Veranda of Pensacola

After watching the staff decorate for Christmas this week this week I realized that this will be my 10th Christmas at Veranda. I am so fortunate to be able to live in a place where people really try to make things nice and to make my life better thank you to the staff And my fellow residents at Veranda

Sad. That is all I can say about this failing facility. They are known amongst the area professionals as the “Walkie Talkie Facility.” In other words if you can walk and talk, you are welcome, but once you have a hard time with mobility they do everything in their power to get you to leave, while charging you out the whazoo. And the worst part is they lie to the elderly and tell them that they have the special licenses to keep them until they die. Maybe they do, but they make sure you leave once you require any level of physical assistance. They also tout a 3 minute call response time, and yet, it was often 45 minutes. Then they claim the call system broke. Several times my mom had to crawl, yes crawl into the hallway and yell for help. Their call system is also easy to cheat. What I mean by that is that when a resident hits their call bracelet, the call goes to a pager. The problem is that the call can be dismissed from the pager, with no response from the staff. This makes it seem as though the staff is responding very quickly, when in fact they are ignoring the call. I watched it happen numerous times while visiting, and even pointed it out to management. Later when they kept neglecting my mother, and not responding she would eventually give up and try to get up on her own and would immediately fall. They refused to provide the call data claiming HIPPA concerns, and then claimed they don’t even collect it! Which is ridiculous considering you can’t report data (3 minutes response) if you don’t actually collect data. Then because my mother would fall from their neglect (on average once or twice a month), they demanded we hire private sitters for 14 hours a day. This made her total cost of care go to $20,000 per month! And they said if she fell even once in the middle of the night they would require we pay for 24 hour sitters which would have made her cost be around $30,000 a month. Then let’s talk about the food. It is truly disgusting. Maybe it’s fine for the independent living side, but sadly they assisted living side has their food shipped up from the independent side, and re-plated. By the time they get it, it is cold or soggy with grease. My mom had diarrhea every time she ate. Then there is the theft. Clothes and bedding, and even her laundry basket were stolen from her room when she wasn’t in there. Someone literally came in, dumped her clothes from her basket onto the floor of her bedroom and stole the basket! The staff never took the theft seriously. I am guessing more was stolen, but that is what she noticed. They supposedly have hall cameras, and should be able to see who the resident thief is, but just like calls for help, they ignore the residents when they voice concern. I want to be fair and state that SOME of the staff are kind, and genuinely try to do a good job, but they have horrible turnover because management is downright nasty. The good staff is often overworked and forced to work multiple overtime and over night shifts. Multiple times, when my mom was neglected, the ONE person on the whole floor would apologize and tell my mom they were so sorry but no one else showed up for work that evening. There are supposed to to 4-5 people on the floor at all times, and yet there is only one. Even during the day they are often short staffed. And because they choose to line their own pockets, rather than pay a livable wage, the quality of people they often get leave much to be desired, and sometimes are downright nasty to the residents. Plus, they barely have any activities for the assisted living people, and if they do, they make no effort to get them to there. If you love your parent, put them elsewhere . I’m actually glad we moved her. The new place has great food, tons of activities, a call system that can’t be cheated (and they provide the data on request), and she is so much happier.

I would not house my animal their. They have terrible secrets

This review is for the nurses and nursing staff at Veranda of Pensacola. My mother is in assisted living at this facility and we are so impressed with all of the nurses and helpers in this facility. They are on the ball they make sure that they take care of anything that you ask of them and they do it promptly with a smile. My mother is so enjoying all of their attention, and so is the family. While I am praising the nursing staff, I also would like to add a word for all of the staff and support staff at the Veranda. They are excellent and are very caring. If I could give them 10 stars, I would! Thanks to all of you, Sarah-and judy

Such a disappointment. First they lie to get you to leave your parent in their care and then as soon as your parent requires any level of effort they want them gone. They said they were the only facility in Pensacola with the licensure to allow someone to age in place and provide the highest level of care. Not only do they not have that particular licensure, they can’t keep their staff. Many many times there has only been one person on a whole floor to care for over 100 old people. While there are certainly some very sweet people working there, there are an equal number of highly impatient staff who act put out if they are called for assistance. The food is downright terrible on the Assisted Living floor. It is often cold and gives my parent constant diarrhea. The sales department claims they have a 3 minute call response time, when in fact it is closer to 30 minutes. Much like the other reviewer, I am now hearing that several other people have moved out recently.