The Summit

I toured the independent living and assisted living of The Summit. In the independent living they had beautiful facilities, a little movie theater, a hairdresser, a beautiful gym, and really nice accommodations and activities. But then if a person needs to go from independent living to assisted living, they can't use any of those facilities. They have a multipurpose room where they roll in a big-screen TV for movie night. They roll in some exercise balls and some hula hoops for exercise, and I just don't understand why they couldn't all use the same facility; it wasn't like they were in a memory care unit. I talked to a couple of other families who were looking, and they were also really turned off by that. If my mother needed to go from independent to assisted, she'd be wondering why she couldn't go to the nice gym anymore and use the movie theater or whatever, and I just thought that I didn't like that. The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, but they just showed me assisted living, and then I had to ask to see independent living. I feel like if I hadn't asked for that, then they might not have shown me. It's a brand-new facility. It's absolutely beautiful, and had they offered the same level of facilities for everybody, that would have definitely been up there with my number-one choice, but they didn't and I took them off my list.

We saw assisted and independent at The Summit. It's a newer facility than others, so it's a little bit more modern. The amenities were a little bit more modern as well. It's airy, there's a lot of light, and just structurally it seemed to be a better facility. They had a lot of activities for the residents. I was pretty impressed. It was just very pricy. The staff seemed pretty nice.

The Summit is new, brighter than other places, and a little more suitable for living. Everything looked OK there. It was favorable and cheery looking. Someone identified themselves and asked if they could help us right away. The staff member who gave us the tour was very helpful, knowledgeable, and had been in the business for a while. There were some people playing cards and some residents were out walking around. The dining area looked clean and bright.

The Summit was a new place, and there's no buy-in. They had quite a few activities, and they had some things going on for Christmas. They have a fitness center and a therapy room, but I didn't think they had enough. The rooms were very spacious. If you go from independent to assisted living, you move in to a smaller place, and the different kinds of care are segregated.