Benchmark Senior Living

pay attention to details during your tour Check trash outside front door Coffee and tea area missing cups or drinks Healthy Menu items constantly not available: fish, carrots, fruit one weekday trip but no evening outings Room cleaning not always available due to staff turnover Beauty services a few hours on Friday with months of zero services Management communication poor Rooftop patio not well maintained or used Dinner service takes @an hr due to understaffing Staff try their best under challenging environment

Overall, Benchmark is a nice facility, Floor staff are very friendly and helpful and most importantly to the residents like my mother. The facility is nice and clean and recently remodeled. Negatively speaking, we were just hit with an 11% increase for my mother's care. Which is very excessive and contrary to what I was told I could expect for annual increases when I went through the due diligence process before moving my mother in. The administrative staff has not been very helpful with regard to discussion on this issue.

Overall dad had a fairly good experience at Evans Park. They were a bit too quick to call an ambulance for a minor fall. The first year they had him listed and charged at a higher rate than he should have been. Not until a full time Director of Care was there and did a reevaluation was his status changed. There was no transparency on the original evaluation. There was an ongoing issue with housekeeping and their inability to properly make a bed or hang up his clothes. The majority of the staff were fabulous and became family for dad and for me. They were a phenomenal support group during dad's last months. For us they exuded love. We still keep in touch. I will be forever grateful for their love and especially their hugs.

I was expecting the director to be more responsive to requests for information about my loved one. The facility itself is quite nice and the staff seem friendly, but I expected more for the high cost.

The staff is friendly. I think that the cost is very high, I don't know if anyone else could afford it

I have nothing to compare Benchmark with. My mother seems happy. We're generally ok with Benchmark but the administration could be better at communicating between departments.

Regarding memory care, I was told residents would be taken on outings but that never occurred while my loved one was there. Activities are not really patient centered as promoted in Marketing. Snacks offered could be healthier. Fresh fruit appeared to be limited to breakfast. Not sure all staff are adequately trained to deal with Alzheimer patients. Some of the furniture needs replacing in common areas. Dining room chairs are heavy and make loud screeching sounds on the floor that are not conducive to Alzheimer patients. I did mention this to staff on more than one occasion.

It's a clean, up-to-date building. The care could be improved. My mother fell and was left on the ground for nearly an hour and had to call 911 for herself from the ground although her room was directly next to the nurses station.

For the meals are often good but very high cholesterol and except for salads, they cannot do vegetables. We would recommend this community to other families based on the experience we have had so far.

They are very friendly, knowledgeable, and try their best to accommodate. Does not always follow through well. And the tiered pricing is not inclusive. If you don't fully understand what's included you will have surprise charges. The place mom is at is more inclusive services band for a lesser price. No hidden charges. They include items in their top tier Coachman did not and for $1000 +less. For activities, the coordinator could have been more engaging. She could have walked the room to encourage the members to participate. As a teacher, I recognize the lack of engagement and enthusiasm. I would have picked songs that would elicit motivation for movement. I actually got up and did one.

I would say that they do minimal care for those that pay for the highest level of care. They said they could take care of someone with ALS but there was no one there experienced enough to do this. We provided education etc but they didn't connect with my step father in a way that made him feel cared for.

