8 Independent Living Communities in Ingham County, Michigan

Anonymous

Birch Heights is a 4-story building with 125 people and one elevator. There have been numerous injuries of people trying to navigate into the one elevator particularly after meal times, where a 100 people give or take, are trying to go up 2 to 4 floors. Probably 50% of whom has some type of walking device, either an automatic or manual chair, a cart, crutches, or canes. The elevator can accommodate maybe 6 people, and when they all have carts it may accommodate 4 at the most. A couple of months ago, a woman had her foot broken by somebody with a motorized cart driving over her foot while she was in the elevator, and sent her to the hospital. While that was an uncommon incident, there were many other injury incidences that are common. The elevator breaks 6 to 8 times in a year. Three days ago, the elevator broke again, and it immobilized the 3 people that are in wheelchairs and most of the people that had carts because they couldn't get into an elevator to go up to the 3rd or 4th floor to get into their medications or to do whatever else they maybe wanted to do. This happens frequently in this facility, sometimes twice in a month, sometimes 3 months go by without it happening at all. The local management here has no control over policy that takes place, that's the big part of the problem. The staff is excellent; the management is terrible. The local people have no control over doing anything. They always have to check the corporate office. The local management tries very hard to accommodate the residents here, but they can't do anything. The elevator situation is borderline horrific. People are having broken bones by using the elevator. The local management is not the problem, it's the corporate management. When people can be easily injured in a facility even if other things like the quality of the food or the cleanliness of the building, those things become somewhat irrelevant when there's something that's very overwhelmingly wrong with what's going on.

Francis

I have a friend at Independence Village of East Lansing. I have always liked the place. They contacted me, so I went over and looked it over and signed in. I liked it there and the price was very reasonable compared to others. I can get a two-bedroom that is about 1,100 square feet. When I have my family over, they actually have apartments that they can use to stay there for a week or two. Everything was very nice. They were nice people. I eat there all the time. In fact, the day I was there visiting, my friend was coming down to dinner about that time, and so they set me up and had dinner with him, too. The food is great there. I was very happy with it. They were excellent. My friend has been there for a while. The building has three stories. There is a huge atrium going around it and there are gardens inside.

Francis

Bickford of Okemos was very nice, they were very nice people there. It was very small, and I don't think they had 50 people there. It was unbelievable. They didn't have many activities, but they had fairly good size activity rooms, so it was OK. The place was small, and 700- to 800-square-foot rooms are all you can get there.There were about three different sizes of rooms, but even the bigger ones were nothing. I couldn't live in a place like that. The staff showed me the kitchen and the dining area. She ate there and she said that she was happy with the food. However, it just didn't match what I wanted, and it wasn't worth it. The staff was very nice. The guy that was supposed to meet me wasn't there, but the other staff who took me on a tour was very nice. They also said that they would be glad if I came back. The building was nice, very neat, and clean. Everything was fine with the building, but it just didn't have what I needed and what I wanted.

John G

My mother-in-law just recently discharged from Burcham Hills Center for Health & Rehabilitation. She has nothing but praise for the entire staff that cared for her during her month-long stay. I can\'t tell you what piece of mind that gave the family members knowing that she was receiving such great care. Even though we were unable to physically visit her, the lines of communication were always open and the staff was able to provide the emotional support she needed when we could not be there. Thank you Burcham Hills, we would definitely recommend you to anyone seeking a rehabilitation stay.

Patsy

Shay is a great person and a very hardworking, pleasant person. She is not afraid of hard work and is a pleasant person to have around. She is just a very hardworking person. She takes the initiative, she is prompt, and she was always on time. Not only that, she has a great laugh. No problems at all. You get what you pay for, but as far as I'm concerned, she earned her money and that's for sure. Shay and I had a good relationship. I have to say we laugh a lot, which is something that is very important to me to be able to laugh, especially under the circumstance we're working in. Shay had gone with me to pick up groceries that we've ordered online. I missed her and I missed her a lot.