Pacifica Senior Living Palm Springs

At Brookdale Palm Springs, the staff is OK, but they've got their ups and downs. It ranges from anything to not emptying his trashcan. If I see something wrong, I go to the director's office. It's been two years since my friend has been there, and I'm there everyday. The rooms are nice. He furnished his own room, bed, TV, and telephone. The dining room is really not bad, and the food has improved, but I bring him most of his food. They have bingo, there are people who come in there to play music, and they have TV bowling.

Brookdale Palm Springs was a little older. I like the cottage concept, but the spaces were very small. In terms of the interview process, they were awesome.

We visited Emeritus for my parents. It was very small. I like that. We weren't there too long, but the person that we met was very helpful. The sanitation was good. For the cost, the place was a little outdated; some of their carpets need to be replaced, and the rooms might need paint work. They need an upgrade.

For the price and what they had to offer, the Emeritus at Palm Springs was overpriced. The rooms were nice, but they were pretty plain and there wasn't anything special about them that I can recall. There wasn't anything special that stood out. Their attitude that they think they have a really great facility, and they don't really care if I want to put somebody there that I know or not because they are always full, so they didn't seem to be interested in my business one way or another. The location was nice, and it seemed to be a comfortable place, but like I said for the amount of money that they want to charge, there are other places that are equally as nice -- if not nicer -- for less money. They also weren't very interested in working with anybody that doesn't really need or have an insurance company that was going to pay the whole thing or talking with someone that was going to need some kind of financial assistance. They weren't too accommodating, and it felt so much like they'd rather not.

Emeritus in Palm Springs was the facility we liked the most. If my mother-in-law is going into a home, that’s where she will go. We went through one of the buildings and saw the facilities in that building as well as the one for the Alzheimer’s patients. We visited the main buildings and the grounds, too. We really liked the idea of separate buildings, where each building had something like 15 patients and its own dining room. We thought that would be really good for my mother-in-law. Also, it was just a smaller atmosphere than the ones we've read about or visited. The building itself is pretty much self-contained. It’s very clean. Everybody there seemed to be enjoying themselves. There are people in the common areas talking and playing games and stuff. We saw the larger apartments with more than one room. They’re very nice. We visited the one with a single room; I thought that would just be perfect. It's a very nice size, and it can be set up to meet the needs of anyone I can imagine. The rooms in the dementia area were the same as in the other buildings, except there’s more security, of course. We went to the dementia part because the guide wanted to show us one of the rooms that they didn’t have available in the other facility, but it was identical. We weren’t considering putting my mother-in-law in the dementia part, but I thought it was a very nice place.

I felt comfortable with Emeritus; it was clean. We moved my grandmother there, and she has friends already. The staff was exceptional during the visit, very informative, answered a lot of questions, and showed us the unit that was available. They were also very accommodating when she moved in. My grandmother plays Bingo every day, has her hair done, and watches movies a lot. The venues for the movies are in different buildings, so the residents can go and meet the others in the other buildings. They also have a bus to take her to Trader Joes.

Emeritus at Palm Springs was clean. The place and the staff seemed nice. The residents looked happy. The rooms were a good size and were clean. However, it was broken up into cottages so you wouldn't really get to know all the residents unlike if you were all in one area.

I like Emeritus better. It is set up in little cottages. There were so many rooms; they were in clusters. I simply went there to visit friends who needed assistance, and I liked the layout better. It wasn't like walking into a big hotel; it's one story. If it were me, I wouldn't want to be going up and down elevators. The dining area was right outside of the rooms. They didn't eat in a big, common dining room. I like that concept. It was very clean and kept up. They could go outside easily and walk around. They had gardens, like courtyards, and I like that better. We did go to one party, and it was lovely. They had entertainment there. I like that place a lot.

I didn't like Emeritus at all because it was a cottage system. It had these little buildings kind of in a horseshoe and they were like 14 to 15 people to a building with little nursing station. It reminded me so much of the old street hospital system. My husband was with me when I went there and he said: "These people don't look happy". Then after that when I was thinking about it, their rooms were really small. There were no really nice patios. There was just this horseshoe walkway and out in front of the entrance of each cottage there was like a little set back concrete area with three benches and this was the patio right in that walkway. They didn't have any swimming pool or hot tub. We saw the first cottage and the cottage next door and they said: "Oh we have this little sitting area outside. Now, you can see those guys over there? They were out there every day. The love to go out there and smoke". Then when you walk in to the main building, there were lots of younger people that were running around, shouting to each other and talking. Then there was a great big dog that was barking at you. It was just a strange place. They had one big lounge with some books and a television. But you would have to go out of your building and walk in the outside to get over to it. We went to a cottage at lunch and the people were sitting around the table. Nobody was talking. They were all just looking down at their plate and moving the food around. I thought what they were getting there were more medicaid patients because their price was lower and the facility didn't have any amenities at all. I thought they provide housing; they were trained to provide activities; they were providing meals and people were getting adequate care. But they were probably in the bottom level as far as rating.

A beautiful place. The few concerns were quickly remedied when brought to the attention of management. Glad I found it, my parent is very pleased to be there.