Overall experience: I have to say that of the 12 to 15 assisted-living places that my family and I looked at along with my mom, the Orchard Estates was by far the nicest one. It was the cleanest, the one with the nicest outside areas and the furniture and the Physical plant were only four years old, so it was not worn down like many of the other ones that we had seen. That remains to be a +4 Orchard Estates, but the reason I didn't give it a number five is because they seem to be unable to fix an air conditioning problem that they've had for the entire year that My Mom has been there, and the air conditioner leaks right over the front lobby as you walk in. I feel like it's very dangerous to the residence that someone could slip and fall, and I feel that they should have gotten it fixed by now. In all fairness, I haven't been there in very hot weather yet so I'll have to see if they've been able to get it fixed this summer. Also, the administration is somewhat lacking. The executive director seems to pretend to care, but does not ever address any concerns that we have had, such as a group of women sitting near the back door complaining that people shouldn't use it to go out into the garden. That's ridiculous! Anybody should be able to use that door. I have had to force my mom to use the door because she's been bullied into not using it so it's things like that and also things like they're having been a very bad Covid outbreak over the winter and they did not handle it very well, so that's why my score is not a five. Cleanliness of the facility: I gave it only a four because sometimes the public bathrooms on the first floor are not sparkling clean. However, I have to say that of all of the assisted-living that we visited, Orchard states was definitely the cleanest and remains to be the cleanest to date. They do a very good job cleaning my mom's room, there's never a speck of dust anywhere, and they're very responsive to, cleaning up emergency spills and things like that. Housekeeping staff is very diligent in terms of changing linens and washing laundry. It's just short of being "excellent" because of those bathrooms that could use a little more work. Friendliness. Again, I gave it a 4, not a 5, because of the lack of friendliness of the executive Director and some of the administration. However, the aides, especially the head aide and the aides and the kitchen staff that take care of My Mom on a regular basis, are exceptionally great. They are very friendly and attentive. Some of the staff of the activities, especially the Director, could be more friendly. They are also sometimes very unattentive. Quality of Care: I answered this question with the understanding that "care" meant medical care and general overall care at the place. I gave it a three because I'll give you an example of what's happening today. My mom seems to have a bad cough, and by now, the third day of this bad cough, the nurse should have referred her for a doctors appointment at very least and perhaps a chest x-ray at Best. I feel that they wait until the resident gets sick enough to go to the emergency emergency room because they don't want to bother taking care of them there. I know this sounds terrible but this has happened to my mom several times since she's been there as she has gotten sick at least three times. So I feel that the quality of care could be better. Food: I gave the food a four but perhaps it should really be a three because they do not cater to individual requests. They do not have any sugared sodas because so many people there have diabetes, but my mother does not and family members that visit do not, and we cannot get any sugared sodas there for lunch or dinner. that being said, the quality of the food overall is good, meaning that it is fresh and that it seems to be adequately prepared. They do have a good variety of foods available and my mom really likes the food there which is more than half the battle, which is why I gave it a 4. Activities: I gave it a three because they do not have a "theater room" like almost all of the other assisted-living's that we looked at did have. I think that's a huge miss on their part. There seems to be very little space dedicated to "activities" and the activities are repetitive and My Mom doesn't find them very interesting. Her 93-year-old hands can't do crafts beading so she stays in her room instead. She doesn't enjoy the book club and some of the movies and does like the Orchard Estate van that takes her to Catholic Church every Sunday morning. They should have a piano so that they could bring in piano players to play classical music or something like that and they don't have that either. They do have a lot of lunches out which my mom does not want to do because she's already paying for the food there and you have to pay for the lunch out. She does like going on the shopping trips occasionally. She likes the fact that there is an on-site Salon every Wednesday and can get her hair done every week. Value for the money: well this one is a really hard one because most of the other assisted-livings that we looked at were $3-4000 more a month. So I really can't complain too much about the money but they do raise the price every six months, which was something that they did not discuss with us before Mom signed the contract. I felt like that was a bit of a bait and switch. Also, they reevaluate My Mom every six months and add more services on so that ups the cost. She started there a little bit under $7000 & now one year later, she's paying over $8000 per month. So when you talk about the value for the money, it's kind of hard because, yes it is less expensive than the Atria or Bristol or Sunrise or the other ones like that, but it also is the farther distance out on the LE and it is a smaller physical plant than those other places are. I'd have to say the final arbiter of whether it's a good value for the money is whether my mother likes or not, and she generally does like it, although she is not happy to be living in any assisted living place, I have to say that she is "content" there.

Most of the staff are friendly and caring.

The reason for overall experience being 3 is because for the entire past 10 months, the building has been under construction and it was a nightmare. (Water turned off a lot, elevators not working, mess everywhere). Also, the staff turnover was huge. It seemed like everybody in leadership positions were leaving every few months and a new person coming, so it was very hard to get to know anybody. And many of the staff care people do not speak English very well.

Facing the reality that you can no longer care for your loved one in their home is a heartbreaking and difficult decision. After much research, phone calls and visits to facilities, my family and i decided on an assisted living community for memory care. Although, Many caregivers are very kind and caring. It is unfortunate that other caregivers are disrespectful, dismissive and inattentive to the residents.

My loved one is currently a resident at Benchmark at Ridgefield Crossings and overall the facility is okay. The place is clean, but worn and dated. It is hospitality- more acutely care. My loved one doesn't care for the food. The activities are on par with most places. Some good, some just okay. It's not expensive per se, but they up charge for various things which add up and increase overall cost.

Would recommend if needed extensive physical or mental support. Isn't meant for independent living. He has moved to another facility, which we are happier at.

If you are looking for high level of care for someone with a more complex health issue, this is not the place. They had made some early promises about the level of care and help we would receive when it was time to move, and we just did not ever see those things from them. They assured us that our situation was one they could handle when in reality they were not ever able to.

We love the facility location. Staff generally has constructive attitudes. They need to reduce the turnover. The staff is not always aware/informed of my mom's special needs.

Overall, I would not recommend The Branches of Marlboro and was disappointed with the experience given the cost of care and assurance this was the best fit for my parents at this stage of their lives