Benedictine Living Community of Duluth

Sandy

My mother is at Benedictine Living Community of Duluth. The grounds are beautiful. They have beautiful gardens. It's very clean and taken care of very well. The staff is very caring. They have activities all day long. They have music coming in, they have bingo games, and they take them on some shopping trips. They could do more though. The facility is very good.

Helga

We went to Benedictine Living Community of Duluth. The gal that met us was very friendly and very knowledgeable. They say they check the rooms every two hours, but sometimes I think my husband would need more help than that. The rooms were large, and they also provide a hospital bed there. I didn't think it was as nice as the other place though, and we didn't see a lot of staff. I didn't see a lot of the residents either out in the rooms or halls or anything like that. We didn't get a feel for that. They had quite large rooms, but just one room and a bath. There was a library, a salon, and an exercise area, and there's a supervised exercise area, too. I didn't see a lot of staff in the area where the residents were. There were 12 rooms in a pod in a kind of circle around this common area. When you come in the door, there's a long hallway to get to where you're going. The person that gave the tour was very knowledgeable, friendly and nice. I've talked to her on the phone, and she's been very personable. I just didn't like the long hallway to get there. There's a washing machine there and the staff does the laundry. They said the residents could go into that pod area where they could meet and have snacks any time, but I didn't see any of that when we were there.

Mary

My mother recently spent three weeks at the Benedictine Living Community of Duluth. I was impressed with them. I remember I had looked previously at some reviews of the place that weren't too good, but when she was hospitalized a little bit, it was recommended to have her do the rehab there. I thought the care was good. Everything was clean, the food was good, and the people were very kind. The staff was excellent. They're very caring and very competent. My mother had a nice room to herself with lots of light, and it was very well kept. There was a beautiful courtyard/garden area; my mother was working on walking, and they took her out there for her physical therapy. So, the facility was excellent. We were given the menu for a couple weeks ahead of time in case we wanted to take something out, but there was nothing to take out because everything looked good. Sometimes my mother doesn't have that much of an appetite, but it was all food that was appealing to her.

Stephen

My wife is currently staying in Benedictine Living Community of Duluth. It's a large community with several different buildings separating different levels of care. It's attached to a college specializing in medical and trains for nursing mostly. I believe that nutrition and health needs are being neglected. I believe that the staff and nurse's aides are very unhappy and bringing their problems from home, or whatever, to their job. Some staff members are very good and excellent, depending on the person, but in general I think people are overworked, they're short of staff, and the staff members are just unhappy. There's a sense of unhappiness and anger even. It's a large place. The buildings are separated by covered indoor walkways. They have a central kitchen and two different sections. There are two floors where my wife is, and there's a central kitchen and two wings and units on each floor. The COVID-19 situation has curtailed a lot of activities, but even before this virus and the lockdowns began and all that, it seemed to me they're lacking on the social front in encouraging the residents. My wife is mismatched for where she is. She can't communicate with most of the people because they're already in a serious state of dementia. She can't identify socially with almost all of the other people. When I visit, it's very quiet and just very depressing. It's a large space, but nothing's going on. This is a newer building, and it's very expensive to build. I don't care if the building was old, it's just how it's kept up and the atmosphere it was in.

nordicgolfguy

My mother was in the Benedictine Rehab center and was screened and accepted into the assisted living portion of the health center. We moved her things into her room on Saturday with a move into the facility communicated for Thursday of the next week. On Tuesday, they communicated that they had changed their minds and she should move into their memory care facility. This was after we went through the expense and time of moving her things. My sister visited the memory care facility and it smelled like feces and urine. They then stated we were going to have to pay $300 per day unless we moved her out of rehab immediately. We found another assisted living place that screened my mother and she is thriving in that facility. But we are billed $1200 for their mistake, plus our time and u-haul expense. During our visits to move her things, no help was seen in the hallways. During our move out, one lady was looking for help finding the dining room. Luckily we were there to help her because nobody from the facility was looking out for her.

Anonymousrevie

Poor staffing - management doesn't seem to care about the concerns I brought forward many times about my mother who is in rehab. We looked at the assisted living facility, but the staff didn't seem welcoming. Not the experience we had hoped for.