Bickford of Bloomington

This place is amazing!!!! I had to place Dad in an assisted living facility after trying to keep him home for sometime. The Bickford House rekindled his spirit and as one of this grandchildren said, the Grandpa grin is back and that had been gone for quite sometime. The staff is exemplary from the directors down to the food/cleaning staff!! The food is awesome and he has even gained a few needed pounds. When I go there to lunch with him and his buddies, I'm treated just like family! He is always busy with activities they provide and as he says doesn't have time to watch TV. Dad has had a couple set backs recently and he will be discharged from the nursing home/rehab shortly. We have had several options to chose from and he is with it enough to decide, and his eyes lit up when Bickford was a choice. I cannot express my gratitude and heartfelt thank you to all of the staff there who have made this place a home for those who can't stay at home. If anyone wants to talk with me personally about Bickford, I am available.

I did not find a peer. I was looking for people who are more my age; however, Bickford of Bloomington has much older than I am. There isn't anyone that I can really think of as a peer. The rooms were very small. As for indoor activities, on my visit there weren't any happening. The dining area looks appropriate, but we were not offered a meal. I saw a library and a little store.

We moved our relative into Bickford of Bloomington and we are very upset and unhappy with them...........first of all they lied to us to get our relative in there and his money. They promised us that he could stay there for the rest of his life. They were aware that he had alzeithemers and still said he would be fine. We saw some thing that did not really make us happy, but tried to work thru that. He fell and broke his hip and from there, it was even more downhill. he started complaining a lot so I sent another relative in to check on him. She could not find any staff in 20 minutes because she was unaware of his room number or location. Next thing we found bed sores. He slept in a recliner so Bickford asked us to get him a hospital bed so they could clean him up and move him off pressure points. We did this and then moved him to a larger room to make it all more acessable to the staff. The bed sores continued to be there. Finally we decided to "UP" his care as we had done several times. When we first put him at Bickford, I asked about his needing more care as he went along with the disease. We were told, "Oh we will just "UP" his care level (and costs of course) and that is how he could stay there till he died. Then they evicted him and others I understand because they did not have a license to care for someone like him and others they had there. We live out of state and immediately had to find him a new place. They could have told us they were evicting him over the phone so we could have taken days off work. I would not recommend this home to anyone thinking of this place for their relative. Also the ceiling fell in in the dining room and was still not fixed the last time I was there.

My mother is currently there and needs level 5 assistance. With this she is suppose to have 2 caregivers available to get her up and down to the bathroom yet they just have 1 person on staff. She pushed her emergency button for 45 minutes to go to the bathroom and finally got herself there and puled the emergency cord to get help off and no one came for 35 minutes. The other times she presses the button a helper comes in because the are to respond in 15 minutes turns off the button and says she will be back when she has time as she is serving dinner. also after wiping my moms behind they put her in her chair and without washing their hands they go back and serve food. This place is a disaster and needs to be investigated.

I recently visited this facility for the purpose of transporting my aunt back east for a six week stay. The facility was informed of the 14 hour trip several weeks in advance in order to prepare medications and ensure she was ready for the trip. When we arrived, we immediately noticed several sores on her feet, She is diabetic and her feet are supposed to be checked regularly but nobody seemed to be aware of the sores - including the nurses. The head nurse refused on 2 occasions to discuss her medical condition or medications with us saying it would be unethical. (Sending an elderly, sick woman on a 14 hour journey for a 6 week stay without reviewing her medicines and condition with her daughter is dangerous and borders on malpractice.) When we returned that evening to pick up the medications they were not ready and the evening nurse knew nothing about them. She contacted the head nurse and she said she would be in the next morning to prepare them (she knew that we wanted to leave early) but she did not have any more than a few days supply because she had to order them. I insisted that she have them ready by 6:30AM the next day. When we arrived, she was not there and were were handed 2 boxes of meds with 4 pages listing meds and instructions. As we were leaving my aunt said she did not get her meds that day so we asked and no one was sure. They were also going to send her on a 14 hour journey with bandages on her feet that were soaked from her shower. We insisted that they be changed. As we watched, it was apparent that the nurse did not understand the concept of cross contamination and infection control. While driving home we tried to understand the list of meds but I was sure it was not accurate. There were 7 listings for insulin each with its own schedule. There were several allergy meds, several pain meds, several anxiety meds, etc. It was enough to put down an elephant. The only medicine we gave her was insulin based on her glucose levels. By the time we arrived home she was crashing from no medications and was errational and violent. We had to get her to an emergency room. Two doctors and a nurse were unable to decipher her meds. We made several calls to Bickford but there was no answer even though there is supposed to be a nurse on call 24/7. We were told at the hospital that someone should be fired. It will probably take the six weeks to get her back to normal. In addition, her housekeeping is supposed to be done for her. Her bathroom was filthy. There were used towels bunched on the floor and the smell of urine was so strong that I wouldn't even think of using the bathroom. I observed other problems but this should give someone pause and let them know that this facility needs close monitoring.

Bickford is small, about 60 or 90 people. They will help me if I need help with my husband. The staff is fine. The food is not bad at all. It's really pretty good. We did look at all the places here in Bloomington, and we found that Bickford had bigger rooms, and chose it because we wanted a two-bedroom. It has a kitchen and a living room, two bathrooms, and two bedrooms. So it's a good size, and we're happy with that. We're moving in September.

Bickford House was a new place. It was a small facility but it looked great. I talked to a lady there and I had a tour. The amenities were the same with the other facility. They had three meals a day as well as transportation.