Martha & Mary

JCPatton

I am writing to share my family's experience a week ago, Saturday March 30, 2013, when we attempted to have a tour of the facilities at Martha & Mary in Poulsbo. Due to the ineptitude of their staff the experience was a complete disaster. On Monday, March 18, I spoke with the director of social services. I was very specific that we wanted to see all facilities, including independent and assisted living facilities. I explained that my 89-year-old mother is living independently and not incapacitated at this time, but we were doing our research in preparation for the time when she may need to make a change in her living situation. (Note: At NO TIME during this conversation did the social services director advise me that there are no assisted living services at the Poulsbo location.) I requested a tour at 2 p.m. on Saturday March 30 to accommodate family from out of town. She advised that the person I should ask for on Saturday March 30 would be a specific manager. She also asked if we could be there by 1:30 p.m. in order to allow for enough time for the tour. On Saturday March 30, we arrived at Martha & Mary at about 1:20 p.m, expecting to see everything that might be appropriate for my mother, expecting to be able to have our questions answered, and expecting to be able to go over the financials for every option. Not unreasonable expectations by the family of a prospective resident one would think. We politely advised the gentleman at the reception desk that we were there for a tour with (specific manager's name). When she arrived in the reception area, she was clearly not expecting to conduct a tour and our request/arrangements had NOT been communicated to her by the social services director. Not only that, she told us she had NEVER done a tour before. Not something I was expecting to hear from someone who's supposed to be a manager there. In any case, it went downhill from there. She took us downstairs to the rehab facilities and showed us around. My brother asked about the rehab therapy services; she had to refer to a fact sheet to answer the question (we were standing in front of the rehab room at the time). We asked about seeing the assisted living facilities, and initially she said she had to call someone. Later, after we sat waiting for a good 20 minutes, she told us there are none at the Poulsbo location (please see paragraph above where it is noted that I specifically mentioned this to the social services director, who didn't bother letting me know this at the time I was making our arrangements). So we asked about seeing the independent living facilities and we were told we could not because there was no one available there who could show us around. It became very clear that this manager was going to be no help whatsoever and the visit was a complete waste of our time. We are not a bunch of know-nothings. Three of us work in the health care field. I work in HR for a mental health facility, my husband is a master's degreed psychotherapist, and my brother is a licensed clinical social worker and MSW who has worked for a nursing home. We did not appreciate the unprofessional, incompetent manner in which we, a prospective resident and her family, were treated by the staff at Martha & Mary.

Jane5

The facility provided great care and ease in my grandmother's final days. The nurses were well trained, attentive and prepared for anything that could happen. The staff was familiar with my grandmother's needs and desires and treated her visitors with kindness. They were not only kind but informative and completely professional in every day activities as well as the final moments. The rooms were clean and well maintained, and equipped with technology that worked well. I didn't have too much contact with the doctors or the mental health professionals but they have good reviews from my family. We were there daily and took over the room. We are a very big family and the staff never minded us tramping in and out or singing to keep my grandmother's spirits up at the end. I think that the staff and the facility are top notch and deserve the highest praise. It is a very tough time in patients' and families' lives and the people at Martha and Mary handled everything flawlessly.

Anna Michelle

We chose to have my grandfather move into Martha and Mary after researching other nursing homes in our area (The Kitsap Peninsula). Eventually, we chose to move him to Martha and Mary because overall, they seemed like the best choice. Martha and Mary not only has an excellent staff to resident ratio on all wings of their building, but they also have a lot of extra activities within the facility, as well as activities scheduled within the community of Poulsbo. For example, my grandfather enjoyed creating flower bouquets with the on-site full time Horticultural Therapist. A local farmer who grew gigantic lovely dahlias would stop by once a week during the summer and drop off buckets of these flowers for the residents at the facility to enjoy. This is just one small example of the extras that Martha and Mary offer. Nothing stood out as terrible at Martha and Mary. The staff was friendly and attentive to my grandfather. I recommend this facility if you have to consider one.

Springgreen

Overall, we have had a pretty good experience with this living facility. My great-grandmother is currently living there. While she does have some memory issues associated old-age, the employees here do a great job helping her and being accommodating. Overall, the employees are very friendly. In terms of training, I'm not familiar enough with assisted living facilities to know about this, but we have never had any problems with any of the staff in terms of health care or treatment. My great-grandmother loves to read, and they provide plenty of large print books for her to look at. She enjoys the food, which is good, though it seems about average to me. The other residents are nice and friendly, but there is also a lot of privacy in each room so depending on the visit I either interact with a lot of residents or none of them. This is great for my great-grandmother because depending on her mood sometimes she wants to be alone, other times she wants to talk to people. Overall, we've really enjoyed this facility and would recommend it to others. In terms of affordability, this place seems to be slightly more expensive, but it is a really nice facility, has kind of a "cottage" style look to it too, and it is in a nice area of Washington State. This area is far away from an urban center, but we live nearby so it works well for us. I would recommend it just based on our experience with it.

michellepo22

The employees at Martha & Mary Health Services are always ready to lend a helping hand with a smile on their face. You couldn't ask for better service.