Brookdale Battle Creek Assisted Living

Lauri

I had a good visit at Brookdale Battle Creek Assisted Living. I was prepared to take my mother there, but she ended up having to go to the hospital. They'll have to do another assessment of her to see if they can still cover her level of care and if it's a yes, then that's where she'll go. I liked the facility. Every person I talked to there was helpful and very engaged with all their residents. It's very nice. The facility is not too big. It's relatively small, but there's plenty of room for the number of people there. There was a music thing going on during my first visit there. When we were moving my mother's furniture in, it was a beautiful day. Rather than having the alarms go off constantly with their residents, they said, "Let's go outside", because they took the residents out into the garden so they weren't being disrupted by us coming in and out constantly. That was very thoughtful.

Reviewer#AT0115b

I went to Brookdale Battle Creek Assisted Living. I liked everything about it. The lady who gave me the tour was very, very bubbly, professional, and upbeat. And I actually talked to a couple of the residents who were sitting in the common area doing puzzles and asked them how they liked it, and they both said they loved it there. I got a really, really good feeling about it. I didn't see any of the staff, but I always ask the questions about staffing and turnover, because where my mother is now, the turnover is tremendous, and they actually are staffing the place through a temporary agency, which is very unfortunate. But she said they have long standing employees there and the food, I guess it's pretty amazing. They have a chef who has been there for 11 years, and that speaks a lot about the place. It was priced less than the other place, which is not the most important thing, but both of them were considerably less than the place where my mother is staying right now, which is an assisted living place in Holland. So if I had to pick one or the other, I would pick Brookdale. They also had a very nice little courtyard/garden area, and they have a garden club where the residents can get out and get involved in gardening. They have a nice little walkway that's gated so that you can go out and walk around it. Even though it is in town, it's almost in a residential neighborhood. They have lots of trees around, which gives it a lot of privacy and the feel of being more secluded. It was very clean, very cozy, and it just felt nice in there.

Dodie

I did a tour of Brookdale Battle Creek Assisted Living. It wasn't that clean. They took me back to this little room, and that's where I saw ants climb down the wall. I waited for a lady to get there, and then she explained the options and the rooms. The garden areas looked nice. I saw a few residents, and they seemed happy. They said they had activities there. I saw what I guess you'd call a common area, where the people were sitting in there. The staff said they were getting ready to remodel the room we were in, but it didn't seem really out of date. She showed me where they have cookies, water, and stuff set out for them all day. They didn't offer a meal.

Provider Response

TF

We toured Brookdale Battle Creek for my stepdad, and it was a very nice place. I was very impressed. The staff was extremely knowledgeable. It was a nice facility. I remembered they had a spa tub, a small library, and several menu options instead of just one thing each meal. They also have activities.

Harry

I visited Brookdale Battle Creek and was impressed with their operations. I thought the studio apartment was very small. I have a service dog, and she was used to a larger area. The staff was very nice and I appreciated their assistance. They had a community room where they do physical things. The price was a little bit too high for my budget, but other than that, it seemed to be a very clean facility and very well-run.

Concerned Carolyn

Brookdale is a large corporation and has facilities in several states and locations. What is shown on their website is not true at all locations and especially not available at the facility in Battle Creek. Brookdale charged for these services and other services not preformed. The sale manager and the administration both said they charge for the worst care scenario. But trying the get the charges off is a battle. There was one LPN on-call 24/7. no other trained medication personal were at the facility The meals are high in carbs, starches and high caloric; they boast of meal alternatives but the choices are a grilled cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwich, this is not good for a diabetic. The food is cooked off-site and reheated resulting in tasteless mush. Many entrees are canned foods/frozen not fresh, so they can't account for the sodium content. The facility was under-staffed, the same staff members are responsible for doing everything. The same person who empties the trash, serves the food, cleans up the bathroom floor and dispenses the medication. When asked what the meds were that were being administered the staff member could not tell us what it was or what it was for. The care required is delayed while they are completing another task. For instance, during lunch a resident had a mishap in their room. The food server had to leave the dining floor to attend the resident. This delayed lunch for the other residents, the admin. staff didn't even help out. The sale manager is your friend until the resident is in the facility, then they don't even want to talk to you about them sales promises. They bill for services they don't preform, example: Hospice was providing bathing care, and oxygen supplies.

Provider Response