First Community Village

After touring several retirement communities in Columbus, Ohio, I chose First Community Village for several reasons: Its convenient location and beautiful setting in a lovely residential area; the well-appointed apartments, convenient amenities, and variety of floor plans; the community’s appealing ambience of friendly and very welcoming staff and residents in addition to its attractively landscaped walking paths. When Ohio was forced to shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, forward-thinking implementation of precautionary measures kept residents safe without the implementation of stifling restrictions. When considering a move to First Community Village, I suggest making an appointment with a FCV marketing staff person, touring several apartments and the Village’s impressive facilities, talking to residents, and asking lots of questions.

Attractive facility but expensive and very poorly managed. Any for profit enterprise run as it is would be bankrupt. Food average but expensive. Housekeeping in the apartments all but nonexistent. Staff generally friendly but obviously untrained. Nursing/Healthcare just terrible. Understaffed, no management visible, aides sit around in unoccupied rooms and watch TV. Patients wait 20 - 30 minutes for someone to answer a call. Everybody is sorry, everybody has an excuse, nothing is done.

Attractive facility and centrally located. Most of the staff are friendly but not well trained. It is expensive and exceptionally poorly managed. The only successful program is Physical Therapy, the manager there is good. The most common answer to any question is "Gee, I don't know." The food is expensive and only average in quality. Housekeeping in the apartments is a joke. The Healthcare (nursing) wing is horrible. DO NOT leave anyone you care about there. My father was there and everything bad that could happen to someone in nursing care happened to him. He fell, got MRSA, cdiff, and bed sores. He was there to recover from surgery, but after all the infections they gave him he just couldn't recover and died. At present (2019) they are building a new addition which will be even more costly than the existing units. I wish I could say we had a good experience there at some point over the 10 years my parents lived there but there wasn't one other than friendships with the other residents.

Nice facility with many residents from surrounding area. More expensive than most places. Has pool. Lots of activities and good care.

I would not recommend this place. My mother had to go to their rehab/nursing facility after a serious hospital stay. I don't have an issue with the people or facility. What I do want to warn people of, is their billing procedures. It might seem like a small thing but, my mom had a haircut, paid cash and then continued to receive a bill for something she paid for at their facility. We called several times to let them know the bill had been paid at the facility. They requested we provide a receipt but we did not get one. I wrote a letter explaining the situation and they still wanted us to pay the bill. It wasn't a huge amount...it was just the shrewd business habits. They don't know how to keep track of what is paid and then can continue to send out bills. My mom ended up selecting a senior community and we did not even consider this one after the experience. Please watch what you pay for and GET RECEIPTS. They are money hungry and don't care that they are in the wrong.

Mother was taken to this rehab and is a fall risk after hip surgery. She was told to go to the restroom when she's not supposed to get out of bed. Then was told get rid of her waste in the bed pad and then call for it to be changed. I asked where was the bed rails to be told some 4 hours after her arrival the stna needed to evaluate if she needed them. The next person I asked stated the doctor had to order them. When I called for the nursing supervisor it took 20 minutes for a response then I get someone with no badge identification and in my opinion was NOT the supervisor or this place hires clowns for administration. When pain meds were requested they stated they had no order from the doctor. When approaching another nurse I was told they hadn't had time to review her records. Im scrambling to move my mother. DONT SEND family to this physicality!

[Name removed] was wonderful and really helpful. Unfortunately they require 4 years of private pay before being able to accommodate a medicaid spend down.

My sister and I toured this one without our dad. The staff nurse thought that memory care would be the appropriate level for him. After touring both assisted living and memory care we disagreed. We feel that the memory care program is VERY good, and we may consider it later if dad should need that level of care. The memory program is broken down into three smaller units, so that residents have a group of around 8 to 12 peers in a dining area/living room area. There is an enclosed outside area that wraps around the end of the building in sort of a large U, with trees, benches, raised gardens, etc. When the weather is good, memory care residents can wander the gardens, including going around the end of the building and coming back into the closed unit at a different door. Our mother passed away last fall from Alzheimers and one of the things she liked to do for several years was to walk from place to place. If she encountered a door that lead out, she would escape or try to escape. When we placed her in a setting with no obvious outside doors, she wandered contentedly for hours. If she had been in the memory care unit at First Community, she could have wandered inside and outside at will without ever encountering an obvious exit. She would have loved that. We were not as impressed by the assisted living facilities and program. It just didn't 'feel' as good. Dad did spend several weeks in the skilled nursing facility at First Community this spring following a hospitalization. We HIGHLY recommend it! He was well cared for and did not mind being there. His experience at other rehab facilities, even very good ones, left him feeling angry and not willing to ever return.

So sad this facility is politically bent. Want to move my mom out of her assisted living room after 5 years with her cat and under hospice care. Tried to make other arrangements to keep her with her cat, but the staff doesn't seem to care. Very sad. The staff doesn't seem to work well with outside private duty companies. Makes them feel unwelcomed as an outsider.

