We went to Benedictine Living Community of Duluth. The gal that met us was very friendly and very knowledgeable. They say they check the rooms every two hours, but sometimes I think my husband would need more help than that. The rooms were large, and they also provide a hospital bed there. I didn't think it was as nice as the other place though, and we didn't see a lot of staff. I didn't see a lot of the residents either out in the rooms or halls or anything like that. We didn't get a feel for that. They had quite large rooms, but just one room and a bath. There was a library, a salon, and an exercise area, and there's a supervised exercise area, too. I didn't see a lot of staff in the area where the residents were. There were 12 rooms in a pod in a kind of circle around this common area. When you come in the door, there's a long hallway to get to where you're going. The person that gave the tour was very knowledgeable, friendly and nice. I've talked to her on the phone, and she's been very personable. I just didn't like the long hallway to get there. There's a washing machine there and the staff does the laundry. They said the residents could go into that pod area where they could meet and have snacks any time, but I didn't see any of that when we were there.

My wife is currently staying in Benedictine Living Community of Duluth. It's a large community with several different buildings separating different levels of care. It's attached to a college specializing in medical and trains for nursing mostly. I believe that nutrition and health needs are being neglected. I believe that the staff and nurse's aides are very unhappy and bringing their problems from home, or whatever, to their job. Some staff members are very good and excellent, depending on the person, but in general I think people are overworked, they're short of staff, and the staff members are just unhappy. There's a sense of unhappiness and anger even. It's a large place. The buildings are separated by covered indoor walkways. They have a central kitchen and two different sections. There are two floors where my wife is, and there's a central kitchen and two wings and units on each floor. The COVID-19 situation has curtailed a lot of activities, but even before this virus and the lockdowns began and all that, it seemed to me they're lacking on the social front in encouraging the residents. My wife is mismatched for where she is. She can't communicate with most of the people because they're already in a serious state of dementia. She can't identify socially with almost all of the other people. When I visit, it's very quiet and just very depressing. It's a large space, but nothing's going on. This is a newer building, and it's very expensive to build. I don't care if the building was old, it's just how it's kept up and the atmosphere it was in.

My mother was in the Benedictine Rehab center and was screened and accepted into the assisted living portion of the health center. We moved her things into her room on Saturday with a move into the facility communicated for Thursday of the next week. On Tuesday, they communicated that they had changed their minds and she should move into their memory care facility. This was after we went through the expense and time of moving her things. My sister visited the memory care facility and it smelled like feces and urine. They then stated we were going to have to pay $300 per day unless we moved her out of rehab immediately. We found another assisted living place that screened my mother and she is thriving in that facility. But we are billed $1200 for their mistake, plus our time and u-haul expense. During our visits to move her things, no help was seen in the hallways. During our move out, one lady was looking for help finding the dining room. Luckily we were there to help her because nobody from the facility was looking out for her.

What I liked about Benedict Living is that it had everything in it. My relative can transfer from each section without having to move far. The residents have a lot of things to do. The staff was answering all of my concerns and were very friendly. The rooms were very clean. They had a salon, a store, and a vehicle that will take you places.