Green Oaks Senior Living

I appreciated everything about the Green Oaks Senior Living “home”. Mom joined the Memory care family at the age of 94. She was met with endless respect and love. Under the guidance of Debbie Gross, mom and our family enjoyed the caring staff, the interesting and engaging programs, and the exceptional communications. I personally attended many of the programs and always got a kick out of the laughter and joy the residents experienced. Debbie and her well oiled team gave our family the peace of mind needed in navigating mom’s aging years. Having come from another senior facility where quality care was at times negligent, our family was acutely aware of not only what we wanted, but how vulnerable this population can be. We scrutinized several facilities before selecting Green Oaks Senior Living. No facility is perfect, but by far this one has what it takes to be exceptional. My favorite part was the supportive and caring culture I felt by all the staff within the entire building. So refreshing!

While the apartments are lovely and the people living in them are great, Green Oaks does not seem to be living up to their promises. The dining room is alway understaffed. Often staff members are pulled in from other places to fill in from assisted living, front desk, maintenance, and even the chef. Even though food is supposed to be served restaurant style, for at least the last two weeks there has only been a buffet - which is particularly challenging for residents with mobility issues. My parent says they have the same offerings for lunch and dinner with the scheduled dinner time to rotate residents through. Even with this, I hear sometimes there are no plates or silverware and very little staff to even man the buffet. Previous to the buffets, I have dined with my mother on at least five occasions. Generally the service is slow and erratic, and the plates are rarely cleared or spots at tables turned over to allow for community seating. Clearly the work environment is not a good one, be it lack of training, poor pay, no benefits, possibly difficult chef, terrible shift schedules, or lack of leadership. Probably all of the above. There must be a reason why they are unable to find and maintain quality staff. This last week the word was that they had contacted an agency to hire a new dining service staff, but as of this week there is still NO STAFF! The bistro that was advertised as a second option or alternative to the main dining room where residents could get a soup, sandwich, snack, or coffee at anytime, never seems to be stocked with much of anything, maybe a couple bananas or 3 or 4 hard boiled eggs. Even though when my mom toured another Spectrum facility the bistro was staffed and had a chilled case with sandwiches, salads, yogurt, chip, snacks, and a pot of hot soup. As this facility was recently built and just opened in August of 2017, I have suspended judgment until they were up and fully running with most residents moved in, hoping that the food service would improve, but if anything it has only declined. All of this is especially disconcerting for residents who are paying a lot for a place that offers taking this full meal plan as the only option. I do feel like it's been going on long enough that reparations should be made for services not rendered. There is crazy high staff turn over.

They changed the policies every couple of weeks and so no one ever knew what was going on. When I moved out over the impossible micro management by the corporate office and total incompetency of the in-house staff it took them over 4 months to TRY to get my bill correct which they never did because they refused to speak with me to get the correct information. They just keep sending the wrong bill month after month! After a while they just fired everyone!

My Mother-in-Law spent 3 years in the Green Oaks memory care and just passed away with severe dementia, the last approximately 3 months. Our family is extremely thankful for the great staff, many We would consider as Angels or Saints. They treated Mom with DIGNITY, COMPASSION, RESPECT, and GENUINE LOVE. The nurses and medical staff were always attentive with great communication skills when our family had questions or Mom had an ailment. The facility was clean with a pretty lake to take Mom for a walk, indoor meeting rooms/areas to visit with Mom outside the Memory Care area, and everything we could ask for. The staff would try their best to engage and provide activities, not an easy task with dementia patients. On the night Mom “passed”, we greatly appreciated the support for Mom and our Family. Thank You Green Oaks Staff.

Ever hear the expression, beauty is only skin deep? This is a lovely facility. The building, rooms, landscaping, everything looks wonderful and peaceful. However, our experience with Green Oaks from the spring of 2023 through the spring of 2024 were tumultuous, to be kind. Turnover is high, even at the upper levels. During our time, they got a new director, and two new business managers. These changes in leadership were not communicated except for flyers that were distributed to the mailboxes of residents (not helpful for memory care). My mother-in-law's long term insurance claims were routinely filed late, or filed incorrectly. Late fees would then be assessed to us, and a great deal of work was required to get them reversed. Another important thing to understand about these all-in-one places is that most everything is the same about the memory care wing, with the addition of secured doors and more staff supervision. The actual programming in memory care was often inferior to that of the folks in assisted living. Your parent will probably be quite happy here if they are in independent or assisted living. However, I would ask a lot of questions about memory care and carefully consider whether you want a facility that specializes in it should your parent start to suffer from moderate-to-severe dementia.