By Steve Moran
Recently I had Larry Cohen, the CEO of Trustwell Living, on Foresight TV. We spent a fair amount of time talking about how to create a great living experience for residents — the kinds of experiences that are so good that residents and family members become ambassadors for the community.
When they become ambassadors for the community, they become ambassadors for the industry.
He shared some snippets from a Google review that Trustwell Living at Rock Run Place recently received. It was so good I asked Larry to send me the entire review. Because the review is public, I have left the personal information in place. The review is lightly edited for ease of reading.
5/5 stars
My mother lives at Rock Run Memory Care. It’s approaching a month and I am delighted with the experience. Mom is a different person. She’s got some of her old magic back.
We did a lot of diligence and took our time before choosing Rock Run, it has exceeded my expectations.
My sister and I independently had the same initial conclusion after our first visit. There was a different vibe about Rock Run. It’s clean and bright. It felt more like a community than an institution. It feels alive. There seems to be a strong personable connection between and among staff and residents. It’s like a family.
The activities are amazing. Other facilities had activities, but the choices at Rock Run were the kinds of things Mom would like. We expected she would passively watch some activities and would have considered that a win, but she jumps right in. Indeed, the activities were a definite swing factor in our choice of Rock Run. We want to maximize Mom’s life.
We did a lot of research to get here. My sister and I canvassed friends, neighbors, and coworkers for their experiences and recommendations. I searched the online reviews (knowing the most dissatisfied are also the most outspoken). We also wanted a different perspective from the medical community, so we also got recommendations from a physical therapist and a hospice nurse who visited facilities.
Recommendations converged and we narrowed in on 3 candidates and 2 alternates. I called these facilities and had about an hour initial discussion with each on the phone. Then we visited the top contenders.
My sister and I separately digested and we came back with the same conclusion. I questioned if we had just caught some facilities at non-optimal times, and we revisited the top two choices targeting areas we wanted a second peek at.
The second visits reinforced our initial conclusions. I asked to meet with some residents’ families and they were quite pleased. Some had experience with other facilities and chose to move their loved ones to Rock Run.
Our second choice would have been good care, but Rock Run is outstanding.
The secret sauce at any Memory Care is the staff. At fear of leaving out many (as some are still faces without names) here are some of the stars:
Amanda — guided the journey
Sherry, Ronna, Susie, Shay (Nursing staff, so many names to remember)
Robbie and Luanne — 2 forces of nature in activities
Kiki — cook and admirer of Mom’s crafts
Receptionist
— Gene Sigwerth
The final takeaway from this review is that what made all the difference is the staff — not the building, not the food, not the amenities. It is all about the culture you create.
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