Brookdale Bellevue

Our experience with Brookdale Bellevue was horrible. They had dirty dishes that they were serving food in. My friend's coffee cup had dried coffee at the bottom and her water glass had lip marks on it. I would cut her meat during meal time because they don't cut it. The staff were always asked to come in at dinner time and serve coffee so the waitresses can get the food. There were little cups, so if the residents wanted refills they'd have to raise their cups and the staff would come over. I saw an LPN or nurse's aide who usually gives out medication left the room with the coffee pot and didn't come back. When dinner was over, I saw her with one of the residents doing puzzles and asked her why she wasn't in the dining room. She said, "Oh man, those people drive me crazy. As soon as I turned around and three cups were up, I was out of there." The food was alright, but one time there was a man sitting across from me. He didn't like what they had, so they told him they can serve him chicken salad or egg salad. He ordered the chicken salad and when his food came there were only two pieces of bread and a spoon of coleslaw in the middle. I took it back to the window and they said, "Well, we don't have any chicken salad." The rooms were not spacious and her bedroom had spiders. Some were crawling up her pillow and they weren't able to solve the problem, they just kept coming.

I looked at Brookdale because my mother’s health was deteriorating. The staff was excellent. They followed up with me a few times, and it was very helpful. I liked their service. They only have rooms, not apartments.

My mother will be going to Brookdale Bellevue. We liked the apartment that was available because it was very quiet. It just had one bedroom and a bathroom. It looked like it would be perfect for her, and that's what she really liked. My mom said the food was average, but there were no major complaints. It's nothing to write home about, but it works.

I chose Brookdale Bellevue for my mom. It felt homey and wasn't like a hospital or institution of any kind. It felt like a house when you're visiting friends or maybe going to a party or meeting a lot of people. They have very good food, the rooms are a good size, and people are friendly and very helpful. They do a lot of different things, like bingo, singalongs, movie nights and popcorn, and have entertainment come in, like singers and comedians. Right next to it are residential houses. It's not like a city; it's on the outskirts and everybody has a yard and dogs. It's very quiet, and they have areas outside in the courtyard where they can sit. The food was great and maybe a month ago, they got a whole new kitchen staff and a new chef so they're still trying different ways of doing things, but what they do is they come right to the table as if you were in a restaurant. They have one special and other options if you don't like what the special is, so they'll take your order and your drinks and bring your food out, just like you're sitting in a restaurant, so that's nice.

The people, the rooms, everything were very nice at Brookdale Bellevue. The woman that we spoke with was wonderful. The rooms looked very accommodating, very simple but very clean and very noble looking. There was a lot of social interaction and everything.

The review page would not let me give less than 1 star, but I would give it a negative 5 stars. As a visitor, residents have come to me for assistance because there is never anyone around to help them find their rooms if they become disoriented. I'm a retired RN and feel that a nurse there that routinely takes orders and gives diabetic medication at the facility has made some very negligent errors, from not questioning a doctor's order that was contraindicated and caused serious side effects, to not giving a diabetic patient her injection. The food is low quality and there isn't sufficient input from a dietitian. Some food has been served cold that should have been heated (potatoes). This has been reported to the health department. When the husband of a couple fell and was taken by ambulance (called by a staff member) to the hospital, the next day a staff member asked the wife why she didn't inform the day staff about it. Apparently the staff members don't communicate properly among themselves and felt they could blame the wife with dementia for not reporting the incident to the next shift. Over the counter medications are only given with a doctor's order, but they don't get the orders for the resident. They also rely on family members to pick up prescriptions and bring them to the facility which is rather inconvenient. There is no nurse in the building after 7:30 pm, RN or LPN. There are the usual bingo and sing-a-longs done at all these facilities. I would not recommend this place if you can possibly avoid it. They do not have family updates/meetings and instead try to hide information about the residents from the family members by claiming HIPPA restrictions.

Brookdale Bellevue was very nice and clean. The people were very friendly. The apartments were small but clean. I like the location, and the atmosphere was very friendly.