and socializing. The food is good as well.

I was not to sure about this community. I would continue to look and explore other options when it comes to this community.