Where The Heart Is by Cogir

Staff here are very caring and remodel looks great!

Our rating 1.0 Following glowing 4.9 recommendations and a wonderful tour. We moved our 91 year old mother into Where the Heart Is, Burlington WA. The reality we experienced could not have been further from those initial observations. Once our Mother moved in, nothing was provided as promised in the tour. We had to ask multiple times regarding housekeeping, laundry service, 2 hr regular nurse check-ins, shower support, her help medallion (worn around her neck), medications, a $500 move-in refund, general nursing support and something as simple as her preferred name (she used her middle name but everyone used her 1st name). The nurse support was completely inadequate and unprofessional. The medicine techs were given very little direction and we had to coordinate the distribution of her medications ourselves. While the medicine techs were allowed to administer insulin shots as prescribed, they were not authorized to administer lovenox (a blood thinner) shots. That fell under the nurse's responsibility. As prescribed, our Mother required a morning and evening shot until a medical biopsy could be performed. The nurse initially said we would have to administer all shots on the weekends. Then she informed us that she wouldn't be administering the evening shot because her schedule was "too fluid." Finally, the nurse told us that we would have to administer the morning shots also because she "had to get kids to school ". The marketing representative was very warm and cheery, until after our Mother moved in. She was little help with our concerns. The one positive was the facility was great, nicely laid out with small communities, and the rooms are very nice. Nikki in the front office was wonderful. Very personable and helpful.

Overall, we’re happy. You do a good job engaging the residents in various activities. Specific caregivers go out of their way to care for Sally. Concerns: 1. Sally’s clothes and wheelchair are often caked with food. 2. Items (glasses, wheelchair pad, clothing) often go missing and we have to find them. 3. Billing issues. I was not satisfied with the credit my mom received while she was in the hospital and rehab facility after her surgery last spring. 4. Some of your best people (Jenny, Kristi) have been let go, I understand. We miss them. It’s very concerning to me. Addendum: I want to make clear that the billing issue I had while my mom was rehabbing outside the facility had nothing to do with Nikki (who is great, by the way!), but with corporate accounting which did not take into the account the credit we were due.