Meadows of Karlstad

Perry

My parents have just moved to the Meadows of Karlstad and I think it's beyond our expectations. Their facility is newer and clean. They moved into an assisted living apartment, and we were able to move their furniture into it, so it still feels like home. The facility has one and two-bedroom apartments, and my parents moved into a one-bedroom. They are receiving their meals, and the food is great. My parents are also eating better than they were before. The apartments have a refrigerator and a stove, so they do grocery shopping once a week for the residents, which is kind of nice. They have to get up earlier for a hot meal. If you're late for breakfast, then you have cereal or something like that. The meals are good and affordable. They're taking care of their health care and the medications. They're using the doctor at the clinic in Karlstad, and they also have home visits for their medical. The resident RN who is permanently working there is taking really good care of everyone. The doctor also comes in, checks their prescriptions, and makes any recommendations for changes. The meals and healthcare are really good. I think my parents' quality of life and health have improved since moving in. They have a very large common area. I guess it's a good place for people to meet, and my mother is making new friends there. They mostly have it set up for a lot of tables and sofas and a lot of seating for people to put puzzles together and things like that. They have a schedule of activities, too. The common area is almost the size of a gymnasium with seating. It has a piano, TV, and is set up for any activity. It has a small library of books and even a private area for seating if a family comes to visit and you want to eat there. For activities, they do things like playing bingo and watching the Minnesota Wild Hockey Games once a week. They have about three or four activities every day. Some of it are socials like having ice cream and things like that. They even have a golf cart, and they take the residents out once in a while. It's still cold there with snow, but when they can, they go to a local baseball game. They'll take them out, line some chairs up, and have them sit out and watch a game. When they have activities, they also make sure that the residents are safe. They have a small community, and it's a very small town, and the people there are very caring. The staff is very helpful, too. My mother didn't want to go at first but now she's just very happy there. Everything is taken care of, and they're eating better. The housekeeping cleans, takes out their trash, and does their laundry, so she's very happy. Another thing that impressed me the most was the fact that they had someone come in for therapy to check my parents out on their walking and things like that. This is to see if they would qualify for one of those walkers or stroller things that you push with your hands and have a seat and wheels. They want to see if they qualify to get one of those for free from Medicare. They also evaluate the residents for health and safety and other different things, so it seems like there's a lot of attention being paid to their health. Maybe that's just something that happens everywhere, but they're doing a great job with it. It's in a very small community in northern Minnesota, so the costs are pretty pretty low. I think my parents are receiving pretty much full services. The first week that they've been there, they've been monitoring them pretty closely. They come in and check on them even at night since they're new just to see how they're doing. I say the value is good, even if some people might say it is expensive.

Diane

My mother is now in the nursing home of the Meadows of Karlstad. She had to go from the hospital to acute care in the nursing home. And then on Thursday, she will be moving into her actual apartment at the Meadows. We visited there. She liked the atmosphere. She liked her apartment. It was very welcoming, she felt at home there. Also, her original hometown is up north, close to that place. So she felt that would be where she would probably see most of her old friends, and we have family members living up there as well. So that was probably the biggest reason why she chose that. We haven't had that very much experience with the staff, but so far they've been very, very good, very helpful. The facility is very nice. There's a little courtyard just as you come in, there are a couple of tables out there, there's some lawn chairs. My mother wanted to have a view of the parking lot so she could see what was going on. Otherwise, it's a view of the field outside. It's kind of on the edge of town.

Art1

I feel as if the facility does not have the staff that it takes to run the care center. The nurses never seemed like they really wanted to be at their job. The actual facility could use some updating. The positive side is that this is a small care center so my grandparents didn't seem like a number.