Emeritus at San Juan Capistrano

If your parent has dementia and health issues, avoid the memory care at all costs. Even though the skilled nursing department is right next door, they are not allowed to provide nursing services in memory care. There is only one nurse on staff to take care of everyone including the assisted living department and she goes home at 7pm and doesn’t come back til 7am. After that, there is no medical oversight. They can’t even take a temperature if they need to. We took my mother out of here and she has improved amazingly. Changed her meds and she is unbelievably more alert and happy. I think she would have been dead had we not left. They have a very sweet and kind memory care director and resident care director who try very hard. But there is only so much they can do with what they are given They need a 24 hour nursing staff and a nursing staff that is keeping a close eye on patients health issues. Also, don’t let these types of companies pressure you in to hurrying up and sign a contract and pay a community fee and start paying before you even need to go there. There will be room somewhere else. Don’t let them steal your money.

I would give this facility zero stars if I could. My father was here to receive IV antibiotics following a hospital stay for an infection. After a week or so, he started running a fever. They never called to tell us. Fortunately, we went to visit him the next day. He had a temp of 103.7 and was delirious. When I spoke to the nurse she said she had recently taken his temp and it was normal. He ended up in the ER with sepsis. His kidneys were already shutting down. How coul they not notice this? Extreme negligence. I wouldn’t put my dog here.

My mother-​in-​law has been at Emeritus/​Brookfield for the past six weeks. We have to have a family member or paid help there, pretty much all of the time. There is not an adequate amount of staff to give basic care. The first three days I watched as:
1– Her calls were ignored after she buzzed for someone to take her to the bathroom. After I took her myself, we waited over 45 minutes for someone to respond.
2– Nobody cared if she ate her food or not. They would just pick up her tray from her room.
3– I actually heard an employee tell her to just go to the bathroom in her diapers as it was easier for «her». That was she did not need to respond quickly, take her out of the bed and to the bathroom.
4– We had to correct the way one employee spoke to her.
5– A few of the employees don’t speak English. My mother-​in-​law does not speak Spanish. Very difficult to communicate with.
6– If you are here and you don’t have anybody checking on you, you are pretty much screwed.
7– A male residence walked into our room and sat down. (thank goodness I was there)
On the positive side;
1– The food is pretty good.
2– Harri the recreational director is the saving grace of the whole place. I just wonder how long he will last.
3– There are a few others that I have seen to a great job but they can’t carry the rest of the staff.
My suggestions would be:
1– To pop in after 8:00 pm and check it out. No one will ask who you are, so you can just walk in and go anywhere you like.
2– Get a private room and hire someone to come in from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.

Do not leave you loved one at this horrible place! It is understaffed. No one checks on them. They are so completely overwhelmed they can’t even get the medications to the residents! They are going through a change in ownership to Brookside. Avoid this place!

Unfortunately, I can’t give Emeritus in San Juan Capistrano a five star review. The staff is very friendly but I must say incompetent. my mother was there for almost 2 weeks and had many medication mixups, overdoses, under doses etc. The staff lied many times in attempts to cover up their mishaps. The food was horrible and beds uncomfortable. The nurses say they are understaffed but the director of nursing says this is not true. It often took 30 minutes to get a picture of cold water. I would keep looking before I would put a loved one at this location for care.

The generic corporate response to my review does not surprise me. The fact is that when I started at this facility it had a five star rating and now it is down to a one star.
Let that in be a warning in itself.
The State inspectors do not lie and neither do I.
The «Frustration’ I felt was because of the lack of team support I received from the SN Unit. I would arrange for bedridden clients to come to salon as requested by family members only to be faced with «No Shows» and excuses from the staff. The bottom line is nobody wanted to be bothered with bringing clients into the salon and after the service returning them back to their room. In turn I would have to face irate family members blaming me for this lack of efficiency .I took the heat often times for this incompetence and yes I started to get more and more frustrated that I was unable to do the job I was there to do. The socially challenged nurse that I mentioned in my review told me that «She did not want to be bothered with salon nonsense» when I would ask her to get a resident to the salon.
Good luck to the new gal!
By the way…
I suppose the review before me was not truthful or written out of spite also?
Off to a much more beautiful and efficient facility.

Now goes by Emeritus. I had my mother here 2 months, luckily I had an outside caregiver with her. CNA’s are pretty good given their workload but the attitude of the nurses and management is really terrible. The nurses and staff lied to me on several occasions, there was no communication to the family. Calls and requests went unanswered. On more than one occasion I saw patients not get meals because someone forgot. Look beyond the décor, the nursing staff and management is the worst I ever saw. A nurse looked the other way when a patient fell and was crawling along the floor, that is typical of the attitude of the nurses and staff here.