Rittenhouse Village At Lehigh Valley

My dad was at Rittenhouse Village At Lehigh Valley for a little while. That place was dirty, but the employees were really nice and very good. When you first came in, the hallways seemed dark. He was supposed to be getting the level three assisted care, and he was actually getting level one. They weren't doing anything extra for him, like helping him down to the dining room and other stuff that we're expecting them to help him with. They had some activities, like bingo, but it seemed like they didn't have as many things going on during my dad's stay there. My sister said the food was OK.

I toured Rittenhouse Village At Lehigh Valley. I went first to see what it was like because I wouldn't put my friend somewhere where I wouldn't want to be and then I took her to see it too. I thought it was very nice, the people were pleasant and the staff was very nice. I liked everything about it. They had games and I loved the dining room, it was very nice. The room I saw was beautiful. I looked at assisted living. The COVID thing was there so they didn't have visitors or anyone sitting in the dining room. Everybody had just gotten their shots so they weren't having visitors sitting with people eating or anything. I thought the place was very clean and my girlfriend did too when I took her around. I just thought the people there were very pleasant. When I walked in from the parking lot, they greeted me good morning. Inside they were very, very nice as well. I wish I could afford to live there.

My friend moved into Rittenhouse Village At Lehigh Valley. She definitely needed assisted living as she was falling. We checked several other places that were more expensive, so the value was quite good. They had a lock-in which was very attractive because she could lock into a price per month, and it will never go up. Whereas many of the places have 4% or 5% and some as high as 8% increases and that was an issue. So, she knows what her cost is in the future. Rittenhouse Village backs right up onto the fish hatchery grounds and so even though it is on Cedar Crest boulevard it is backed into the woods. It has a wonderful porch that they can sit out on. It is a huge, long porch, you can sit out and just watch nature. It has gardening facilities that you could help plant things all of which were really attractive to my friend. It has a very detailed and individualized care. It is not perfect, no place is. It is small, which really was very attractive. It is only three floors; the top floor is the memory care and the second and first floors are the regular people. Not everybody has assisted living, they have different levels of care, same assisted living but different levels of care. Right now, every other day they switch so people can go down and eat in the dining room. And then the next day, the other floor goes. Each floor has their own team of caregivers, so you don't have some stranger waking in to take care of you. Every day, you have the same people, and they are right there, and you can walk down and say, "Hi, how are you? I need a" or "tell me how to do blah, blah" and they do, it is that kind of personal care. The teams get along well with each other. The other thing about Rittenhouse Village is that the residents are very supportive of each other. I have been in assisted living places where people do not talk to one another. Not there, people are chatty, they talk to one another. My friend likes to walk and when the weather is nice, they go for walks right outside the door, they can go outside and walk around. A lot of the the assisted living don't have that. The staff is excellent because they are in teams and they really work together. If one team member cannot get to you, another team member just jumps in. Their food is extremely good, they have a choice of two things for your lunch and dinner. Plus, they have a list if you don't like either of those things, they have a normal list that you can choose instead which includes ham sandwiches, soup, and fruits that you can make a meal out of. My friend likes to have apple sauce with her oatmeal and the man who is in-charge of the restaurant came in and he said, "is there anything in particular that you like to have" so she mentioned and he said "oh fine, just write down apple sauce and after a while we will get used to you and whenever we serve you oatmeal, we will always give you apple sauce." They really try hard. It is smaller in size, so you really get to know everybody, and that was quite attractive. So, for people who would like that kind of atmosphere I think Rittenhouse is the best in the valley, as far as I am concerned. If you have 200 or 300 people, they may have more different events and stuff, but I would easily give them up in order to have events with people that I know. Some people might want different kinds of crafts and all that kinds of stuff that you get in some of the bigger places, but she really likes gardening. It is really easy to take walks outside, you can just sit out and watch the cardinals from the porch. It is big so lots of people can sit out there to chat and talk. It is more like living in a more natural, normal life. Normally they have events where they take you out and do things too, but they can't do that right now because of the pandemic. They have plenty of stuff to do inside. Right now, it is a little more expensive than some of the other places that we looked at. They have lowered their prices because of Covid and not having so many people, but their percentage of increase were pretty high. One other place was 8% per year. It wouldn't take long to become more expensive than Rittenhouse.

I did go down to Rittenhouse Village, which is a very nice facility. Jennifer was super nice. The overall atmosphere was just great. The facility was nice-looking and the rooms were nice and bright. They were re-doing the room that I saw. They had a beautiful porch outside. When I went there, it was a nice day and I just felt like sitting down and relaxing on their beautiful covered porch. It was really nice.