Heritage Community of Kalamazoo

Terri W.

I have two aunts that are in the Independent Living apartments. When I come in to visit, the greeter named, Eric, is so courteous and kind. He is a true gentleman! He makes you feel very welcome there. He is also very kind and respectful of my aunt, which is so important. My family members love living in this facility!

bearmom465

Well, let's see..it's been over a year since my mom lived there. I'm giving this a very good rating for two reasons. For the clean facility and caring staff. The employees seemed to truly love my mom and she was clean most of the time. They provided her with a clean and safe environment. The staff was great until you made a complaint about something and then their attitude was different towards you, as family. I do feel the director covers up for her employees at times instead of agreeing that they might have done something wrong and could do better. Here's just some of the issues we encountered in the 2 years my mom lived there. First of all, she liked to wander into other people's rooms, which most people with memory issues do. Well, she would like to eat bar soap. It took awhile for them to recognize that having soap in the rooms was not good for anyone who doesn't think clearly. My mom made 2 trips to the ER because her tongue and lips swelled up from eating soap. I didn't get to visit mom as often as I'd like because of the distance between us. I arrived on 2 different occasions to note that my mom had front teeth missing and nobody had let me know about it. When I brought it up, they said nobody had noticed it, but yet they told me my mom smiled all the time. How can you not spot missing front teeth if she smiled all the time? I fought and fought to get good pureed food for my mom, but every time my dad or I visited she had the same "frozen pucks". She had a brown puck (her meat) a green puck (her vegi) and always, always, always, mashed potatoes with butter on top. She had mashed potatoes for lunch and dinner almost every day. It was easier for them to pop the pucks out of the package, pop them in the microwave and heat them up for her than to actually puree some of the other food everyone else was eating. That was the biggest battle I fought there. I was always told by the director to advocate for my mom but when I did about the pureed food, excuses were always made. There was no easy access to get to the courtyard when my mom lived there. To get to the courtyard you had to open the dining room door and go down a step or 2 to get to the main level of the courtyard. If someone was in a wheelchair, someone would have to wheel them outside the locked down unit and to the ramp on the other side of the building. I was there one day in April of 2015 when I saw for myself how afraid people were of that step down..including my mom. So I started asking why that courtyard was not handicap accessible. I called contractors, I called the CEO of the company, who told me that they were going to change things. Well, long story short, I heard reason after reason why it couldn't be done, so I contacted the board of directors about it and after that, the project got done rather quickly! My mom wasn't able to enjoy the new courtyard as she passed before it was complete, which brings me to my last complaint. The nurse who overseas the facility called me to tell me that she had just sent my mom to the hospital. She didn't seem concerned that it was an emergency or anything. She told me my mom went to bed the night before just fine and someone found her at 6:00 am very sick in her room. That was at 6:00am...and they didn't call an ambulance for 4 hours. FOUR HOURS my mom suffered. She also told me my mom had a wet cough and was very warm to the touch, but had a LOW GRADE fever. I have the ambulance reports and they state my mom had a temperature of 103.1. I think that nurse needs to review her medical notes. 103 is not low grade. Within about an hour of my dad and I arriving at the hospital, which took us an hour to get to, the doctors were telling us my mom was on her death bed and she wasn't going to pull through this. She had pneumonia. She died before midnight that same night they took her to the hospital.

clara2007

I visited this Community a couple of times over the years. The last time I visited I was really disappointed as to how they do not seem to be keeping the facilities up for the residents living in the small apartments. It doesn't look like it has ever been power-washed, I walked around and it seems that no one has weeded and it is July! One residents screen door is on completely backwards so they would have to walk outside to open the window. I spoke to a couple of residents and they indicated that the staff does not respond promptly to any issues; when they do they are not competent to fix it and have to come back multiple times. Don't know if I would want my parent in a place where I would have to continually have call and not have a responsive staff.

