Friendship Village of Bloomington

Melissa B.

I’m writing to share my profound disappointment with our experience at Friendship Village, where my aunt and uncle lived for years. My aunt transition from independent living, to rehabilitation care, to memory care, with the family pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into FV over the years. Having seen most of the facility and levels of care over the past 5+ years, it is clean and generally well maintained. It is understaffed and the level of turnover indicates poor compensation for frontline workers. This underfunding occurs despite the fact that the “non-profit” that owns it, Lifespace, is worth over $500,000,000. A nearly $100,000,000 expansion occurred at FV over the past few years, too. If you are looking for a socially vibrant place for your loved one, please keep looking. Common areas are not structured to encourage gatherings; there is a dearth of social interaction opportunities and when you roam the hallways on walks or tours you will hardly encounter a single soul. The week of my aunt’s entry into hospice (at Friendship Village with an outside provider) I drove from out of state to spend what I soon found out would be her last hours at her bedside. We received barely a check-in from the staff. When I asked questions, someone would tell me they would find out for me and I would never see them again. Upon her passing, I was left on my own to navigate move-out procedures, cleaning, sorting, etc. Every question I asked was met with confusion, a promise to return with answers, then no answers. The morning after she died, when I was coming and going with her belongings, no one checked in with me or offered any sympathy. Questions like “Where do I put the trash? Do you offer clothing to other residents or do I donate to Goodwill? What about extra medical supplies?” Crickets. Wherever your money is going, it’s not going toward keeping employees current on policies and procedures with residents/patients. It also should not fall to the PCAs and MAs to do this work-- staff a place adequately to handle issues once someone dies. I was in a constant state of disbelief that such an expensive place wouldn't even acknowledge a death until two days after it happened. Calling the business office a few weeks later to handle remaining paperwork, the individual on the phone was so cold I actually asked if she knew that my aunt died, because her behavior did not seem to match the topic. The response? "Yes." The first communication I received after my aunt died was two days later, via a brief email expressing sympathy, with the rest of the email detailing the cost we would incur due to leaving things behind and asking about various items remaining in the room. Now, had anyone answered my questions the day after her death, I would have been able to dispose of things appropriately. When the social worker who sent the email did not hear back from me within a few hours, she called me (I was traveling back home). I suggested that if she wanted to truly practice social work, she should find a new spot, because being the fee enforcer is probably not what she went to school for (the contacts I had with the RD, RN, and SW were generally very good, to be fair). If you do move your loved one here, plan to pay exorbitant amounts of money to do a lot yourselves. This is a sentiment I now see I share with other reviewers. Your money and your loved ones’ last days are better spent someplace else.

Provider Response

Diana

Our apartment is very comfortable and looks over a pond. Staff in Independent Living, as well as higher levels of living, provide good service and excellent care During my scariest time after major back surgery I returned to transitional care here and received superb care and all of the information I needed. After 3 years here I am totally convinced that our decision to move here was an excellent one.

Marcia

Friendship Village of Bloomington offers everything, but I don't know how anybody can pay $6000 a month. It just was so expensive, and they didn't tell us how much it was until the end. There were a lot of very nice things there. They had a saltwater swimming pool and a gym. They didn't show us any room. They had a snack bar. There were probably things you could buy that would fill you up. The building is newer. It was a beautiful spot. It was fancy.

Pat11

My husband and I toured Friendship Village of Bloomington. What I like best about it is the lady who was showing us around. She was fantastic. She answered all our questions very truthfully. I like the apartment, especially the one with the den. It was beautiful. My husband and I liked the fact that there were 300 people there or so, which meant there were lots of choices and things going on, and lots of activities. But the price was quite hefty for us to carry. It seemed like the people there were all traveling like they had a map of where they all traveled. All of them were going all over the world, and we don't travel. She took us out to eat. The food was great and the place was clean.

Provider Response

Pat417

My mother was at Friendship Village of Bloomington. She was there for rehab. It is a new facility, it's beautiful, and it's terrific. The room was fairly big. The staff was good. They had meetings once a week or once every other week. Now and then you could catch somebody and ask them how she was doing. Finally, in the end, they said, "She's got about ten days and she'll be out of here." I had ten days to get her up and moving. The staff was all friendly except for the social worker she had. She didn't communicate very well. She was supposed to be calling you back but she never did. They didn't have too many activities because it's a nursing facility. They just stayed in their rooms. She had a broken or cracked leg, so she didn't do much. She had physical therapy and occupational therapy. The food looked good. However, they gave her spinach, it is a big leaf and nobody bothered cutting things up for her, so she had to figure out how to eat it herself or eat it with her fingers. That's kind of a crummy way to eat a salad. They didn't serve it according to people who needed help. It was all under insurance so it didn't cost me anything, but after that, it was going to be $203 a day.

Provider Response

drjanec

My father was at Friendship Village for 4 years. He started in Independent Living, then moved to Assisted Living, then moved to Memory Care. Independent Living was a good experience … good food, nice resident interactions, personal trainers. Assisted Living was an OK experience. Memory care was a “poor” experience. FV staff seemed understaffed and undertrained. I became so concerned that I put together a 50-line-item spreadsheet and had twice-monthly calls with FV to ensure accountability and follow-up. (IMHO, I should not have had to micro-manage FV like this). And the last 48 hours of my father’s life broke my heart in how it was handled by FV staff. Lots of detail here, but they did not handle it per my instructions nor my father’s wishes. There were some bright spots with FV employees who were exceptional (the trainer, the chaplain, some aides). One thing we did that made FV bearable was hiring augmented (from outside FV) staff to shore up for the undertrained FV employees.

Provider Response