Symphony at St. Augustine

Very bad experience with Symphony. Director and Admissions representative seem kind and caring, but they don't have the staff to back it up and in the end corporate greed wins out. My stepfather was dropped off as a result of an emergency situation. When Mom visited him the next day, he was in the same clothes, not shaved and sitting alone. He needed the toilet and Mom took him. Found soiled diaper in his trash can and checked him. He had never been wiped. Girl who dressed him stated she didn't know he needed to be wiped. He was in the section of Symphony for the highest level of care. Mom brought all her complaints to management. They assured her the issues would be corrected. Lunch he was served was a hot dog and chips. No drink. Hot dogs are a known choking hazard and so inappropriate for dementia patients. The next day, Mom arrived in the morning. Couldn't find my stepdad. Saw his room was locked and had to get someone to open the door. He was laying in bed awake. No one had gotten him up and dressed. Again, there was a soiled diaper in the trash and again, he had not been wiped. We were very upset he was in a locked room. This is a terrible fire hazard. Mom started mentioning her concerns with his care to friends and learned that they had bad experiences at Symphony too and they had lodged complaints. We found a website called the Agency for Health Care Administration and saw complaints and inspection violations. We removed my stepdad from the facility. He was there just over 48 hours. Symphony at St Augustine then added insult to injury by billing us over $3400 for two days of poor quality care. The staff doesn't have adequate training and there are far too few of them caring for large numbers of patients. They can't possibly provide proper care. This is a corporate run facility with no heart. Do not use this place.

Symphony at St. Augustine was very helpful in a time of crisis. It's a very pretty place, plus they have a memory care unit and that's where mom is at the moment. They do a lot of activities and they even have field trips where they take the memory care residents as well with a lot of additional volunteers. They're very accommodating. She doesn't get up as early as they normally feed everybody for breakfast, so they give her breakfast separately when she gets up and allow her to have a later lunch as well. We're very satisfied. They even have a salon.