Grossmont Gardens

Barbara

I toured Grossmont Gardens. I lived there for over 10 years ago. I didn't taste the food again to see if anything changed there. The rooms are all the same. They're nice. They're a little pricey. I think they were up to $3000 to live there monthly and that's way out of my line. The staff was nice.

Harlow

The general appearance of Grossmont Gardens was good, nice, and clean. The staff members were friendly. They showed us the respite room and I found it to be nice. The other rooms were good, too. The respite room was like a studio. They also have a dining room and an activity room.

Denielle

I toured Grossmont Gardens. That was a huge facility. They had every single kind of care. They even had a lockdown unit. I really liked it, but it was out of my price budget, and for the care that my sister needed there, she was too young for it. They referred me to try to get certain funding, but she still doesn't qualify for it because she's too young. I would love to put her there, but it's too expensive because she pays out of pocket. I really enjoyed the tour. I had seen them helping some of the patients in and out of the elevator, because it was dinner time, and that was really good to see that they spoke to the patients and didn't just walk past them. The dining area looked very good. It was open, and everybody was lively talking to each other. And I'm pretty sure they offer haircutting and transportation. They offer numbers to different people that may be able to help me with different things, and I really like that, too.

Bruce

When I toured Grossmont Gardens, somebody else stepped in and took over, although I sat there for probably 30 minutes before. She showed me the model. They have models of their different floor plans, so I was able to see all the different ones that my father would be interested in, but she wasn't able to give me any pricing or any other information. She wasn't the person to talk to for all of that. They're supposed to call me back today, but I just wasn't impressed with the whole arrangement. They didn't know I was coming. It was like a zoo. I was sitting there and people were looking for people they couldn't find. It's a much bigger facility, which has a lot of things. One of the nice things, though, about that facility (I don't know whether it's good or bad) was all the doors of the rooms open to the outside versus into an internal hallway. It was a balcony with some railing so that gives you a little more feeling of being more independent. It's more like a front door going outside. There was a bingo game going on. We then toured the dining room, but it was later in the day, and nobody was eating at that point, they weren't ready for my tour, so they didn't have all the venues and all the stuff. The dining area looked nice, but I was concerned at the size of the dining area since they're such a large facility, but the lady said that it was never full completely. It would have been nice to have been there during a meal to see how that worked, but they have waiters who take your order and bring your food to your table. So, that's great.

Brooke

My father is still at Grossmont Gardens. I would say his overall experience would just be satisfactory. There is lots of room for improvement. Of course, he did have a majority of his stay through the COVID pandemic, so that was not enjoyable. Lately, his main source of social interaction is going to the dining hall to have his three meals of the day, and it seems to be a common thing that it is shut down and their meals are brought to them in their room, so then he has no social interaction for the day unless it's with a nurse. Usually, the excuse I get is that it's due to staffing issues. Or if somebody is sick, they're going to quarantine everybody instead of just quarantining the sick person. When you're paying a lot of money to stay there and you can't have your meals in the dining hall and enjoy the company of others for long periods, it's very discouraging and upsetting. The dining area looks nice when they can be there. My father complains about the food though. When I go in there and sit with him and his friends at the table, they always make jokes about the food, not in a good way, so I don't think the food is very desirable. They have activities but he doesn't attend very many of them. They have bingo, bridge, chair yoga occasionally, and music trivia quiz night. My father's room is a small bedroom with a bathroom. The bathroom is wheelchair accessible. It's got storage in the bathroom. He has a sliding glass door and screen that goes to a joint patio with all the other rooms, so he has some outside access, which is nice. The nurses and the caregivers on his floor are friendly. They have very nice grounds, too.

Linda

My mother-in-law is a resident of Grossmont Gardens. The staff, as far as the caregivers, they're very nice. The management is not good and they keep cutting the staff, so the care goes down. We brought up this concern because at one point my mother-in-law went a week and two days without a shower, and she's supposed to get one twice a week. They were trying to make excuses, and then I said that you're cutting staff. The person I talked to says, "Oh, but we only cut the staff in the dietary." But then, when you pull the health care workers to help with the dietary, they're not available to do their job. It's just being mismanaged now. I don't know what's going on, but they're doing a poor job, they keep cutting staff, and they keep expecting staff to do things that they're not supposed to be doing. The food is okay, I did not try it, but I sat with my mother-in-law at lunch. It's a decent room, she has a studio. They have an activity room. She's in the east building, so it's a little different. I know they have a pool and different things for other parts of the community, but she's not able to take advantage of those things. I do know that they have community people for different things. But they forgot to take my mother-in-law for her birthday month; one time, they take everybody out for a special lunch, and they forgot her. That was kind of disconcerting. Again, this goes to the staff. They have exercises, which are very limited, but appropriately so, for the people that don't have much mobility. But they'll be in their chairs, and they'll be doing different leg and arm exercises while they sit, so it's very safe. Those people are quite lovely. They have bingo and different things like that. They also play music. The staff I would rate a five, but not the management.