Avamere Crestview of Portland

My sister was at Crestview for the month of May. The staff was wonderful. The CNA’s were extremely kind and compassionate. My sister counts some of them as her dear friends. The nursing and doctor staff were wonderful. I loved the open door policy of the administrative staff. Whenever I needed to talk to someone they were available and worked to meet the needs of my sister and our family. We have been to other skilled nursing facilities and this was by far the best.

The staff at Crestview were kind and attentive. Our father was in late stages of terminal cancer. We planned to admit him only a few days for hospice respit with 24hr care, so our Mom could get some rest. To be honest, we were a bit taken back when we arrived not knowing it would be a nursing home. But the rooms were clean and the staff kind.
The second day he was there, he went downhill so fast we were told he wouldn’t make it thru the night. So the staff nurse brought in sandwiches, coffee and snacks and gave us an extra mattress so we could stay with him through the final hours. The chaplain and staff at Crestview have our greatfulness, in the midst of our great loss.

I must say I am surprised at the reviews I have read. My partner has been here a week now and has had outstanding service and attention. We are very detail oriented particular people. The food is very good, the staff is attentive and professional. I’ve never seen a staff member not checking on him every ten minutes or so. At night they come and take his laundry. The facility is clean and well maintained with a very nice day room. There is also a patio courtyard for visiting. I have no reservations recommending this facility.

I don’t know where to begin. I’ll try to be objective and review this place without ranting. The positives: some of the staff are amazing. Some are competent, patient, kind, and helpful. There is a nice dining area. The negatives: the place is run by incompetent administrators. Try to get a straight answer from them. It is completely depressing. One day we were laughing and having fun and the doctor sighed loudly and slammed the door. The employees have no where to relax. This is why you see disgruntled employees smoking on the street and texting in the stairwell. It is filthy. It’s carpeted in the hallway and there are always poopy toilet chairs in the hallway. There is always garbage in the parking lot. The facility is in a gorgeous area of SW Portland. Why is it so nasty and depressing. The place is always uncomfortably hot. This place is horrendous. Go elsewhere.

My husband was in Crestview for 3 weeks in Jan. 2013, because it was the only rehab facility in the area with an open bed, and the hospital said Medicare policy would not let him stay any longer. If we had had the choice, he would not have gone there. He did get good rehab care from the professionals during the day, but when they left the facility, his care was abysmal. He waited sometimes over 45 minutes for his light to be answered, and one night he was left in the bathroom alone and no one came to help him back to bed. It was fortunate he didn’t fall making it back to bed on his own. There were supposed to be precautions taken by the staff due to an infection he had. I noticed none of them took these precautions, as the staff in the hospital had done, in spite of the sign on his Crestview door. The food was inedible, cold when he received the tray, with half of what he was supposed to have missing. The environment was from a 1950’s bad movie, extremely cold & uninviting. I don’t know how Avamere gets away with this understaffed, unpleasant & terrible facility!

This is the very worst long term care facility I have ever visited. I have a loved one here and I am thankful it is short term rehabilitation. I would probably be more depressed about being here than any illness or age condition I might have.
The place is dark to the point of cave like. The public restroom has two dim bulbs that barely cast shadows. The rooms are dark and look like a bad 1970’s hotel motif.
The majority of the staff, except David, are infuriating. They look at you with blank stares. Heaven forbid you should interrupt their social hours. I pitty anyone that might have a true emergency. I cry for them.
The exterior which looks nice does not tell the true state of this horribly ragged dungeon.

