Bickford of Tinley Park

My mom is now at Bickford which is much better than [community name removed] Bickford is a homey and smaller place. It is easy to get in and out of. Caring staff and clean. I recommend it.

My mother has Alzheimer's and was given a false diagnosis of seizures so she could be medicated in order to not wander in their memory care unit after she was found to have eaten feces. She ended up have vertigo and multiple falls as a result of this medication. She also had elevated liver enzymes. All of this was possible since they didn't want to hire more people to watch and care for the residents of this facility. I want to warn anybody of placing their loved one in this facility. This place looks nice but predators run this place.

If your loved one needs memory care continue your search. This is not the place for them. They are truly understaffed and the patients care suffers because of it. It is very costly to stay here and not worth it. No social stimulus or activities to get them to enjoy life. Lack of respect for cleaning the rooms. Too many negatives to address. Huge staff turnover.

The community is short staffed overall. The overnight shift is shorter than the daytime staff. The food is good and they give the residents a large variety of food. Some of the activities include exercises, games, outings, social activities and more are available for the residents.

I placed my mom at Bickford in January thinking I made the right choice. I told them my mom needed memory care and they insisted she was assisted living. After one day, they told me I had to move her to the memory care wing. When I first saw the wing, it smelled if urine and was not as nice as the area they show you when you visit. In essence, it was bait and switch. But it gets much worse...my mom incurred many skin tears that were never cared for unless I reported them. She fell out of bed, had a broken finger, severe hematoma on her arm and they never could explain how these things happened. The management claims they run a good place but they never resolved anything. In addition, my moms room smelled multiple times due to dirty laundry sitting too long. The food is terrible Without hospice tending to my mom , the nursing staff is clueless. I ended up moving my mom home as I had no choice. Do not be fooled by the appearance of Bickford as the facility and staff are inept.

Our experience with Bickford of Tinley Park has been very good and the cleanliness of the community is very impressive. The staff members have exceeded every one of our expectations, we cannot say enough good things about them. The meals are really good and they offer a good amount of activities. We feel very confident our loved one is in a good place.

The community is very clean and a nice place to be. My mother in law said the food was good and varied. I would recommend this community to others

My loved one passed away on [date removed].

Too expensive and environment wasn’t our favorite

Wonderful energetic vibe to this community! Mom at first did not want to leave her family home, but within a week was questioning why she did not come sooner. The staff makes everyone feel like family, and the grounds are clean with good food and many varied activities. We are grateful.

Very friendly environment. Staff usually takes time to greet you and talk. If you need more time or information ,they give it . Residents as text always clean and helped as needed. I think the meals could be more varied and flavorful. I'm not sure meals are always prepared on sight. Activities are routine, but seem to be appropriate for skill level of the residents

Very nice facility. It has a welcoming feel and with a small memory care unit of 15, my mother would probably get needed attention.

The care from the staff here is excellent. We like the cleanliness of the community. The menu needs a lot of improvements. We like the activities that are offered for him. My father likes being able to play cards. We would recommend the care and value to other looking for great care.

