The Summit At Lakeway

The best place for Mom!
A year ago when we moved Mom from her home, we looked for a place that would be able to manage her complex health issues. We found Brookdale Lakeway. Our expectations were more than met. Everyone on the staff from Administration to Nursing and patient care, to activities, laundry, housekeeping, maintenance and the kitchen have been wonderful to her. She was so grateful for the care from nurses especially when she was having breathing issues as well as caregivers who performed the day to day routines of keeping her clean and helping her dress and get in and out of bed at the times she preferred. The few issues we had were immediately resolved to our satisfaction by administration.
She loved and participated in all the many activities even when she couldn’t see or hear all that was going on and spoke often of the efforts made to help her find a seat that would work best for her. She regularly told us how good the food was which was confirmed by a bit of a weight gain. We ate with her often and agree with her assessment. Care was taken to manage her dietary restrictions. She liked coming back to a room that had been carefully cleaned, and after pushing every button trying to change channels, appreciated the regular reprogramming to her TV remote. She was happy her clothes came back so quickly from the laundry. She was especially excited when the personal items she left in jacket pockets were located. Everyone on the staff, no matter their job, called her by name and showed her respect and kindness.
After a year, when her health issues overwhelmed her body, she died. As we look back over this last year, we realize Brookdale wasn’t just good for Mom, it was good for us. Most importantly we were confident she was safe and well cared for when we made our monthly business trips. An unexpected blessing was the love and concern we always felt when we came in for a visit. We were welcomed and always felt we were kept appraised of all that was happening. We were especially grateful so much care was taken to prepare her for our final visit shortly after she passed. When we returned the next morning to attend to necessary details, we were amazed and very pleased by the hugs, kind words and even tears that were shed by staff members. It was confirmation that the care being provided came from a place of love and concern. We will always be grateful for the excellent care she received and the joy she expressed in the last year of her life.

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR LOVED ONES HERE!!!
This facility should be ordered closed by the health department. The level of abuse I witnessed is unacceptable on any level. Residents screaming for help after pushing the call button and NO ONE coming. Dirty — FILTHY — bathrooms, dried blood on the floor, unwashed food bowls… standing in the hallway and seeing blinking lights (call buttons pushed) with zero staff helping. Lots of unconcerned workers dressed in nursing attire mingling while residents sit in feces and urine hoping for help. A strain of C. Diff. runs rampant at this facility. I have reported this facility to DFPS. Absolutely one of the worst «nursing facilities» I have EVER WITNESSED.

Please read my review before placing your love one here!!!
The staff is horrible. Multiple times my dad would press the call button and they would not come into his room for 40 minutes. I would walk down to the station and all nurses and aids would be sitting on their phones. I would let them know my dad needed assistance and they would tell me to press the call button. After I told them I did about 40 minutes ago it still took them 10 minutes to come into his room.
Another time my dad fell but was able to crawl to the call button. It took them about 30 minutes to get into his room.
They absolutely did not take of his health. Multiple times they would not give him his required meds. When my dad had blood clots in both legs they had a company do a certain test to see if they could do a certain type of wrap. He did qualify. We waited 2 weeks and nobody did the wraps. They said nobody in the company was qualified to do them. So why run that test? The dr said he would have a nurse do it but that she was not qualified. No thanks!
The food here is horrible. My dad is not a picky eater and does not complain about food. He would say every meal was horrible.
The last straw was my dad hearing staff yell at a patient across the hall. We moved him to Park Manor and it is night and day compared to this place.
Hopefully this will help someone make the right decision with their loved one.

The facilities overall are decent looking, especially the nursing unit after their expansion several years ago. There is no «independent retirement living» at the Summit; care levels go from assisted living, to a dedicated dementia care unit, to a separate nursing care facility. And they’ve got the Lakeway location, which makes them a retirement community within a retirement community.
Looks and location only go so far, however. Once inside, the assisted living side is on par with a mid-​range motel: tiny reception and meeting area, with a corresponding limited calendar of activities if your loved one is more active or wants interaction (and who doesn’t?). The rooms are small, could use more windows, and in my opinion, are not well laid out for optimal appeal and functionality. The dining room is nicely appointed, but is located in the walkout basement area, so residents ride the elevator down at mealtimes. Most of them use walkers, some use wheelchairs, so you can imagine the crowding and line to said elevator that occurs on a regular basis. It pays to plan ahead, but of course, everyone knows this, so the crowd just keeps getting to the dining room earlier and earlier, and sometimes lines up in the hall outside. The food is good, though, which is important when you’re eating at one restaurant every day. Residents are served at table.
The dementia care unit is on a separate floor downstairs. As you might guess, it’s very small, and there isn’t much going on to keep the residents stimulated. There’s a tiny patio, but residents aren’t allowed to go out unsupervised, so I’m not sure how much that actually happens. There are much better places in town that are better set up for dementia care.
The nursing section is beautifully appointed, the best-​looking nursing home I’ve ever seen. For the price (over $ 7000 a month) it should be. All the rooms I saw were private (i.e., not shared). The other sections aren’t cheap, either, by the way.
My relative spent a mostly unhappy year here in the assisted living section before we figured out it wasn’t us, moved elsewhere, and found happiness immediately with a much better place and fit. I should have gone with my gut when we were signing the lease papers; management was extremely rigid and difficult to work with, and in the end, that’s what made it too miserable for us to stay.
There’s a big community fee, and as with any place that provides care for vulnerable folks, visit a lot of places for comparison, and really check it out (including state compliance ratings) before you decide that this is the place for your loved one.