Aegis Living of Issaquah

formeraegisresident

My experience with Aegis did not end well. I had my mom there for about three years in their Issaquah facility. On the plus side the actual caregivers themselves were very dedicated and really did their very best to help make my mom's time there pleasant. There are lots of activities and the place sure looks good from the outside. One of the challenges of working with this facility is their somewhat complicated fee basis. They have a system of care points and rates and rent points and rates with monthly invoicing that makes it difficult to really understand what you are being charged and why. While in the beginning the monthly charges were quite stable, all of a sudden they quite unexpectedly and without an actual change in my mom's care needs just decided to up and double our monthly cost. In questioning them, we were told that there was an accounting error and we should have paid more the whole time! After some back and forth we realized that we needed to move her out since we couldn't pay this extreme rate increase and there was very little sympathy (read none) as to the impact moving a 90 year old woman that had always been a good resident and customer (we always paid on time and did everything we were ever asked). So know going in that there are costs variables and as we were told the company has targets to hit in terms of what each bed/room/ resident needs to generate in terms of revenue and if you or your loved one ain't cutting it, they will raise you fee to whatever they feel it needs to be. Beyond the money, I will also comment on a couple of other aspects that weighed on our decision to move out. We felt the quality of the facility slipped quite a bit over the time we were there. While the caregivers really do their best, we came to see just how thin they were spread (especially off hours) and always managed to 'efficiency' meaning keep moving. I also found myself often doing routine maintenance- unplugging the toilet, changing lightbulbs, fixing window cranks, etc. after just being tired of asking for them to be fixed you just do it yourself. In interacting with the population there and coming to better understand what as and wasn't being done, we also started to really question the quality of time and care my mom was receiving- residents were often just 'parked' in front of the TV or other situations. We ended up moving her to family home and it is such a better environment I wish we had done it sooner.

Caring89830350

My mom right now is at Aegis of Issaquah - Aegis Living. She's been there for two months now in their memory care facility. The facility is nice, and her room is not too big nor too small. Their dining area is very nice, clean, and open. The food is adequate. It's not fancy, but it's good, basic food. There seems to be a decent variety in terms of what they eat. It's palatable for their palate. It is institutional food, but I think they do a pretty good job out of it. For the most part, the staff are quite good, but I don't think they have enough staff at this time.

Lilee

My mother is a resident in the hospice unit. The care, kindness and encouragement she receives from the staff is exemplary. The staff is very responsive to our needs and hers which makes this difficult time in our lives bearable. My family thanks the staff for taking such loving care of my mother. Their job is not easy but because of their dedication we are thankful that she is there.

Family 8

My parents have been living at Aegis for several months. The facility and the grounds are well maintained. The social and recreational programming is supposed to be geared towards individual interests, but my parents' interests have not yet been addressed. Encouragement to participate seems to be minimal. I visit regularly. When I visit unexpectedly, I always find my parents in their room regardless of day or time. My mother is usually sleeping. The staff members are all very friendly. They have good intentions, but there is quite a communication disconnect between the management and the care staff. I quite often have to remind the care staff of my parents particular care needs. The care staff circulates through the cottages so it is quite difficult for a resident to establish a routine, familiarity with care staff and most importantly, trust. The food is of good quality, but not at the culinary level as exampled on the Aegis website. To date, the real daily living situation for my parents does not measure up to the Aegis marketing pitch given during the tour and initial interviews.

caring06201

I visited Aegis of Issaquah and the staff are very kind. The staff are fairly conscientious about making potential new comers feel welcome. They are very attentive and good as far as taking care of the families too. The only drawback is that they don't offer Medicare. The rooms are really small and they have cottages which is a different concept. They had very nice grounds for people that want to walk and it's in a very nice part of the town. It's a safe and really walk-friendly place. Their food is excellent. They have an excellent chef. The place is very well maintained, clean, and beautiful. They have a big common room where they do activities; it's like there was a party day almost every day. It was very social for those that were up for it. There were all sorts for different things for people to do every day.

Susan34

Aegis Living is very clean, the food is good, and so is the staff. Their cottage concept is geared towards my mother's needs in terms of dementia. Mother has stayed there for rested care before and she liked it, so that kind of influenced our decision. I liked their very pleasant grounds and the windows in their units look out into wide areas and bird feeders; not a parking lot, a freeway, or building. They have a fitness, mind, and craft activities as well as Bible discussion groups, which I suppose my mother will enjoy. They take outings or a ride to the community to visit different things. What I liked best about this community was that they seem to have excellent rapport with all of their residents and you could see on their faces that they really liked the people who were taking care of them. However, the last time she was there, I got upset because they called me at 3 o' clock in the morning, and they told me that her prescriptions weren't right. I was in Europe at that time and there was really nothing I could do. I just thought there were some inconsistencies between their weekend and weekday people.