I will forever regret placing my loved one at Avamere Crestview.
Avamere Crestview was chosen based on it’s availability, location, and most importantly because they had a single room next to the nurses station, where they could keep an eye on him. It was not the highest rated skilled nursing home, so I toured the facility and spoke with the admissions director, asking very frank questions about their accountability for their poor health department grades. I was satisfied that this was a facility that was under new management and was turning itself around. The rehab facility was the largest and cleanest of any that I had toured, and I toured quite a few.
Tamara, the charge nurse assured us that she would place bed alarms on the bed, as well as compression mats around the bed to lessen the impact should he fall. She said she would lower the bed and be sure to have staff look in onhim «more than regularly» It is almost eerie to me now as I recall her telling us «You are, of course, welcome here anytime, 24/​7, but please know that he is safe with us, and you don’t have to worry about him while you are away. This is why I do what I do… I love nursing»
One of his sons sat with him for the remainder of the day to help settle him in, and I was to come up with a cheeseburger and chocolate shake and sit with him for dinner and tuck him in. There was no more than a 20 minute gap in the changing of the familial guards. That’s when I got the call.
«Hello, this is Tamara at Avamere Crestview and I am just mortified. Your father in law had a fall and because no one witnessed it and he seems to have bleeding from his head, we have to take him by ambulance back to the hospital.»
I was in shock. I told her I was going straight to the hospital, but my husband urged me to go straight to the room and look around. He wanted me to account for the bed alarm, the compression pads, and the height of the bed.
I already had his cheeseburger and was less than a mile away, so I was in the room within 3 minutes. I saw my father in-​law sprawled across the end of the bed. He had obviously attempted to walk to the bathroom, and fell (most likely) reaching for the bathroom door handle. Imagine how long this must have taken him just 2 days post hip pinning. He had an obvious gash on his nose and a large bump on his head and he was howling out in pain. Outside were no less than half a dozen nurses looking in with shock and fear written all over their face. They were NOT expecting me.
I did my best to blend in and observe… I overheard Tamara the charge nurse approach Sara, one of the CNs and I watched Tamara inspect the bed alarm, and heard her say that it was «not engaged» even though it was plugged in. There were no compression mats on the floor, and the bed extended to full height.
I watched the painful process of scooping my father and law up in a stainless steel shell and onto the stretcher. I promised him that I would be at the hospital when he got there, and that I loved him.
As they wheeled him off, Tamara asked me if I’d like a moment to myself.
«No, actually what I really want is a word with YOU. ON speakerphone with my husband. During this call, Tamara said that Avamere Crestview was 100% at fault and was totally culpable for Pops fall. They assured me that they would file a report, and that someone with Avamere Corporate would be contacting us to discuss details and assess the situation. When the conference call was over, Tamara stayed with me and asked me if I had any more questions.
«Tamara, what can you possibly say to make me understand how this happened? We went over his dementia, his strong willfulness to get home to his wife of 70 years, and the precautions you promised to provide… what can you possibly say?»
«I can tell you that I am truly sorry, but we are severely understaffed. The staff here is good, but there is not enough of them, and no matter how many times we voice our opinions to Avamere, corporate refuses to give us enough caregivers to do the job we know we can do»
We never heard from Avamere. They never returned the phone call. They never even called to follow up and see if my father in law survived the fall. My father in-​law was black and blue from head to foot for weeks after, and his progress was set back so greatly that we are certain that the fall helped end his life.
The kicker? They made us pay the ambulance bill that took him back to the hospital!
Was my father in-​law destined to fall? Probably. Did Avamere take appropriate steps to keep him safe? Absolutely not.
If you have no other choice than Avamere Crestview, never leave your loved one’s side. Twenty minutes is all it took for them to make a near fatal mistake. I will forever feel as if my decision to place him at Avamere Crestview ultimately led to his early demise.

If you have a choice I would not take your loved one to Avamere Crestivew. I previously was employed at this facility and completely agree with the previous post about the CNAs. They really are the people who keep the place functional and REALLY work hard to provide the highest quality care for the residents. She is also right on point in that the facility is drastically understaffed. The administration at Crestview only cares about their bottom line and not what is best for the residents.

the CNAs there are wonderful. My Godmother is there for rehab due to a stroke. I am not sure about nurses there because they are hardly around. however, 4 stars for the CNAs– they are wonderful and gentle with their care. They may be slow with responding because in my opinion the team is understaff. One night there were only 3 CNAs taking care of the whole facility.

Terrible. The place is drab and reeks of death. My father was there unfortunately on two occasions for rehabilitation and the care was abhorrent. I would never recommend this place to anyone, not even my worst enemy. My mother found an old lady stranded in her wheelchair in the hallway crying for help. Another was left baking in the sun, when all she wanted was to be moved into the shade.
My father fell victim to a faulty glucometer and was found to have a normal blood sugar when in fact it was dangerously low. They couldn’t understand why he was unresponsive and after they called 911 the EMT found his blood sugar to be 37! To which the nurse responds, «this glucometer must not be calibrated right. WTF? Off to the hospital he went and when he came back to Crestview a week later, their glucometer found his sugar to be great than 400 and upon a recheck it was 300. Seriously? A great than 100 point difference? And they’re STILL using these broken machines! Problem is, the treatment for over-​400 and 300 is different and could’ve resulted in another sub-​40 reading. We’d like to avoid going back to the hospital, thank you very much. This is supposed to be REHAB, not an example of ignorance or incompetence.