Prestige Senior Living High Desert

Proceed with Caution! Respite Care was needed for our loved one, his wife & primary caregiver was scheduled for a major surgery. Full payment was required in advance. The intake process with the nurse at Prestige was a great experience, they understood his needs for medication, assistance with dressing, bathing and the restroom. They also confirmed a private room with a TV. The community is clean and updated. Upon check-in, the agreed upon arrangement of a TV in the room was not set up, but they promised they would get it taken care of. The following morning, we stopped in and he was still in his clothes that he was wearing when he arrived, his medication had not been administered, he indicated that it took forever for someone to answer the call cord to assist him with the restroom, he was helped to the restroom but no assistance was given for incontinence and resulted in him soaking wet overnight. The staff said there had been a misunderstanding and that they fully understood what needed to be done. Later that day, another family member stopped in and the staff did not know if he was there let alone what room he was in. They questioned whether we had the correct community and perhaps he was staying somewhere else. There was a lot of texting among staff to figure out where he was. There still wasnt a TV in the room. Management took all day to return our calls from the morning. It was finally a call from the corporate office asking us to give them another chance. At this point, trust had been broken and we removed our loved one from this community. A refund was issued several days later. This community has good reviews, but there are no reviews from actual residents. The staff (very young staff) to resident ratio seems very low. I urge you to look at the job posting sites like Indeed. This company has horrible reviews from employees. I do not recommend Prestige Senior Living High Desert.

I worked as a caregiver and medication aide at High Desert Assisted Living for a year between 2006 and 2007, and based on my experience there, I would not recommend the facility to anyone who needs to place a loved-one in residential care- especially if that loved-one needs assistance with their personal needs (such as dressing, toileting, grooming, etc.).During my time there, we were consistently understaffed. Residents would often have to wait up to 30 or even 45 minutes for assistance after pressing their call button because of the volume of people who needed assistance at the same time. Whenever I'd bring this up to management, they'd tell me they couldn't increase staffing because of the low census. And because of the low census, they would often admit residents who needed more care than can be provided at an assisted living facility just to fill empty rooms. This of course endangered those residents, and further stretched the already thinly spread staff.On top of that, the training program was virtually non-existent. When I got hired, I watched a video telling me that as a caregiver, I was an important part of the marketing team, because if I provide good service, then residents will recommend the facility to friends and family. Good thing they told me, because I thought it'd be totally OK to treat the residents like crap until I saw that video. Beyond that, my training consisted of following a couple different staff members on their shifts. They had some good trainers when I started, but they quit soon after due to being fed up with the way they were being treated by their employer. Most of the time I was there, training was carried out by caregivers who had never been trained how to train new staff, and who had never been properly trained to do their own job.As icing on the cake, employees' paychecks would routinely come up short by hundreds of dollars, and we'd often have to wait weeks or even months in some cases to get paid back. I personally had to wait two weeks to get paid the $200 that was missing from one of my checks.All this contributed to an astronomical turnover rate. What this meant for the residents was having to deal with a constantly changing stream of strangers helping them with their most intimate personal needs. Residents who required help transferring would frequently complain that many of the caregivers didn't know what they were doing, which is a scary feeling for someone who can't get themselves from their wheelchair into bed on their own. I was constantly being asked by the residents why none of the caregivers ever stick around- and found I had to bite my tongue lest I let loose an obscenity-laced tirade against my employer and their landlord. After working there only a year, I had been there longer than almost everyone else on staff.It's been more than two years since I worked there, but based on conversations I've had with the few former co-workers who still work there, and the residents with whom I've stayed in contact, little has changed. And I don't believe it's likely to change.Not that the facility doesn't have its upside. The campus is beautiful- although the surrounding area is being rapidly developed. For residents who don't need much assistance, it's not too bad a place to live. The food isn't great, but it's better than at other assisted living facilities from what I've heard and experienced. The activities director who was there when I worked there was awesome (though she doesn't work there anymore) and seemed to have a big enough budget to provide the residents with numerous opportunities for enrichment, so it's a good facility for people who are relatively independent and socially inclined. My best advice to anyone looking at this facility- or any residential care facility- is ask questions, lots of questions. Try to get an idea of just how much the company really invests in its staff- because that has a direct effect on how the residents are treated.

Mom spent the last three years of her life here. She felt, as did I, that she received excellent care here. They were great with my sister and me as hospice took over and allowed mom to pass on her room.Staff is great, food was good.