Complaint Review: Bonaventure Senior Living Olympic Place

My 93-year old mother has been living at Olympic Place in Arlington WA, a Bonaventure facility, for two years. When she first arrived, the place was well run and very well managed. Less than two years later, they have driven away two excellent administrators and their turnover for caregivers is akin to changing diapers on a baby -rapid and regular. In fact, I know of NO employees, in any capacity, who have been there the full two years since my mother arrived.

This facility has such a high turnover that I could not get appropriate care for my mother. I even discussed this issue with three of their corporate management and they showed no concern at all for their 38% turnover rate, and of course it is no doubt higher for just the caregivers. I finally resorted to hiring private caregivers throughout the day, while my mother is awake. Even with that, they did not toilet my mother at night, so my caregivers repeatedly found her covered in urine and feces in the mornings. Then we found that someone had toileted her one night and put her back to bed, covered in her feces! There was no improvement at all, even with repeated reporting of these issues, until I finally said I was reporting them to the State.

I had also asked for the call reports to see how much time the caregivers at night were spending on toileting my mother. I was in the process of getting this, when the new, temporary administrator told me those reports were confidential and she wouldn't let me see them. Of course, this is another reason I was forced to report them to the State. They legally have to provide those reports, so they are out of LEGAL compliance.

The new or hopefully temporary administrator, Patricia, is rude and aggressive. She shows ZERO concern for residents to receive appropriate care. She is dictatorial and has dictated to all the private caregivers that they cannot be in the dining room. One can only hope that they will come to their senses and fire Patricia. However, even that would not fix this company, although it could help improve this facility. The Chief Operations Officer of Bonaventure, Pam Gray, is also aggressive, dictatorial, and rude. She sets a tone for a company that cares not a whit about having long-term employees or good resident care.

I easily hired their best caregiver, who had worked for them for nearly 3.5 years. After all that time and with years of previous experience before coming to this company, she was still only making $10.51 per hour and that was as the person who delivered the meds to residents (a higher paying position). Most of the caregivers make LESS than $10 per hour, which in the State of WA is less than 10% over minimum wage. The Resident Care Coordinator (who manages all the caregivers) makes about $15 per hour. So it's easy to see how they lose people quickly.

My caregiver also told me that the company asked them to sign a statement saying they would not work for a resident, for private care in a home or for another facility or care organization within 100 miles of Olympic Place. Luckily, she refused to sign it. What gall! First, they pay these people very poorly and then try to take away their right to get a better job! That just shows you how bad of a company this is.

I strongly encourage you never to work for this company or to place yourself or a loved one in this facility or ANY Bonaventure facility. Read the other reviews online. NONE of them are good (unless perhaps they've made one up?). Their other facilities are also in trouble from the sounds of it.

The ONLY good aspect of this company is that their facilities are nice. That's how they get people in there. They completely redid Olympic Place just seven years after it was built (completely new furnishings, new carpet, new paint, etc). This occurred about 6 months after my mother moved in. After that, they cut the hours of their staff and things started going downhill. It has never recovered and judging from their attitudes, it never will. This company had a different name prior to being Bonaventure. I am sure that the REAL reason for the name change was their reputation was terrible.

There are plenty of residents and caregivers who will be happy to see this company go bankrupt! I count myself among them.