The Residence at Salem Woods

My in-laws moved to The Residence at Salem Woods. So far, we're thrilled with it. They have a one-bedrooom apartment that's very nicely appointed, nice sized, has great closets, and it's lovely. They have two different rooms that they use for dining, one is the bistro and the other is the dining room, and both are lovely. They have activities. So far, everything has been great. It's not inexpensive, but compared to everybody else in the industry, it's fair.

We found a place for my mother. It's The Residence at Salem Woods. It's wonderful. I visited it last fall, and then when my mother decided she wanted to move this fall, my brother and I went back to visit it again, and we really liked it. It's a beautiful place. They have all sorts of activities. There's also a senior center right across the street that has sorts of activities. Obviously, right now, they're not able to use that, but they will once this COVID thing is all over. They have a nice menu, but I haven't tasted the food.

One of my relatives moved into Salem Woods but had to move out after only three weeks due to very dangerous and chronic mismanagement of medication by their staff. What’s worse is their blatant attempts to cover this up and blame others for it. We’re now filing complaints with numerous state regulatory and oversight agencies to ensure that The Residence at Salem Woods fixes their many problems. We urge anyone who might need assistance with medications to avoid living at Salem Woods until this is resolved. My relative ended up in respiratory failure after Salem Woods personnel failed to give her critical daily medication for over 3 weeks. First they blamed the patient’s primary care doctor for this, then they blamed the patient instead of taking responsibility. Separately, they admitted their staff failed 10 times in just a 3 week period to log the administration of narcotic pain medication, seriously putting her at risk of receiving a lethal overdose. After we audited their logs, we further discovered that a third medication had not been given for at least 5 days in a row. But when we caught this weeks later and brought it to the attention of the director of nursing, she claimed that she spoke to the on duty staff at the time. The staff was then allowed to retroactively log the medication weeks later, claiming that they simply had “forgotten” to log it but “remembered” giving it. Subsequent checking of the medication showed that in fact there remained too much medication in the vial for it to have been administered that many times. My relative complained to the nurse on duty that she was having shortness of breath and wanted to go to the emergency room. Instead of staying with the patient, the nurse went downstairs and called me to ask what to do. This wasted precious minutes as we found out later. I asked what medications had been given that day. She responded that the medication log from the other nurses was too hard to read so she couldn’t tell. I then had to tell her to call 911 and get back to the room to be with the patient. By then the patient had lost consciousness and needed CPR. She spent the next 2 weeks in and out of hospitals, including ICU where she was intubated. I met with the management of the facility about these issues. They admitted they had issues but offered no actions to remediate them and to date have not addressed the issue with staff. I left the meeting totally dumbfounded and told them they had serious legal and safety liabilities. My relative moved out in September 2020. When we requested the return of her security deposit, the executive director sent my relative a release of liability agreement and stated we would only get the money back if we agreed not to pursue legal action against them. This is extortion on top of what was already terrible injustice to a vulnerable senior citizen who almost died while in their care! There is much more to this incredibly heartbreaking story. I feel terribly for the existing residents of Salem Woods, especially given the Covid related restrictions make it difficult for loved ones to see what’s really going on there. I also feel badly for the many staff who truly seem to care but are managed by people who are incapable taking responsibility for making a safe environment. I feel obligated to speak for the people who can’t and make sure Salem Woods is held responsible.

My father moved into the Residence at Salem Woods. It's absolutely gorgeous, he has a beautiful apartment there, he's well cared for, and love the staff. His apartment is very well-cared for, it has ample room to put in table and chairs, a bed, and he has a walk-in shower and TV. He participates only in exercise activities, but they have excursions like lunch out, they go to casinos, and he's adjusting very well. They have smaller portions for food, but for people that are elderly, that's the perfect portion for them.