Assisted Living Communities in Nora Springs, IA

"The food is great. The help is very caring."

"My mother-in-law was a resident there for five months. I informed one of the personnel at the front desk that we were going to be on vacation and for which dates. I get a call on our vacation informing me that they would not be able to keep her there and they had scheduled a doctor's appointment without consulting me first. This happened to be the day after my husband was having a prostrate biopsy in the hospital. Then I was informed she would have to be out by that Friday. Her appointment was Wednesday and out by Friday and they were holding a room at their affiliated nursing home. We returned from vacation late Monday, husband had biopsy on Tuesday and then her appointment on Wednesday. The facility cares nothing for what is going on in your life. We were told that as long as she could go to the bathroom herself, they would take care of her even though she was having memory problems. The minute she needed a little more assistance, they wanted her out. The day I picked her up for her doctor's appointment, 3 staff were in the lunch room just having a great time and when I returned her from the doctor, the staff at the desk was on her phone. It seems to me that if the staff did the job they were being paid to do there should be no problem. They did not even give us a chance to talk to my mother-in-law and explain to her that she could not be bothering the staff for nonemergency issues. Kentucky Ridge gave us no options, no second chance, no nothing. DO NOT PUT YOUR LOVED ONE HERE BECAUSE THE MINUTE THEY BECOME JUST A LITTLE DIFFICULT, THEY ARE OUT THE DOOR. My husband is legally blind and I have been the only driver in our family for a long time. His sister passed away 2 years ago so my husband and I are her only relatives. My husband could very well have prostrate cancer and we are awaiting the results and you would think Kentucky Ridge could take our circumstances into consideration and give us a little more time to make arrangements to move my mother-in-law but they do not care. "

"My father stayed at Cornerstone. It's nice, but the apartments were dated. The staff was very friendly. The food was very good, but the dining area was a very long way from the apartments. Housekeeping was very marginal and there were a few activities available. There were some bus trips to the grocery stores and shopping, music therapy, and exercise classes."

"We really liked the Homestead of Mason City's assisted living, but it was so expensive that we don't have that kind of money. They were all very pleasant and had a lot of good things that we would have enjoyed. The person who assisted us was a very nice lady. She still calls me back once in a while. It was a beautiful place to look out the windows, and the people were all friendly, including the workers. Everybody we stopped to talk to who was working was very open to talk to us about what they were working on. It's not really big, but it's just very nice. They are very good at having food available any time you want it. For instance, you could go and have food to heat up in the kitchen if you needed it after supper. They also serve three meals a day, and that was very important to me. It's assisted living only, and they said they give you a necklace with a button on it. If you need something, somebody will be there pretty quickly. It's almost like having a nursing home there with them. That was one of the big things about them. They're very willing to come and help you. The rooms were not big, but bigger than some others we've looked at. They have different sizes, too, and there's room for one or two beds, so you can have a second bed. There were a lot of options. I think they also told me that they can get us a hospital bed if we want one. That sounds kind of expensive, so that impressed me. I wondered how many people had had those beds there because we didn't look in that many rooms to tell what everyone's beds actually were."

"Apple Valley Place Osage was very good, very clean, and very nice. However, it's a little farther from me to visit my sister if she's in there. It's probably about 30 miles away from me. The person who showed me the place and did everything was very nice. The atmosphere inside was very nice and very pleasant. And my sister would like it. The dining room was very nice and very clean."

"I toured Country Meadow Place for my dad. It was very pleasant, very homely, and very community-based. It was very clean and didn't have a chemical smell. It was a clean smell and fresh. It also was very open. The staff was very polite and very knowledgeable. We saw the common area, dining area, activities area, and the workout area or the physical therapy area. We also saw a 1-bedroom. I thought it was very spacious and easy to get around. The cable access was easy and individuals could rearrange it to their wants or needs."