Nursing Home Communities in Richmond, CA

"Creekside Healthcare Center is a skilled nursing facility. They work with the patients, doing physical therapy and having different activities during the week. They care for them there, so they have free meds and 24-hour care. I like the way they try and interact with the patients a lot of times. It's a friendly atmosphere. They can work on some things like some of the dietary needs of the patients, maybe watch their salt intake sometimes and watch stuff that might run their sugar up or blood pressure. Just needs to be better communication between them and whoever is in the dietary section because sometimes they don't take care to serve the healthiest food. The sanitation is pretty good. I've never been there when it wasn't clean. The staff is good, too. Sometimes, maybe just a little short-handed. For the most part, they tend to do a good job. "

"What I like about this facility is their amenities which includes 24-hour emergency call system, physical therapy and fitness room, recreation room and library, and hair salon and manicurist. They also have a great security system which is the Wander Guard Security System so you do not have to worry about your loved ones safety while you're away. "

"My mother, Jan, was admitted late last year to Shields Nursing Center after being discharged from Doctors Medical Center. She, just like anyone else, did not want to go to any nursing facility, because she missed home so much after being in the hospital urgent care for about four months. From her feedback as well as from my personal visits, the staff were very friendly and helpful even though they were very busy doing their best to care for so many people. The food was reasonable. The facility does need more improvement on the lighting in the rooms. The rooms are small, which is not the factor. The rooms have a dark interior which seems to bring gloom to not only the patients but the visitors as well. Knowing the buildings are quite old, I am sure some time the rooms will be brightened up, which will help in brightening up the patients who stay there. I would like to add, that my mother needed to have all her pain meds upon discharge from the center, and even though the full prescribed amounts could not be released, they were so compassionate enough to give her samples and whatever amounts that could be approved right away. Though I was not a patient staying there, I still miss the wonderful staff and my mother would say the same. Rest her soul. "

"My brother will be moving into Chaparral House. I would say overall, the look and feel are very good. It's a small community of under 50 patients there. So, attention to detail is very clean, and a lot of programs for the residents. The staff seemed extremely attentive and professional. The location is excellent; it was close to his old home, so that was a very good location."

"Elmwood Care Center ignored my mom and tried to tell her she was drinking too much water and she couldn’t have more food. She felt really neglected over there. They never even offered to give her a bath. The cleanliness was good. The food, she said, was horrible. I didn’t get to see the food, but I know she lost weight in there. It looked really overcrowded, and it was hard to get through the hallways, as there were lots of people in the hallways in wheelchairs. "

"This is a fine facility where all staff are diligent in addressing needs that residents and families express. The individual staff members are caring and friendly; many visit with the residents even when not assigned to them. Something so nice to see is how the staff work together and like one another. This is a morale boost that transfers to the residents and creates a pleasant atmosphere. Generally, people are happy and like being there. Staff turnover is low. The facility is in a lovely location, quiet, clean, odor-free, has interesting events, and family are often included and welcomed. Because the residents are vulnerable related to functional and cognitive limitations, belongings that disappear and deprecating comments are difficult to account for. However, administration is small (director and owner) and always readily available at the front desk. All issues are easily discussed, as they are both warm and friendly and eager to provide high quality care. More specifically, we have been satisfied when we present inconsistencies in care or neglected requests or recommendations for improvements (e.g., smelly bathroom) or billing questions. The director and owner have not been defensive and rapidly provided solutions, often checking on our responses over time. The professional staff have phoned regularly to apprise us of needs or changes including physical, cognitive, medications or behavioral issues. They are always calm, polite, caring, and patient. They are kind and patient with the residents. At times we have been frustrated with the nursing director because he is excessively talkative and easily distracted, and it is difficult to determine whether he is listening or understands what is said. He is more concerned with regulatory issues than individualizing care; we have had to acquire higher authority to work with him to undo inappropriate interventions (based on a regulation he had recently read). We need to watch carefully for follow-through because he is easily distracted, particularly when discussing our resident's care. Overall, this is a nearly excellent facility and we feel fortunate to have our family member be a resident there. "

"My husband had his rehabilitation at Rehabilitation Center Oakland. The physical therapy part was very good. They had some lovely staff and nursing people. I thought they were very caring and they did their best. Just like any other nursing home, they were stretched thin sometimes and couldn't respond immediately when somebody put their call light on. They could improve by having more staff so they could have a faster response time. I could think of as many negatives as positives, and I was trying to be positive, but I thought it was a good place for rehabilitation, and the sanitation was fine. "

"We visited Piedmont Gardens, and we really like this place. We were very impressed with their library. It's a very nice library with good light and big places. People were sitting and reading a lot around there. The hallways were not as busy as the other place we looked at. The apartments were very nice. They would adapt to the apartment to whatever you want it. We felt very at home there. We ate there, and we liked it. We liked this place. This would be our second favorite. "

