The Fountains At the Carlotta

Just wanted to take a minute to say how great the staff is. Each and everyone of them are awesome !!

My 94 year old mother, birthday today 5/​18, has been in her own apartment here at the Carlotta for 8 years. After a recent emergency surgery she was discharged to the skilled nursing facility and spent the last 3 weeks here. The care was amazing! From Sue, the administrator to Lori, the Patient Coordinator, the house doctor, Dr Wu, and nursing staff, PT, OT, and all the staff. Caring, efficient professionals all. Thank you all for taking such good care of our mom.

This place sucks! The assisted living facility is a farce as they are slow and delayed at best in their response for assistance and often just completely ignore them altogether. My friend’s mother is not only getting worse cognitively and physically since being there but has also had several pieces of expensive family heirlooms go missing. When family or patient advocates try to get these issues resolved on behalf of the resident, the administrative staff becomes hostile, adversarial and controlling in order to alienate, marginalize the individual seeking remedy and deflects attention away from their poor care, lack of integrity and HORRIBLE management. Don’t be fooled by the nice appearance or ‘canned’ reviews! Look elsewhere for better care for your loved one as my friend is doing. And trust me, now that they know this, things are getting worse not better for her! Shameful and disgusting!

I have a relative that has lived here, and continues to be a resident at the Fountains for the past 9 years. At 94, my mother is still living quite independently as you can in a community of this sort. A few years ago, she did fracture her hip in a fall, but after a brief stay at the hospital for the surgery, her 7 weeks at the skilled nursing facilities was handled and done in a most professional way.
In the few emergency times she had to use the emergency system they have in place there (wrist band or pendant), the response was I’m sure much faster than most if not any 911 emergency call from a home or business.
Frankly, I’m a little at a loss at some of the negative comments I have engaged myself to read here, I’m sure they are written with sincerity and not done with malice, But these comments, together with my own experience for nine years, is what has prompted my review, actually.

The skilled nursing facility is neither skilled nor providing nursing. The regulations that determine how the facility is reimbursed by Medicare determines every single decision that the staff makes. The director of admissions, upon admitting my mother, told me that every call from a patient was responded to within 5 minutes. Yesterday, it took 35 minutes before a staff member responded to a call for help and then no one ever came. The medical director sees each patient once, upon admission. I was told this was because «Medicare pays for a doctor to see a patient once every 30 days». Do not call this skilled nursing if there is no response from a doctor when the patient needs medical attention. Like every institution, there are some good players, some caring care givers and some staff who really aren’t very good at what they do. The dining room staff is gentle and caring; some of the CNAs, who are the primary care givers, are loving to the elderly patients. But the institution is non-​responsive and difficult to deal with. The director of nursing lectured me on two separate occasions when I told her about questions that I had about the care decisions that were being made. She (or rather, her representative) had, in fact, started a meeting by asking whether I had any questions or concerns. When I expressed those concerns, she told me that this was not a «one stop shop» and that they were only «being paid by Medicare to rehabilitate (my) mother’s broken hip» and so if my mother had any underlying medical condition, those would not be treated at their facility. Excuse me, but they call the place a «skilled nursing facility»; am I wrong to think that my mother would receive nursing care, delivered with skill? But the «5 minute» call response was a lie from top to bottom. I do not know what the staffing ratios are supposed to be. It appeared that there was a lot of staff on the floor, but the response time was more «whenever we get there» rather than the promised «5 minutes». When my elderly mother with increasing confusion and a healing hip replacement called for help to get to the bathroom, she needed help. Her confusion seemed to disturb the staff; since they didn’t really know how to respond, they were less than attentive. Finally, the private care giver that we were paying to protect her after she slid out of her wheelchair helped her into the bathroom. The administrative staff should be embarrassed by their interactions with patients and family.

Horrible Care
Recently an elderly Family member of mine was moved to this facility with a broken leg. While at the facility he began suffering from Hallucinations and Confusion. He had a major bladder infection that was never treated correctly. The wound care he received from a bed sore that he got while he was there was treated poorly. His full leg cast was filthy and covered in feces and we are not even sure if they ever noticed. Finally my mother fought to get him sent to the hospital to get his mental state checked out and when the hospital was ready to send him back to the facility he was no longer welcomed back. The hospital gave plenty of warning they wanted to release him and they waited until late Friday afternoon to respond.
Don’t let someone you care about go into this horrible facility, look at getting care elsewhere.

This is a wonderful place, the independent living areas, for a person or couple to live in their later years. There are lots of activities, plenty of people to meet, so there are good friends being made every day. The skilled nursing area, on the other hand, was not as nice… the staff there did not work well with the hospice ideals while my father was there. The independent areas are the best parts of Carlotta.
The food isn’t particularly good, never has been for the several years my folks have been there. But the snack bar dining area is good. the pools are well maintained and I know my Mom is happy there. But once she needs lots of assistance, and has to move to the assisted living or skilled nursing areas, she’s out of there!

my elderly dad was a patient here for two weeks for rehab after back surgery. it was a lovely facility, he said the food was good, the staff was excellent and answered our questions honestly and quickly… would recommend if one needs short term rehab!

This is an update to my last review in 2011.
My dad passed away in September of last year. He was 86. He died of complications from bladder cancer.
My mom was devastated. After dad died, she considered leaving Carlotta, but decided to stay. She has so many friends there, she has responsibilities, she is active in the chapel ministry, is in a singing group, she loves her physical therapist, Mica, etc.
She decided to move out of that apartment (too many memories) from a two bedroom, two bath apartment to a one/​one. She lives right next door to one of her best friends. The Carlotta staff moved everything for us. We redecorated, did her bedroom in pink and white, and designed her living space with creams, whites, lavenders and purple. They are her favorite, very feminine colors, which she would never have used with Dad around! The women of Carlotta circled their wagons around her and gave her love and care when she needed it most. Many of them knew first hand what she was going through.
We had Dad’s memorial service at Carlotta too. The staff was wonderful, so accomodating, and patient. Mom knows most of the staff personally by now. It’s an extended family to her.
My point is that I can’t imagine how lost and alone my mom would be right now if they hadn’t decided to move into Carlotta while they were still «kicking.» I see women and men living alone in houses they refuse to leave, and I think, if only they could see what they are missing. If they only knew how rich these years could be.

okay… at first glance, this place is a real winner… when you start to look a little deeper & have to deal with incompetance of the workers, i think not! my grandmother had to be put in this sh*thole to «recover» for 10 days. three weeks later, she’s worse than the condition she arrived in from the hospital, they let her fall out of bed, she has developed bed sores from them not turning her every 2 hours, & they gave her e-​coli from the cna’s wiping the wrong way!!! this joint is full of jackasses. do not let the nice appearance fool you. if you care about your loved one that is supposed come here to «recover» or worse to live here in the assisted living section… please think twice!