Tracy Kish
Mar 2026
*Edited to add my father started hospice, who came to him at VL. The hospice nurse found massive bruising on his hip and she initiated X-rays because she thought it could be dislocated or broken. To my knowledge no one from Vibrant Life told anyone about this serious injury. If they did I wasn’t notified. If it was related to any other injury I wasn’t made aware of the extent. I was never contacted about it. They STILL haven’t contacted me. Except through lawyers to tell me to revise my review or they’ll take legal action. I’ve edited my review to include only things that I can prove in a court of law, and I’ve left out many other poor experiences I’ve had with VB. Unfortunately many things were verbal and though they happened I can’t supply evidence. I removed my mother from this facility because I believe the care here is sub-par and the staff communication is not good. My mother literally went to the emergency room multiple times in a week and they never called me or told me a single time. I learned from other sources, one being a person who is on the do not call list and has told VB personally not to call her multiple times. I found out from ER staff that my mother fell and broke her wrist, and she kept taking the cast off which was causing re-injury. Vibrant life did not do a good job communicating with me about what my parents need. No matter if I left voicemails asking (the resident care director has never answered the phone when I called) or emails (I live out of state so I have anything they need mailed in). My dad has been there 2 years and my mother almost one, and I was only able to get on the phone with the resident care director 1 time. She told me that my mother needed underwear. Only a few days later I found out that my mother gained an unreasonable amount of weight in a short period of time, so I was trying to get anyone to tell me what size she now wears. Over the course of several months I couldn’t get a single person to even respond to me. They knew I was active duty military stationed out of state and can’t come in to check these things for myself. She experienced excessive edema, could barely walk, and her doctors said to talk to vibrant life about her salt intake. Staff members tried to blame her visitors for bringing her “fast food and chips” which was infuriating because she doesn’t have visitors and I live out of state. Maybe 1 time her brother visited from Florida and took her out but that’s not why she had consistent edema. I was able to talk to a culinary staff member and they admitted they give her saltines with soup and salty things like sausage and that they could try not to do that. She has kidney disease and has always been supposed to be on a low sodium diet. They knew that. I took her out once and the staff told me the doors lock at a certain time and you could be buzzed in. Only 2 times did that happen because I took her out to dinner and when we got back no one answered. We stood outside in the snow for an excessive amount of time ringing the bell and calling the phone number over and over and no one came. Finally a staff member just walking by noticed us and let us in. The second time after I dropped my mother off in her room and I went to leave, I couldn’t find anyone to buzz me out. I waited by the door for another very long time for someone to walk by, but then I just forced the door open and left. That set off the alarm (as if a resident was escaping). I sat in my car so that I could tell whoever came to investigate that it was me and not a runaway. No one ever came. The alarm just kept going off, and eventually stopped. I will add that I think that the hands on care staff members seemed very patient and kind. I’m sure it’s an unpleasant job and they all deserve to be paid more. I don’t know how much VL pays, it’s just my opinion that the general industry standard is low. It’s the admin and dietary staff that I had a hard time with here, and communication between everyone was sub-par at best.