"I wish zero stars had been an option..... RUN, do not walk, away from this facility. My mother-in-law needed rehabilitation after her surgery, and though this place looked shabby, we could find no other beds available locally. The "care" was shoddy at best, dangerous at worst. Prescribed medications were not administered, while tranquilizers which had not been prescribed obviously were. The doctor who attended her seemed incompetent and appeared to be suffering from dementia himself, as he was unable to understand anything we said or make himself understood. He looked and dressed like one of the more unfortunate residents, which we mistook him for when he wandered uncertainly into the room. In fact, he was so elderly and frail that at one point while standing with us, he began falling over into my wife, and she had to catch him and help him to his feet. If this sounds unbelievable, it was to us also. We had to take over much of her care. She was supposed to be receiving assistance with walking; there is a room with exercise and rehab equipment, but we never saw anyone using it, though we were there every day for over 2 months. My mother-in-law was in a wheelchair against her doctor's orders every time we arrived, and we had to help her get some walking practice. They lost many items of her clothing, though we had written her name in them; she never appeared in her own clothes after the first week. She presented with unexplained bruises, smelled and looked horrible, never was clean or had brushed teeth unless we did it during visits. My wife began to visit at different times during the day, and often found her asleep in bed with the blinds drawn. We often came just after dinner to find a full plate of uneaten food, with no one monitoring the fact that she hadn't eaten anything, and then someone would come for the tray. This may not have been such a bad thing, as I cannot describe how much like dog food some of the more unrecognizable food was. The worst part was that, out of concern for her welfare, we still had to be friendly with the uncompassionate and rude staff, especially one of the managers, Anna, who repeatedly assured us that my mother-in-law's stay was completely covered and that she would let us know the minute insurance coverage ran out, yet presented us with a large bill the day we went to pick my mother-in-law up, believing everything to have been covered. In what was supposed to be a restful place to recover, my mother-in-law's dementia and ability to walk worsened considerably, probably from inactivity. I would not let my dog stay in this place. "

"This is the most caring facility. My mother spent her last few months at McClure and they treated her with such love, compassion and dignity. I cannot express my gratitude enough to these "angels" who helped my in my darkest hour. I noticed they also are quite effexctive in getting seniors "up". My mother has one roomate who was there for a short term and they were always encouraging here to get into therapy even when she was trying to be lazy. When she left it was with a smile."

"I liked Orinda Care Center. The rooms were small and could use some updating. It looked like they had some activities that the people were engaged in. There wasn't much grounds; it was all parking. I liked the feel of it. I am upset that my husband is not able to get in there; unfortunately, they are not taking him at this time. The layout is nice. I wish that they would have more outdoor areas because there aren't any outdoor areas for them now. I think that would be very important for them to be able to go outside. I only saw one room, and it looked well kept. The staff person was very nice. "

"My mother did rehab at St. Paul's Towers. They had residents in that place as well. She was OK with it there. She was doing whatever they needed for her to do actively until it's time for her to leave the facility. The floor that she was on was more for medical patients for long stays, but the other floors had a diner. It was very interesting. They had a lot of things for the people to do. I'm sure on other floors, they had people come in and play music. They had a bistro place there where they can go and eat and on the rooftop, they had a patio area. They did games, they had people come in and do hair and bible class and all that kind of stuff. They had a nice little variety of things to keep the patients busy. The staff was very nice and patient and they paid attention to their patients. The care was good. The staff was good. She enjoyed the food fairly well. It was fresh and it was good."

"The accommodations are old and very basic"”looking very much like small hospital rooms. In the way it's run, this place suffers from all of the negative effects of being part of the Medi-Cal system, and seems to cut corners on care. There are few resources dedicated to providing any real memory care at all"”and very few resources for entertainment of residents. In fact, most of the residents are left in their beds for most of the day, while some wander the halls alone. Since the staff seems overworked, they spend little time on the niceties of care, such as helping residents brush their teeth if needed. Residents who are paying privately rather than receiving Medi-Cal benefits are in demand. In fact, when we sought to release my mother-in-law, who was a private-paying resident, workers there attempted to frighten and threaten her to encourage her to remain. Very little innovation or imagination is used in caring for the residents. There are dinners for special occasions, but little else in the way of planned activities that are part of daily life. There is no designated space for entertainment or recreation, so no way to residents to get genuine privacy. Finally, the cost, which went up to $6,000 month recently before we moved my relative, is way overpriced, especially considering the accommodations and care there."

"The Tamalpais Nursing Home is well worth the cost. My grandfather came out here after his home in New Orleans was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. He was very sick at the time, but he quickly recovered at the Tamalpais. He was truly happy there. Rumicube, and making friends were only a few of the many activities he enjoyed. I truly believe that the Tamalpais nursing home added many happy years to his life. The staff was friendly and knew what they were doing, not to mention the stunning view of Mt. Tamalpais, as well as all of the activities. I am thankful for this facility and would suggest it to anyone. "