Highgate at Billings

Our father is a current resident. He is experiencing declining dementia. The staff has been very responsive to him and to us as his family. They have gone out of their way to make a personal connection to him and to us. They have kindly spent time discussing care and his needs. We are grateful for personal touches like helping him to communicate with us and reaching out to us when needed.

My parents resided at Highgate for approximately 3 ½ years. Wendy was the director then and the environment was happy. The staff was involved in special events with the residents. Two years ago a new director took over and things changed drastically. Communication was non-existent much of the time. The environment changed to that of stress, pressure, high staff turnover, under staffing, long waits or unanswered call buttons by residents, which creates increased accidents and falls. Highgate has many facilities around the country and management should have acted much quicker in terminating Brian as the director. They were well aware of the complaints that were coming in from residents and families, but nothing changed. Think twice before choosing this facility. It starts at the top.

My spouse Phyllis has resided in the Memory Care Cottage since Feb. 2018. I cannot say enough good about the Care Partners--they treat their jobs as "callings," not just jobs. As a frequent visitor, I see supervisory and support staff backing up Care Partners without hesitation, pitching in at every opportunity, on weekends and during evenings in addition to during regular work hours. Numerous activities, entertainment, van trips, etc., keep residents engaged. As residents with dementia decline, I observe Care Partners regularly and skillfully making adjustments, dealing with increasing resident needs with kindness and caring. I look forward to concluding interactions with senior management at the home office. Two proposals, made then followed up with the home office, have been waiting for a response for several months: 1. Improve efficiency by adopting tablets such as i Pads for record keeping. Care Partners, many of whom are experienced at typing / electronic record keeping, would welcome the opportunity to spend more time with residents and less time hand writing reports and notes, move beyond "19th century" record keeping. 2. Install a button operated electric door opener on one of the doors leading to a small enclosed Cottage courtyard. I often observe residents with limited mobility on foot and in wheel chairs struggle with the door when assistance, sometimes me, is not available. Ding marks on one door illustrate the problem. Lack of a door opener like those installed on Manor doors, is both an inconvenience and a safety issue.

I don't feel John is getting the care. They don't see to it that his CPAP Machine is cared for, they won't check to see if the soclean machine has turned on if not turn it on.Why do they take a shirt out of the closet to change him, then leave it on a chair, leave and don't return to finish what they were doing, is there not enough help or what. Why should it take 2 hours to get a lemonade or drink. His eyes are so mattered up and no one gives him a wash cloth to clean them out. I don't like that they took a part out of the CPAP machine because they thought you don't need it, it has a purpose or it wouldn't be there. I was also told that John would get a room when he first come in, I was told he was in the respite care room, well that wasn't honored.