Was a resident of Bickford since [Removed]. Contract started two weeks prior so that move in could be completed. The cost of Bickford was almost $2,000 more than a solid rated competitor, but the facility was newer and my family had higher expectations, since less residence numbers and supposedly more “one on one care”. Promises began early, but then it was quickly apparent that the staff was not organized and were not manage well. Many complaints were made in various areas, by various residents, including myself, yet changes were not made and the same excuse of “will look into it” was given. Little was ever changed. The staff lost my original contract and my family had to sign off on a replacement. The move in was hindered greatly since the staff could not disable the backdoor alarm and every 15 seconds the alarm went off, unless the door was closed. To be fair, the actual nursing staff all did a great job, except for the medication ordering as will be discussed below. This comment does not include the CNA’s,. The facility had a great deal of turnover in CNA’s and people were always “in training and were unaware of what to do”, which negatively affected care ion some areas. They did, and still do have some very good people, but some “poorly skilled lazy people as well who are not weeded out or managed properly”. The facility went many months without a maintenance person and many things were not done during this period. The activities coordinator tried very hard to keep things lively and entertaining. She had various things to do each day, which the residents really like. She was always pleasant and did a great job managing all the personalities. Specifically, for myself, the staff was to assist with showers, making bed, house-keeping, laundry services, medication management, transport in wheel chair to and from the dining area and to and from activities. What we found was as follows: The bed frequently went unmade or was haphazardly made. I had to take that task on myself. Staff came by infrequently to ask about showering and finally I had to also do all that on my own as well. The laundry was sometimes lost or misplaced. One time a comforter was returned wet and the person just put it on my bed. Hard to imagine why anyone would do that. The facility always seemed understaffed and it took long periods to move people who needed help getting from place to place. The facility was also about three months without a housekeeper and many times the rooms went uncleaned during this period. It got so bad that the director actually started to clean rooms herself after all of the complaints. My family also had to clean my room as well even though that is a paid part of the contract. The medications were quite a challenge for Bickford to transition over and the dispensing had to be taken back by my family to manage on daily basis. Bickford was left with doing the ordering, but on multiple occasions either it was not ordered timely or the pharmacy did not deliver timely. There were shortages of medication on three specific occasions. On the last one, my family had to pick me up and take me to the emergency room as my blood pressure shot up to over 165 and I was visibly shaking severely. The most horrific part of Bickford Tinley park is the kitchen staff. Many complaints from many residents have been made on this aspect, yet nothing seems to improve. Finally, the Heath department was called and the facility cited for delinquencies. Those delinquencies however do not cover the poor quality of what is being served. The dishes are not washed properly and the residence had to rewash to use. Many time’s in the morning the utensil setups are not dispensed and residents wait so they can eat. Some servers stand around and do little while the residents are left to fend for themselves without even getting coffee. On more than one occasion, the servers were observed brushing out their hair in the kitchen. All these examples show a lack of training. There have been many poorly made meals. Lots of examples of undercooked or overcooked items being served. One example, soup was made with clear water and some undercooked potato’s and no broth to speak of. On other occasions, the food was raw inside as if it did not defrost before cooking. Many meals go un eaten due to being improperly cooked and there is a great deal of waste. The residents cannot cut through some of the meat to eat it. All of this was passed on to the cooks and then to management. The cooks, really do not know how to actually cook food and simply claim “they follow the recipe from corporate”. If food is sent back due to being undercooked or overcooked, nothing is re made or served to the resident. At dinner, the cooks, leave right at 5:15. Sometimes they do not make enough portions to feed the approximately 45 residents and some people had to eat just a roll with butter for dinner. On a number of different evenings, pans of vegetables and other items sat out after the cooks left. When staff was questioned, we were told that it was left out for the staff, however it was observed being out for hours without refrigeration and not touched. The floors in the dining area were not cleaned daily and many food particles were found under tables. The tables and chairs also do not appear to be cleaned very well even when cleaned. The staff allowed animals in the dining area. These pets do not fall under the companion dog certification and one in particular has open skin sores on its body. Another health code violation. This same dog actually wipes it butt on the couch, chairs, and carpeting in the living area. CNA’s seemed to have access to resident personal information. More than one CNA, who are no longer there, mentioned my financial information as far as what is in the contract paperwork. Personal financial information should not be allowed in the hands of low level staff members. The last incident at the facility was when another resident struck me in the shoulder. This occurred in front of the new director, who took no action and claimed it did not occur, even though it was right in front of her. She also did not even write the incident in the log book. One of the nurses did follow up afterwards and logged the incident. My family had tried to be patient on many of these items, but finally it was evident that things were not improving at all. The family provided Bickford with its 30-day notice and moved her out that same day.

The staff are helpful and we have good communication with them. This community offers memory care, assisted living and the areas do interact. The food is good and they offer healthy options. They have daily activities and entertainers that come in. They have an enclosed courtyard for the residents to enjoy. They have a smaller memory care unit and I would recommend it.

This is a very nice community, and my tour of it went well. The community appeared to be well maintained, and everything looked nice. The staff was friendly, and kind. They answered my questions. It was a nice experience overall.

This community offers many activities and the staff are good at encouraging my loved one to participate. The food is wonderful and they offer good portions. The staff are wonderful. They are getting to know what my loved one's needs are so they can make any modifications to make sure she is getting the best care possible. The community is clean and the best one I have seen. The community is one floor and I have already recommended it.

I really liked seeing the community when I had my tour with them. I got to meet really friendly people here and I thought I had a good view of what the community has to offer. The next morning I just thought a different community would be better. I didn't see much people that had high needs. Not much wheelchairs and walkers. It was not a good fit for my parents.

I loved Bickford of Tinley Park when I toured. The facility is beautiful, and the person that took us around could have been nicer. It was a good experience and we would have loved to chose this place, but it was priced higher than we could afford.

This was a beautiful and welcoming community, but at the high end of the price rangs.