Vineyard Park at Mountlake Terrace

I have many wonderful things to say about Vineyard Park, but today I want to mention Maria Quintero. She often helps my mother to stand, walk, dress and move about. Maria is a jewel. Not only is she lovely, but reassuring and encouraging. My mother adores her, and I do, too!

My dad was in the 4th-floor memory care unit at The Vineyard for 7 months. We ultimately had to move him out due to a rapid decline in his health, combined with severe safety and management issues. I will start by saying the direct care and support staff are wonderful. Erin (housekeeping), Issac (activities), Kasi (physical therapy), Tina (hairdresser), and Winnie (4th floor) are incredibly kind, all the CNAs and helpers are hardworking people who genuinely care about the residents. Joshua in finance is also wonderfully responsive and kind. Unfortunately, the facility's management and basic care standards are highly concerning: Care: Water is not proactively offered or made available to dementia residents, and lunches are often delivered very late. My dad lost 50 lbs in just 7 months. Safety: Management ignored our concerns about a physically and verbally violent resident. In another instance, a separate then the one stated above resident threw a cement frog through a window, shattering glass onto people sitting on the other side. Medical: We dealt with multiple pharmacy mix-ups that required our family to scramble and personally deliver his medications. There were times his hand was swollen or he had an infection and we were the ones to notice, no one called us to ask questions about changes. Environment: There is a severe lack of comfortable seating. Residents are left sitting in hard dining chairs all day or sleeping with their heads on dining tables—an incredibly sad sight for visitors. Management: Higher-up staff are completely unresponsive. They do not answer emails, they ignore complaints, and they make themselves conveniently unavailable in person. Move-Out Experience: When we finally moved my dad out, management met us with cold shoulders and snark, and a salesperson even called to belittle the adult family home model. Magically the day we needed to move my father, Elsa, the director, refused to give us details about an active "outbreak" on the 4th floor, telling us it didn't concern us. Meanwhile, we were actively moving furniture on that exact floor. The outbreak for what we had to figure out ourselves was a contagious stomach bug. The frontline staff are doing their absolute best, but upper management is failing both these vulnerable residents and their families. Proceed with extreme caution. I cannot speak for their general assisted living floors, the build is nice overall, there is parking, and a bus available to help people get to appointments.

I am posting as someone who does not live here but as someone who visits a resident every 1 to 2 weeks. First let me say that there are some outstanding housekeepers and caregivers here and my experience has been good with those. My concern is around the food. Real -life examples: one day nachos were on the menu, however the only choice/condiment for salsa or nacho-type sauce was ketsup! Really? One could make an excuse that many of the residents can’t handle spicy food but really the truth is for those that don’t enjoy spicy food there is mango salsa and other types of non spicy supplements. One afternoon I went to lunch with a couple of the residents and they had a squash soup. It was simply water and ? I’m not sure because if you closed your eyes you couldn’t tell what it was. I could go on. I’m not a complainer, I’ve simply had members of my family as Food service managers for four different large assisted living facilities and each of them would be ashamed at some of the food that comes out of this kitchen. Call me harsh but if you really want to know, ask for the minutes from the resident counsel. My last comment regarding the food is I have gone down to the kitchen more than once to request a fruit, any type of fruit, to create an infused water for my friend to have in her refrigerator. Last time I asked for a cucumber … no they didn’t have one, a lemon or lime… no, an apple, no and so I went out and bought one. Is it really that big of a deal to give a resident (without medical or dietary restrictions) a piece of fruit to add to a picture of water?

This is a review for the Bothell location, but they are owned by the same company and people interested in moving their loved ones should know what kind of business they run. They ONLY care about their profit, not their residents. Mismanaged my moms medications twice (yes, its documented in email). Constant staff turnover, including the lead nurse. The lead Nurse, Kate, at the time I moved my mom out was always on her cell phone and never engaged with residents. I watched a resident waste away because he couldnt cut up his food and none of the employees helped him. My mom would cut his food up and I did it when I was visiting. My mom pulled the emergency pull cord and it took over 30 minutes for someone to show up. Multiple times her doctor would write orders for them to assist with skin issues and they never consistently followed them. I moved my mom to a place that has attentive and caring staff and its a night and day difference. And now I'm being sent a bill for someone who switched over to Medicaid, aka there should be no bill, and it includes wrongful items.

I can confirm after my contact with them they are unforgiving and hate veterans. Please select a different location for your loved ones. I don't understand their hateful criteria, but it does not matter in spite of their remarks--they hate service members and have no mercy upon them. Don't move here. Please find a different senior living facility that does not hate veterans.