Friendship Haven is a very excellent facility. It is very large. It has all the amenities for the people there. It covers all phases of aging. When there comes a point in time when they need more care, they can go into another facility. And then when they need end-of-life care, there’s another facility for that as well. It has all phases of care. It also has independent living. My wife is a retired hospice nurse and she also visited all the facilities in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Her assessment was that Friendship Haven is the best, the cream of the crop. This is one of the better facilities in the state of Iowa.

I visited Friendship Haven as it in our list. They have good staff and were able to answer our questions. They have the needed services we’re looking for. We haven’t eaten there but I think the dining room is pretty good. What stood out for me was their location, as Fort Dodge was my hometown. The overall appearance of the facility and the size are good.

Moved my maternal grandmother into one of their apartments recently. The facility is building new and more modern buildings right now so things are a bit on the awkward side as far as some of the entrances being blocked to the buildings due to the construction and of course it really messes up the view of what was previously a rather decent little garden area that is now ground zero for the new building. There are meals served in a dining area regularly. The floors are even and the hallways wide making it easy for walkers or wheelchairs to go down the halls and there is room for two people to pass as well as wide and sturdy hand rails all along the walkways. The rooms are very standard but big enough for a decent amount of furniture and have wide doorways. There are bathrooms in each apartment with handrails as well as a very small kitchenette area. Very large closets as well. There are activities and opportunities for the residents to socialize and do things that they enjoy and many have found people they know already there. My grandmother had two ladies watching and waiting for her to move in that had previously known her - one from grade school and another that lived in a small town where grandma spent most of her adult life. Overall I had a favorable opinion of the facilities and the safety of the buildings. The new construction should prove interesting in the near future as well.