Summit Place of Mooresville

Anne Zirkle

We were so hopeful that Summit Place’s memory care unit would be a safe place for my father-in-law who has advanced stage Alzheimer’s. The reviews here were so positive. The sales director was outstanding. Sadly, she sold us a lie. 6 weeks after moving him in, we are fortunately moving him out. During the 6 weeks he was there, the care he received was negligent, at best. Particularly at night. We had a security camera in his room when we first moved him in and they told us we needed to remove it. The week that it was there, he received good care. We swapped the obvious camera for one hidden in an alarm clock so we could still monitor him from home. As soon as the noticeable camera was gone, staff stopped checking in on him during the night. He struggled to sleep and spent many nights awake, in his room, folding and refolding his clothes. If he left the room, staff would return him to the room, but otherwise they didn’t put eyes on him. If he had fallen, no one would know. We found out that the facility began giving him sleeping pills two weeks ago. We noticed that he was noticeably “out of it” whenever we visited. It took almost a week to get them to stop giving him the pills. If you do any research about Alzheimer’s patients and sleeping pills, they recommend never giving them because they increase the risk of falls. During the day, there were minimal activities for memory care residents. Someone from the family visited every other day, at different times throughout the day, and were saddened by how little was being done with the residents to provide stimulation and exercise. The facility spent a lot of money recently to repaint, put in new flooring and lighting. The money would be better spent paying for higher quality care. Summit Place may be fine for an assisted living facility, and maybe for early dementia care, but avoid it if possible for more advanced memory care residents.