VI AT LAKESIDE VILLAGE

Moving to Vi at Lakeside Village was the best decision we have made in decades! The residents are incredibly friendly and the staff is the same. The staff goes out of their way to assist in every way imaginable. Also the food is very good with a nice variety of well prepared dishes and served by the friendliest, most helpful servers. The days fly by since there are so many interesting programs, diverse activities and committees to keep one very busy! In addition, busses are always available to take residents to the Kravis Center, Delray Playhouse and other theaters in between. I’m sure that I left out many other wonderful things, but I have a committee meeting to get to. WHAT A GREAT LIFE!

Living at Vi absolutely wonderful. People are the friendliest, staff the most accommodating, living facilities become personalized, with rooms larger and nicer than I ever anticipated. From my own`experience, I believe Vi is superior to any other local independent living facility in every way. I also know moving here is the best decision I every made. I love it!

Last year my mother went to V and it was a good experience. Of course last year she only had a broken hip so it was straightforward home in 6 weeks. I even wrote a glowing letter at how wonderful the people were, the food was great and my only complaint really was that they didn't answer the Bells during meal times. This time was the most horrible experience ever. I was stunned to see how much the care had fallen in one year. The food was horrible, the administration is worse than horrible and my mother, who could walk up and down stairs, walk 120 ft round trip to go to the bathroom, get herself to bed and up in the morning and could shower herself had to be brought home on a stretcher. Now 10 days later she still can't walk. Why, because when she got there she had gout and the doctor and PA refused to treat it. At first I thought they didn't believe her and they absolutely refused to call me to get my mother's medical history with gout. I had to go over their heads to her rheumatologist in order to get her started on a Medrol pack which is prednisone. By then we were 9 days in with no treatment and the Medrol pack only worked while she was taking the prednisone. I fired the doctor and PA . The second PA knew right away that it was gout and ordered a second round of prednisone . Again while she was on the prednisone she started to walk again but as soon as she was off the medication she was in serious trouble again. I contend that had they treated the gout initially and not waited so long she would not have had to be on oxygen , she would not have had to endure that pain , she would not have had to be confined to bed. They simply did not care. Because she was confined to bed, she was left in her own stool for hours resulting in her first raging UTI. In addition to that they screwed around with her Carvedilol calling it a "hold parameter" which many facilities do. However what they were doing was having her miss entire doses because they didn't know what they were doing. That's dangerous. They were supposed to take her blood pressure and if the systolic was under a hundred they were supposed to hold the dose. They were supposed to come back and do her blood pressure again until it was over the hundred mark systolic and then give her the Carvedilol. I actually had an LPN ask me if she should give my mother the Carvedilol. Don't you think she should have known what a whole parameter was? And when I found this out and questioned it they suddenly came back in to take the blood pressure several times until they could give her the meds. I was Furious. Because they didn't treat the gout she got fluid on her lungs and had to be on oxygen and Lasix. To add insult to injury she ended up with yet another raging UTI from being left in her own stool for hours. She ended up being isolated and given an IV antibiotic. We were told everyone that walked into the room needed to be wearing a gown , gloves , a mask . No one did this . Not the director of nursing, the assistant director of nursing, the aids, the maintenance guys, or housekeeping. In fact after isolating her they took her out of the room to go weigh her . So why was she isolated? Let's add one more thing. She started to get a precious sore on her tailbone. The wound person walked in the door didn't get anywhere near my mother and said just give her the pink stuff she'll be fine. Then they sent in they're dermatologist and he said it was just flaking skin. She had to wait till she got home for me to clear that up. Certainly sitting in your own waist will break your skin down but no one seemed to care. This stay at Vi was torturous. They sent an able-bodied woman home on a stretcher because of their incompetence. Never ever again will my mother go to Vi. It was a horrible horrible experience and my mother has still not recovered from that incompetence.

November 30 of this year I will be celebrating my second anniversary of living at the Vi, I have made so many friends and enjoyed thoroughly the activities that I am involved in, like canasta , bingo, Rummicube. In addition, I have enjoyed singing and acting and just meeting people so my life hasn’t really changed. It just got busier and I’m very grateful to be here at the Vi. In addition to all of this fun, I have to say that the staff is friendly, very reliable and fun to be with.

So far this place has out performed any adult living facility in New Jersey. My brother and I needed to visit a few prior to making this place our choice for my mom. Being from New Jersey I had arrived here in PBI, for my niece's baby shower, with my 75 yr old mom. Who, ended up having multiple seizures the following day. She became unresponsive, which led us to call 911 with a quick response time, 7 EMTs show up, and local police. Swiftly they take mom to Wellington hospital. 2 weeks later she is now admitted here, and way to recovery. I am impressed with the cleanliness of this place.