Mission Creek

Merrill Hills seems OK right now, and we like that she would never have to move out of the room she is in. Even if she goes to the hospice care, she doesn’t have to move. There are people out there, and they bring the hospice to her. The staff has been helpful, and I would recommend them. We had dinner the other day, and everything was really good. It was clean and well-kept; that is why we picked it. It seemed to be the best.

I find this review very hard to write. My mother really wanted to be at her own home, and not here, so she told me that she would hate wherever I put her. We tried in-home care, but they quit because she was too difficult to care for. She stayed in 3 rehabilitation facilities before coming here, so I can compare the care she received here vs. those other facilities. Most of this review is from my observations visiting her many times per week for the few months she was here before she died. She had moderate dementia, and was fairly mobile until just before she came here, and we had hoped her mobility would improve, but instead it got much worse almost immediately after she came here, and went downhill quickly, so she needed lots of help/care. Overall, the facility is nice and clean, the rooms large, and each room has its own temperature control, so she could turn the heat on high when she was cold. I thought the care staff here was very nice, but the turnover rate was fairly high, and I thought there was not really enough staff to care for the patients’ needs at busy times. After meals, every resident wanted to use the bathroom, and many took 5-10 minutes to care for, so even if the staff ratios was 4 or 5 to 1 staff member (and I don’t know what the number was), that could lead to a very long wait. My mom needed 2 people to help her in the restroom, and so her waits to use the restroom were often very long. One time I pulled the cord and waited 15 minutes. I tried to help her myself and put her on the toilet, but could not get her off. She started screaming for help at the top of her lungs, so I finally went out in the hall and walked up and down until I found someone to help. About 5 minutes later (about 25 minutes after I pulled the cord), I heard them dispatch someone to her room on the radio of the person I found to help her. However, the staff was always very nice to her, and patient with her, even when she wasn’t pleasant to them. I walked in a few times when they were caring for her, and they had not seen me yet and did not know I was there, so I listened, and they were always extremely nice to her and patient with her. Note that her waits were just as long at the other facilities, and even longer when she visited the hospital, so I’m not really sure if there is a place that would be better for someone who needed as much help as she did. Also, they had pullcords in the rooms, but they weren’t really in easy reach for her, and she was too confused to use them, so she would often just yell for help. That worked in the facilities with smaller rooms, and the last place she was at, she was in the room next to the nurses’ desk. Here, since the rooms were larger the hallways were long and empty, so just yelling didn’t work. I considered moving her to a location that had push buttons to wear around her neck, but my sister’s mother-in-law had one of those and was too confused to press it, and so I wasn’t sure that would help her either, in her confused state. So, perhaps a place with smaller or shared rooms would have been better for her. They advertised their food as really good, but I didn’t really see that when I visited at mealtimes. Residents were supposed to have a choice of 2 different entrees per meal, but I never saw anyone asked what they wanted. Food was just placed in front of residents. One day I visited I saw on the sign at the front desk that the lunch choices were between turkey and crabcakes. My mom hated turkey, and loved crab cakes, but had turkey on her plate when I walked to the table. I asked her why she didn’t have the crab cakes, but she didn’t even know they were an option. A few times the food delivered looked cold and sort of congealed. Other times it looked ok. Overall, she liked the food better than at Lindon Grove, but didn’t think it was as good as at Lake Country. The one thing she really liked there, though, were their activities. They had many activites starting in the morning and going almost all day. She really enjoyed them. She loved the games and was always proudly showing me prizes she won at the games. She also really enjoyed group singing sessions. She had never enjoyed singing in the past, but loved it here. The woman that led the singing was a wonderful singer, and my mom wouldn’t even visit for us if we accidentally visited while she was singing. She had a real peaceful, happy smile on her face whenever they were singing. She also loved their church services, even though she hadn’t been a regular church goer in many years. During one of her hospital visits, she said she couldn’t wait to get back to Merrill Hills because she missed all the activities, and the hospital was just too boring. So that was the best endorsement I could have gotten from her. Although I believe the staff that cared for her and did activities with her were very nice, the staff that communicated with me after she moved in really didn’t prepare me for what my responsibilities were. For example, at the rehab places they provided diapers, but here I had to provide them, but no one told me. I had no idea until she ran out and they yelled at me. I had no idea what kind to buy, so it took a while for me to figure it out. She also had trouble on the toilet, and the visiting physical therapists told me what type of raised toilet seat to buy to make it easier for her, but none of their staff ever mentioned a different seat was a good idea, or was my responsibility to provide. I also had to bring in blankets for her, which I didn’t realize until she complained about how cold she was at night. Since she soiled them almost every night, I had to bring in A LOT of blankets. The physical therapists also called me to tell me she had run out of clean clothing. I had no idea, and the staff at Merrill Hills never called to tell me. I had brought all the clothing she had had for months at the rehab place, so I had no idea it wasn’t adequate here. I think they changed her more often and did the washing less, so I had to bring in lots and lots of clothing for her. When we had to move her out after she passed away, I was shocked to see all the clothing in the closet – literally dozens and dozens of pants and shirts, but her closet was always almost empty when she was living there, and I was always bringing in more so she wouldn’t run out, so I was shocked to see how many she wound up with in the end. They also did not brush her teeth very often. Her teeth were very brown. I tried to brush them when I visited, but she always refused and yelled at me, so I think they probably did the same to them, but still her mouth was in awful shape. Her dentist said that is very common in care facilities. When she was admitted to the hospital, the staff said she was very dirty. She also didn’t’ like baths and moving to the bath chair was painful, so that may have been why they hadn’t bathed her. So, I’m not really sure it was their fault, but I was disappointed. Finally, the nursing staff wasn’t real responsive, and I often had trouble finding out about her medical issues. They sent her to the hospital once without even calling me. They claimed they had, but since you can tell if you’ve missed calls on modern phones, I could tell they hadn’t called any of my phone numbers. Even though I had given them a paper with all my phone numbers on it, they only ever called my work phone number, even on weekends and holidays. Luckily the hospital had my home phone, so they called me after she was admitted. Also, I believe they kept her on a stool softener for weeks after she started having severe Diarrhea because they said a doctor had prescribed it and they couldn’t stop it without a doctor’s order. It took about a month to get the doctor that works at that facility to visit her. They told me the doctor would visit her on the 2nd week, but I waited there all morning, and when I finally tracked down the doctor, my mother hadn’t even been registered on the doctor’s list to see. It also took me 3 months to get a podiatrist to see her. I had asked because she had fungus on her toes and wanted it looked at, but they kept saying the podiatrist would see her, but he/she never did. I think on the 4th month they may have seen her, but I never got any report on what they found or did, and there was no treatment for the nail fungus, so I was never certain. Note I had just as many problems getting to talk to the nursing staff at the other facilities, so I don’t think this is unusual. At one of the other places I was so desperate to speak with the nurse that I stood at her desk for 20 minutes while she spoke to a doctor on the phone about her patients. She told me to wait in my mother’s room for her, which I did, but she never came even though I waited hours, and I could not find the nurse again. So, again, I am not sure where I could find better care. I heard rumors about better places from a few people, but when I tried those places, they all had waiting lists of 6 months to a year, and she needed immediate placement, and did not live long enough to have a chance at those places. So, I guess I would say that if your loved one is fairly mobile and can use the bathroom themselves, and just has memory issues and confusion, then I would recommend placing them here because they have really nice staff and nice activities to keep people happy and busy. If they need a lot of hands on care, I’m not sure what to say. I didn’t find a place that took better care of her than this one, but hopefully there are better places out there….