First rate, had all the amenities you could want. But too large and sprawling for my walker-dependent mom. Top of price range we looked at.

First Community Village was great prior to acquisition by National Church Residences involvement. Under no circumstances should you consider the Healthcare Center. Plz see ODH surveys 2017 & 2015. Ratings demonstrate nurses having difficulty with proper medicine administration. If your loved one can’t self administer this is not the place for you. Also the doctors give medications to patients to suppress their ability to speak. So if a complaint is lodged with Ohio Dept of health your family member can’t offer input in complaints nor communicate when they ate soiled or in pain. My family member is placed in solitary confinement and not allowed in the dining hall due to needing 2 persons to assist them with transfer into transport chair. I hate to say this bc i dont want to admit it but there is a racial element tio my family member’s abuse and neglect. The last time i took my mom to dinner at M restaurant she begged me not to take her back. I had no choice. My mother has recently lost over 26pds and I inquired with the dietician about her malnutrition. I know I sound unbaised but all this is true. I was a whistleblower and bc the nursing home was contributors to the Attorney General I was retaliated against and lost control of my mom. My 68 year old mom is slowly dying and being tortured at First Community but too many people are afraid to get involved. Half of the healthcare center has been shut down. Medicare or CMS may have information as to why the facility is running at less than 50% capacity. Now ask yourself why would a facility in Upper Arlington be half full. Independent Living is much different and this is a better service although NCR has reduced services a bit. Chelsea may not have a desk attendant to assist you. Dont be surpised if your nursing aide is your housekeeper tomorrow. The food at Chelsea is great! I would stay clear of the infamous Health Care Center unless you dont care about your family member and just want to dump them someplace. Assisted Living is a lot better.

I toured the First Community Village. The staff was nice and they gave a nice presentation of their community. It was a clean and well-kept community. I just didn't think it was the right fit for my loved one. I chose a community that was closer to my home.

Most of the staff are great, caring and competent. However, current management is absolutely incompetent. It is a nice facility, plenty of amenities and activities. It could be quite nice with a general manager who knows how to manage.

My mother was asked to move from her assisted living home because it was a multi-floor community with no ability to restrain residents from leaving floor. They suggested First Community Village where they had locked doors and they stated more care for wheel chair residents. We weren't even there 1 hour before the nurse's aid left her alone, she got up and fell face down on tile floor. Ambulance then hospitalized for several days. They assured me this would not happen again. She was moved to another room on her return and it was very dark and uninviting in this lock down area. While there her new physician started to prescribe meds that made things worse. She started have small strokes and I asked what can we do to help her? Meaning speech therapist, something. This same physician told me, "what do you expect, she's old," What?? Needless to say between the fall, the locked institutional like environment I insisted, to the director, they get my mother out of there and into a decent room and fired that physician. They put her in a much better room, new physician, charming room mate with somewhat nicer nurses. They lost her hearing aids, not once, but twice. Every time I came there (at least once a week) I would have to dress her, feed her in the small eating area myself. The mini strokes became her demise within 10 months. I would "never" recommend this "nursing home" facility. Walk through it and you will not see one smiling patient. It will break your heart, as it did mine, but was too late for my mother. God rest her soul.

Beautiful facility with wonderful amenities. Living quarters are lovely. Activities are fantastic...love the 'Sew What' group that make and donate blankets for Ronald McDonald House. A couple of options for making the financial decision. Staff are pleasant. Overall a wonderful place.

My Father in law seems to be happy with his move into First Community Village. Sue who helped us in the beginning was nice, informative and made him feel comfortable. I have talked to numerous friends and they have nothing but good things to say about this community. I would recommend it.

We've been very pleased with how things are going at First Community Village, they've exceeded all of our expectations and we would rate them highly in all categories! The staff have been very welcoming and supportive, and the facility itself is very nice looking. We really liked that it had plenty of outdoor areas appropriate for walking nearby. His mood has improved so much since moving in, he smiles all the time now!

The first community my son and I toured – she was kind of snippy, she said, “Your down payment will be $400,000. Will that be a problem?” I won’t refer people to this community. I like the community I moved in much better and they were a much more reasonable price as well.

Didn't care for six figure payment policy toward rent. Didn't care for $375.00 monthly food allowance with prices on menu. Location undesirable. One bedroom apt unacceptably too small.

They were a three. Historically they had high marks but we had a terrible experience. The first day she was there she fell and they blamed her for trying to get up. They didn't have her in the right wheelchair and they didn't have it locked. She fell and hit her head. She fell again, which caused bleeding on her brain, so the state went out to investigate. Another day we found her stuck between the bed and the wall. There were a lot of things. They weren't adequately trained to put her sling on. She had surgery on her shoulder and they couldn't put her arm in the sling and it was always hanging out of the sling. One day we found that her pills had fallen and were stepped on, so she didn't get her meds. There were always excuses. Great looking facility. Very poorly managed.