BALHNQR

Heritage Community has various levels of care, and my mother is located in the Directors Hall. We are completely happy. The staff is wonderful. The activities they offer are fine, the living quarters are fair, and the dining room setup is good with good food choices, too. They need more staff as they always seem short on staff.

no regrets

My mother was a resident for two years. She progressed seamlessly through a continuum of care from assisted living, to memory care, to skilled nursing. Outstanding staff from maintenance, to housing keeping, to aids, to skilled nursing who interact with residents in a very personal way, caring for the heart and soul as well as the body. I explored several other options in Kalamazoo and think this provided the best atmosphere while many facilities were more focused on a business/money model. No regrets and could sleep well knowing my mother was safe with good care. I will move here myself when the time for that comes.

Elinor1

Heritage was very nice, but it’s an older facility around 70 years. It’s well-kept up, but it’s very modern. The buildings are new and well-kept, but the building itself is old. It’s comfortable and welcoming. The apartments were adequate. They have a lovely dining room, and the food we had was excellent. We didn’t meet as many as residents, but the staff that we met especially Maria -- the girl that showed us around -- was a gem!

Harry23

We looked at an apartment at Heritage Community of Kalamazoo and it all looked good. It has two bedrooms and one kitchen. The grounds are very nice. Their dining room is like a restaurant. The staff would come in and take your order. They have a regular menu and their food was very good. They have a library and lots of things going on. They play bingo. They also have a happy hour once a week, movies, popcorn nights, and various things. The only thing bad about this is their parking. The normal parking is quite small, but I would definitely recommend this facility.

Caring4355

My friend has an excellent experience in Heritage. She's getting a lot of physical therapy, the nurses are good and the people are friendly. There's no smell in the place and it's very clean. Her room has two beds and closets and she's on the side where she can look out of the window. They had caring and courteous staff.

mitch13

This assisted living home is better than most others that I've been in. The quality of the food is far superior in comparison with the ones I've visited. From what I could tell the staff seemed patient and friendly when dealing with the elders. From what my grandpa has told me there are always a lot of activities to stay involved in to keep busy so I found that a very important point. When activities are involved it allows for everyone to get to know each other a bit better and gives everyone a sense of belonging. However, there were a few negatives that I found about this home. One is that the bathrooms are not as spacious as I'd imagined they'd be. Another thing that I didn't really care for was the televisions that were provided with each room. The televisions were of an older style than I'm used to seeing so new flat screens (nothing big) could be introduced.

jec24rkc

I appreciate that only Alzheimer's patients are in this particular facility. There are 17 residents and the Best Friends approach is used that all of the care partners are trained in. The community as a whole has over 400 residents but this particular section of a floor is only for these 17 neighbors. It is secured and the code is not given to visitors - I have been to other facilities where the entrance/exit code is shared with any and everyone. The staff are genuinely concerned and do well with the residents in redirection and soothing souls. The life enrichment coordinator plans a variety of activities both on and off site for the neighbors. Care plans are done individually for each resident and reviewed continually - I appreciate how much the staff know about my husband and what works with him and what doesn't.

cjzim

This is a wonderful facility with care levels ranging from simply independent living apartments to assisted living ( two different faciliities on campus to acommodate differing financial needs), two Alzheimer's/dementia units and a nursing home. I have had loved ones living in nearly all of the various facilities on campus (independent living, assisted living, Alzheimer's unit and nursing home) and all experiences have been great with wonderful care, utilizing up-to-date methods and current best practices in caring for the elderly, particularly in the Alzheimer's facility. Staff is well-trained, compassionate, loving, for the most part.

thepianoman

Visiting this nursing home was not a pleasant experience. There were several sick elderly people that weren't receiving the help they needed. I can recall a time when a woman yelled help for around 3 minutes before she was tended to. However the home was clean and aside from the late responses from the staff, it was decent.

Kzoo34

I visited this facility a few times a week for about six months while keeping track of an old neighbor. When she moved to the facility I said I would visit. The grounds were very well kept in the summer and the common areas seemed to be free of dust and dirt. I was invited to stay for a meal and while it wasn't fine dining my old neighbor had no complaints. Overall she seemed to be fairly happy there at least while I was able to visit.