Less than 1 star, the place is way over priced for the kind of care you receive. I agree with the person who said they talk a good line!!!!! My parents have lived there less than a year, they have missed giving my mother her eye medicine 4 days in a row, because they forgot to order it from the pharmacy. My dad has gotten pneumonia 3 times because I believe it is caused from lack of cleaning the equipment and my father fell out of bed and it took over 25 minutes for any staff to respond to my mother's yelling for help. In fact my mother called my sister because no one would respond to her yell for help. My sister told her to try and make it to the hallway to yell in the hallway for help. My sister got to Merrill. Hills just as they were starting to assist my father of the floor and she had to get dressed and drive 2 miles at 1 AM in the morning. The person who said to do your research before putting anyone at Merrill Hills, is the best advice I can offer as well!!!! To add insult to injury after they took over 25 minutes to finally help my father off the floor, they didn't bother to have his injured leg xrayed until later and when he asked for aspirin for the pain it took over 8 hours before they finally got him any pain reliever. Then they turned around and raised their price of my parents room by over $1000 month adding to their already over exorbitant cost they originally were paying of over $9000. To top it off, my dad's doctor wanted him on a no salt diet and for over 10,000 a month the administrator at Merrill Hills said they cannot do that either!!! My rating is less than 1 star, for some reason the computer keeps adding stars, not me!!!!

My mom was on respite care at Merrill Hills Manor for about a month, and it was a temporary situation until I could find something permanent. I think they did an adequate job in taking care of her needs, but it just wasn't at the same level as where she is at right now. It was more institutional, but it doesn't mean that they were bad. It was just a totally different approach to care. The rooms were furnished and were all basically very similar. It was relatively new, so it was in pretty good shape.

Merrill Hills Manor was not real professional. It was not as well-maintained. You could see damage to the carpeting on the main hallways and stuff like that. It wasn't really expensive, but it was bare. You had the smell of urine in the place. The residents seemed stressed and not happy at all. We thought there was a lack of a good caregiver-to-resident ratio. They brought out the chef, and we got to talk a little about the meals, and that was probably the only positive thing I can think of about the experience. The cleanliness of the institution is one thing they can improve on. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

Please do your research. The facility can talk the talk but truly was a failure in everything else. I was afraid for my loved one every moment they were there. Check their records with the state of Wisconsin facility survey. Please be careful. I wished I had done a bit more research before I had put my family member there.

We moved our parents here two weeks ago and this was the only place where they can move together. They've been living together for many many years and good thing we found Merri Hills. The facility is very nice and clean. The people are very warm and friendly.The food is good. Their rate is pretty good too. The room is nice with a livable space. It might not be the biggest but the important thing is that my parents can also take care of themselves. Their bathroom is big with walk-in showers so that helps them a lot. Old people may tend to adjust longer and it's been two weeks since they moved in but I'm really hoping they are happy there. Also I think the place is understaffed and I'd say they can be better if they are more organized. I'd sure recommend this place to others.