Poet's Walk Cedar Park

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11 Reviews

• (6)

  A Place For Mom

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  SeniorAdvisor.com

This community is unreal, the rooms have a lot of light. The whole facility is bright and airy. They have two courtyards with trees and flowers, they even have a chicken coop and an herb garden. They have activities that every resident gets to participate in. They have little corners in the facility that are decorated with different themes, it may look like a ice cream parlor, or an old fashion laundry parlor with a washing board. They have art and music classes several times a week. They have performers like musicians and dancers come in. They even had a fair last year that they could go to My mom loves it! First thing she said when she came to visit "is there is so much light." She said it was the best "hotel" she has ever stayed at. They throw the residents birthday parties. The staff is amazing, they have been very careful with the residents during COVID, not one resident has came down with the virus.

One of my parents has been in PW since last Spring. It started out good, but now I'm really concerned that they have too many residents for the amount of direct care staff (CNA, MA,LVN, RN). Pros: 1. They have some really good, compassionate care givers and LVNs 2. They have some sweet ladies that do activities with them. I have NO idea what the director of activities does--she is rarely with the residents, just her staff interacts with the residents. 3. Its all hands on deck when meals are served 4. Nice variety of foods and its prepared well--I do think they should ask the resident what they'd like to eat though. Cons: 1. Top-heavy (I see 9 administrators and their booklet states this) Not too sure what the administrative staff does. It would be nice if there were fewer administrators and more direct care givers. On 1/22/19 there were 42 residents and during the day and evening there were 4 "care partners" + 1 med aide and 1 wellness nurse, overnight there were 3 "care partners" + 1 wellness nurse. What this means is at bed time there is 1 care partner for every 10 residents to help get them ready for bed. Most times you wait for help. 2. They have a bus, but it is rarely used to take the residents on outings. I know of 2 outings my family member attended, now they've stopped the outings. 3. In the evenings you'll find several residents (one night I counted 9) in the common areas without ANY supervision. 4. Upon putting a camera in the room, we discovered showers were only 1 time a week and transfers were sometimes with only 1 caregiver. The RN writes the care plan based on the level of care needed. In our case, my family member's care plan stated: 3 showers a week, 2 person transfer, etc. We pay for "extended care" costing an extra $700/month. Funny, now we have the help of Hospice Austin (great group) and they provide almost 6 additional hours of care/week (2 caregivers to shower 3x/wk, RN, SW/pastoral care every 2 weeks. I asked if the extended care charge would be reduced and PW said "No". 5. No simple hygiene. Finally, they are now wiping the residents hands before meals. 6. No oral care. Sometimes all the resident needs is their toothbrush prepared, handed to them, and cued. 7. At meals some of the men could use second helpings or at least offered. Their portions are getting smaller. I would say if you put a loved one in ANY community, stay on top of their care and put a camera in their room. You can complain to the management and corporate, but nothing really changes. I hope people read the reviews and the reviews encourage management to make improvements. PW has some really good direct caregivers and some LVNs and Med aides. They need to be compensated well and more need to be hired.

We made a tough decision to move our loved-one from a facility where care giving caused us many concerns. We were frustrated with numerous falls, over several months, resulting in serious injuries. The proposed solution was to hire private-pay nursing, around the clock, which increased care costs tremendously! Moving into Poet’s Walk brought about an immediate improvement! The medical team is alert and engaged. Within days, a speech therapist identified swallowing problems and made recommendations to modify her diet. Physical therapists identified diminished core strength and adjusted her care plan accordingly. The nursing team is alert and engaged, bringing us peace and lifting tremendous worry! [Name removed] is a “hands-on” Executive Director and he can be seen interacting with both residents and staff throughout the facility! Marvin Smith, Lauren Urbanek, and Kelsey Lang are the reasons we selected Poet’s Walk—they responded correctly to the myriad of questions we asked. Further, they went above-and-beyond, working long hours to insure a comfortable and joyful transition between facilities. We can’t say enough good things about our experience!