Foss Home & Village

My mother is in the nursing home wing of Foss Home & Village. It is very clean, spacious, well-lit, and small, with only 147 beds. It was also the only nursing home that I could find that didn't have a two-year waiting period to do a Medicaid conversion. My mother's shared room is $9,000 a month versus $12,500, which is the standard cost of a nursing home in Seattle. The staff is very responsive, good, and they learned to respect her ability to direct her own care, which is probably the biggest challenge we've faced so far, because they're used to people not being able to make their own decisions. The food is standard institutional food, but it’s OK. They could up their game a little bit on that. My mom participates in Bingo and she has some sort of therapy three times a week. They have kickball and bouncing balloons, which are basically a more fun form of physical therapy. There are art classes and dominoes.

I didn’t like Foss Home. It was dingy, dark, and didn’t smell good. I only saw one staff member, and she was nice. The rooms were small; I wasn’t that impressed. Cleanliness would be the one thing. It doesn’t smell good; that was pretty awful.

The layout of the facility was fairly spread out and centered around several group rooms, such as the cafeteria and a sort of communal gathering room. There are multiple floors with easily usable elevators; the hallways are wide and easy to navigate with walkers and wheelchairs. The rooms are a bit narrow for my taste but do offer a fair price for residing there. The paint color is also a little dull and mellow, but may be right for the residents that live there. There are areas to walk and sit outside, giving residents a safe place to spend some time in the outdoors. Staff was always friendly and gave privacy during our visits. We were able to bring many of grandma's things into the room to try and make it feel as if she wasn't being forgotten and could feel as if this was her home. Parking at Foss Home is a little awkward if you have to cross traffic; parking spots do feel a little narrow if you drive a larger vehicle. The home is near an elementary school, making traffic terrible around the times school starts and ends. Overall, the facility is worth it; we had a positive experience before our grandmother passed.