Bay Harbor Memory Care and Assisted Living of Madison

I would tell others looking that it is important to try to gather other sources of information about any facility. No matter how nice the salesperson is, or what they promise, remember that they may not really have a clue what happens on the unit. Based off of our experience with Tennyson Retirement Living, we would not recommend this facility to others.

My loved one is currently a resident at Tennyson Retirement Living. Overall, the experience has been positive so far. Like everyone else, they have staffing challenges. But there seems to be some steadiness lately. The facilities are excellent and well kept. The food is average, but not a problem. I would recommend this facility to family and friends.

Tennyson Senior Living has always been a really nice facility with great communal spaces, beautiful views & new modern space. Under the new current management there are some really exceptional people that provide excellent care of my parents: Activity Director - [name removed] is kind, compassionate, caring & has created fun activities - movies, bingo, games, book club, happy hour, jewelry making, card playing, nail salon, crafts, & road trips. [name removed] is energetic, smart, creative & actively recruits the residents to participate in the activities. Check out her posts on Facebook. Marketing Director - [name removed] works actively with the residents & has created venues that are warm and inviting. She & [name removed] have created special events such as Casino Night and Candy Canes & Cocktails. RA - [name removed] is a kind, thorough professional & a highly skilled RA. She establishes a high standard of care and attentiveness, is very thorough in her work & is responsive to family concerns & is kind to the residents.

Clean, caring, and well-run. Smaller facility so the residents don't get lost in the shuffle. Lots of activity options to engage residents. Bus available for transportation. Bistro with snack/meal options available outside regular meal times. So many things to like about this facility - just wish they had more for skilled nursing level of care to avoid an eventual move out.

Friendly staff. The community has nice open area spaces for the residents. The staff communication is usually in person when I come to visit.

One of the things I'd share with others is to interview other communities and their staff before committing. Tennyson has a real staffing problem. The building and the facility itself are fine, there are several people who are nice and friendly. But some of the care staff who are directly caring for our loved one, have been questionable. I know right now with unemployment rates finding people to work has been difficult - but when caring for someone who can't care for themselves, hiring people just to hire people might make you settle for "not the best". I've seen some questionable things with the care staff that I didn't like. Others in the family have said the same thing, so it boils down to their care staff. Administration is excellent, but the registered nurse who was in charge was poor. They recently let her go and replaced her, so that's a good thing. There were some things the care staff did that I was not real happy about and we addressed those issues with admin there. They did take some swift action and we've seen a lot of good improvement, but it started out rough. For example: we visited and my loved one's room was filthy, there was so much dust accumulating you could write your name in the furniture with it. There was a lot of clutter with towels and clothes on the bathroom floor, and full baskets of dirty laundry. One time we were there and my loved one was the only person in the common area. The TV was on and the staff were watching things that were not suitable for the residents. The show that was on was for the staff, and not something my loved one would want to enjoy or watch. For what we pay - what the seniors want to watch, should be what's on the screen. We've voiced our issues and they did take swift action and corrected most of it. Our loved one's room is very clean and tidy now, they've also changed out some of the staff. It's gotten better; but when we went and interviewed initially we only saw 1 or 2 of the staff and didn't have the opportunity to see who would be taking care of our loved ones needs. So I'd recommend others to really investigate the place as a whole. Another thing I've noticed are the meals. My loved one has difficulty getting to the dining room, so some meals are brought to their room in a box. There has been a question of, how warm are they when they get to the room, etc.? I would recommend Tennyson to invite a couple family members to have a meal there, to make sure it's food that their loved one would enjoy. Overall, we have no intent on moving our loved one, we'd like them to stay. We have a good relationship with the admin lady and it is getting better. Although it did indeed start out a bit rough and a little questionable in the beginning; they did explain how hard it is to find people. Regardless, we've seen some good turnaround so far.

The staff in memory care are not properly educated on how to work with the residents and they are not staffed accordingly either, the staff to resident ratio is insufficient for the amount of residents that they have. In terms of the cleanliness, my loved one had feces on the shower chair and when I came back to visit a few days later it was still there. We have had many concerns, especially with medications. I will say that administration has been responsive in trying to get to the source of the problems.