Complaint Review: Hilltop House Assisted Living - Winchester Virginia

I had a terrible experience with Hilltop House Assisted Living facility in Winchester Virginia. I was looking to transfer my father from another assisted living facility to this one and had stopped by as the location was ideal for me.  I saw plenty of vacant rooms there and I was told that availability was not a problem. Later I called and spoke with the admissions director, a lady named Lisa Wyatt.  It was very frustrating trying to speak with her and get any information as she was extremely aggressvie, kept talking over me and would not give me the chance to ask any questions. 

She became extremely rude when I attempted to get information from her and was overly aggressive in her demeanor.  She sounded irritated when I would ask a question.  I finally had to end the call when I realized that she flat out refused to let me ask her any questions about the facility.  I called back later and spoke with another lady named Angela Brown and told her I did not want to deal with Lisa because of her attitude but that I liked the facility from what I saw and wanted to put my father there.  She said she there were plenty of vacancies and that she would hold a room for my father.

She said that first they would need to go do an assessment of my father to determine what level of care he would need but that I would need to wait until the new director started the beginning of March and speak with her.  I went over my fathers condition with her and she said that they would have no problem in taking him.  Around the beginning of March, I called and spoke with the new director, a lady named Susie and told her problems I had in dealing with Lisa.  She said that they did have rooms available and that she would get with Angela. I assumed that everything was fine and gave notice to the facility my father was located at that I would be transferring him to Hilltop.

A few days later I called Hilltop House Assisted Livinig to make final arrangements and I was told by Angela Brown that they did not have any rooms available and they could not take my father.  I was totally dumbfounded and told her that they were holding a room for me.  She put me on hold and then came back and said that they did have rooms available but that an assessment had been done on my father and they could not take him at their facility.  I was never informed of the nursing home where he was currently that an assessment had been done by another facility.  I would  have had to give them my permission to let someone come in their facility to do an assessment on my father.  I called the facility where he was and was told no one from Hilltop had made an appointment to do an assessment. 

Other nursing homes had been more than willing to take my father as he does not have any special needs and is the typical assisted living home patient.  I had gone over his condition and needs when I first called Hilltop and was told that there would be no problems in taking him.  All I can think of is that because of my complaint against the intake coordinator Lisa, that Lisa got together with the new director and convinced her not accept my father.  I believe this was done as retaliation because of my complaint against her.  I would advise anyone needing an assisted living facility as the admissions coordinator is extremely rude and they will suddenly pull the rug out from under you if you complain about her like they did with me. 

One more thing I noticed when I was there that did not seem right. All of the residents were in the main dining hall sitting in their wheelchairs and there was a lady standing in front of them. She would call out each of their names and then ask them what flavor of ice cream they wanted. When they responded, then she would take a small cup of ice cream to them and then go back up to the front and repeat this for the next person.  It seemed like the elderly residences were almost begging for their ice cream....having to sit there in their wheelchair and wait for their name to be called out before they could get a small cup of ice cream. It almost seemed like a form of punishment.