Aegis Living of Issaquah

Jeff

Aegis Living of Issaquah looks like a great facility. I got the impression that the people there had activities to do and people were attentive. I thought that looked like a good facility. We also toured another place that seemed kind of depressing, like the memory care folks were just kind of shoved in the basement. This place seemed like there were nice big windows so they could look outside of the trees. It's very beautiful. There was a nice porch where they could sit outside. The residents seemed to get along with each other. It was pleasant and the staff seemed to be supportive. They didn't just kind of shove them in front of a TV. They were engaging. The facility is a decent size. It's bigger than some of the other places that I've seen. It's not the biggest, but not the smallest. They have a really nice dining room on the main floor that you would use if the family came to visit and you wanted to have everybody sit around a table. They had some kind of board games as well.

Lida

My mother-in-law is at the Aegis Living of Issaquah and we can't say enough good things about it. They specialize in dementia and the only way they will move a resident to memory care is when they are a harm to themselves or others. Everybody there has dementia. It is very tranquil with beautiful grounds; they have separate grounds. It is not a large building, and so there's not a lot of stories and elevators that the seniors have to navigate. They call them cottages, and in each cottage they have eight apartments. Well, they are not really apartments, they are a very tiny one-bedroom, which is just OK since they need more care. They have no kitchen or anything, but for the most part they are very good with her meds. She needs full care, so they dress her and all that stuff. They are very gentle and respectful, and she is super happy. My husband used to be there before COVID. They treat COVID very seriously and they protect the residents. They shut down everything. The residents are in their rooms right now.

Steve

Aegis of Issaquah had a nice quaint setting like a cottage. It was one level, there's a covered walk outside, and there were lots of hanging plants and landscaping around it. It's also secure and very clean. The staff was nice, friendly, and accommodating, but I think some of them need a little bit more experience.

Arthur272733

I visited Aegis, and it's like a resort. It's very clean and orderly. The rooms were quite small, but very nice. The people were very proactive, very nice, and very helpful. They seemed to have nice service and facilities.

pepaniza

We were looking for a place for my mother who has beginning stages of dementia. First, as upsetting as it is to have my mom dealing with this disease and of course my dad being worried about her, etc. finding the "right" place has been a pretty scary experience. We chose this community for what seemed to us to be a very loving environment and also the outside spaces. Most of the other places we went to had very limited outside spaces for residents in a secure memory care area. My mom loves the outdoors. She was a master gardener and worked outside constantly. So far we are thrilled with our experience.

formeraegisresident

My experience with Aegis did not end well. I had my mom there for about three years in their Issaquah facility. On the plus side the actual caregivers themselves were very dedicated and really did their very best to help make my mom's time there pleasant. There are lots of activities and the place sure looks good from the outside. One of the challenges of working with this facility is their somewhat complicated fee basis. They have a system of care points and rates and rent points and rates with monthly invoicing that makes it difficult to really understand what you are being charged and why. While in the beginning the monthly charges were quite stable, all of a sudden they quite unexpectedly and without an actual change in my mom's care needs just decided to up and double our monthly cost. In questioning them, we were told that there was an accounting error and we should have paid more the whole time! After some back and forth we realized that we needed to move her out since we couldn't pay this extreme rate increase and there was very little sympathy (read none) as to the impact moving a 90 year old woman that had always been a good resident and customer (we always paid on time and did everything we were ever asked). So know going in that there are costs variables and as we were told the company has targets to hit in terms of what each bed/room/ resident needs to generate in terms of revenue and if you or your loved one ain't cutting it, they will raise you fee to whatever they feel it needs to be. Beyond the money, I will also comment on a couple of other aspects that weighed on our decision to move out. We felt the quality of the facility slipped quite a bit over the time we were there. While the caregivers really do their best, we came to see just how thin they were spread (especially off hours) and always managed to 'efficiency' meaning keep moving. I also found myself often doing routine maintenance- unplugging the toilet, changing lightbulbs, fixing window cranks, etc. after just being tired of asking for them to be fixed you just do it yourself. In interacting with the population there and coming to better understand what as and wasn't being done, we also started to really question the quality of time and care my mom was receiving- residents were often just 'parked' in front of the TV or other situations. We ended up moving her to family home and it is such a better environment I wish we had done it sooner.