Merrill Gardens at Oceanside

Very nice Happy community
Guest were welcomed and the residents mostly are happy and smile
Gardens, common areas and patios are neat and clean
Wife is looking for a place like this
… For me. Haha

My dad spent his final 5 months at Pacific Place. There are 2 sections to this facility, he was in the Assisted Living section, not the Memory Care section, so my comments only reflect our Assisted Living experience.
Pacific Place is not the fanciest facility, but it is pleasant and has several common areas. What we found is «you get what you pay for.» Aegis is fancier, but costs a lot more. Emeritus is cheaper but not as nice. We were SOO glad we choose Pacific Place. After only 5 weeks, dad gave up walking. We were so worried that we would have to move him to a dreadful nursing/​convalescent home. Instead, he was able to go on hospice and continue living in his same apartment even though he was bedridden. This was such a blessing to our dad and our family.
Things we really liked about Pacific Place:
1. The Caregivers! When dad went onto hospice, we had to increase his care level significantly (which really ups the cost). Caregivers came in every 2 hours to turn and change him. 80% of them were amazing!!! The seemed to love their job and they were so encouraging and friendly to my dad and us. Some of them became like family while we lived there and I miss them now that our dad is gone. A few caregivers did not engage with dad as much, but this was overshadowed by the great ones. Greta, Lupita, Danny, and Nancy were «above and beyond.»
2. The food is pretty good. And the wait staff in the dining room are great. They know what residents like and what is important to each resident — at that age, having some quirks seems standard. One of the nice things at Pacific Place is the Dining room is open all day (it doesn’t close between meals). This is important if you don’t eat on a typical schedule… which was our case. Ask to eat in the dining room when you are investigating the facility. We wanted our dad to experience it before we decided on a place because wanting to go and eat is so important for the elderly.
3. The other staff. Since we came almost daily, we were usually greeted by name by Wanda or Moon at the front desk. Joseph the chef is always friendly. Stephanie is the RN director in Memory Care — very friendly and engaging with the residents.
The only thing we didn’t really like at Pacific Place was the nurse over Assisted Living (Sharon). She came on staff soon after we moved our dad in. She is a nice person, but this is not the right job/​environment for her. She does not seem to express compassion and warmth, which is soooo helpful during the decline of a parent. My observation is she doesn’t engage much with the residents… only as necessary. One of our first conversations was her suggesting we put our dad on hospice, but she hadn’t been there long enough to realize that he bounced up as fast as he bounced down. Hospice is a very difficult step and she seemed unaware of this fact. She did call if something was going on, but it was usually after we already knew or had even been there at the time; she seemed unaware of our involvement. Since Stephanie (nurse in Memory Care) met with us and assessed our dad before we decided to move in. She made a great first impression and helped seal the deal that this was the right place. I don’t know if we would have chosen this place if we had met Sharon instead. She truly is a nice person, but not right for this position.
We were at Pacific Place every day, so this review if very much firsthand. However, the most important factor in choosing a place is the staff. And staff turns over, so make sure you really investigate the current staff if you are looking into living here. Meeting the staff and caregivers is really important because they are the people who will be involved day in and day out not Sherry (or whoever shows you the facility). We talked to residents who lived there and asked them what they liked. Many commented that it was the food they loved.
Pacific Place also has lots of great activities and outtings, but my dad never really got to participate. The one activity that appealed to him a lot was «armchair astronomy» with a visiting prof from the Community College. Great idea, especially for the men. They also do a lot of great things for veterans here, as do most Assisted Living places.
That’s my 2 cents. I wanted to post since the only other review here was very negative and a couple years old.

I work with seniors and visit quite a few assisted living communities. I was introduced to Merrill Gardens Oceanside a few weeks ago. On each of my visits, the staff has been courteous and helpful, there are residents spending time in the lobby and common areas who are friendly, the place is clean and the landscaping is immaculate. The rooms are very bright with high ceilings which makes them appear very open. They provide a good number of activities and transportation options.

The review by Lisa N. does not surprise me in the least. I am glad she came at that time to get an eyeful herself and decided not to put her Mom there. What surprises me is that Merrill Gardens has not convinced Unilocal to remove her review yet as they have done so many times before to any negative reviews about their facilities. (look at the hidden reviews removed, mine included)
My review was removed for Pacific Place in August 2013. The reason Unilocal gave me was that it «relies or contains secondhand information». So I will be very careful and tell you only what I saw first hand and there should be no need to remove this.
My friend’s Dad (who I knew personally) was a resident of Pacific Place and I went with her a couple of times to visit him. He did not like it there he told me. He said he wanted to leave but was not allowed to.
1. The place looks like a nursing home and is run down looking and I think needs to be fixed up. I was not impressed. It was not a pleasant feeling place. I see the ads for this company and they give the impression these places are not like nursing homes.
2. The food I ate there was like hospital food. Nothing fancy or that good.
3. The residents I saw all were very old and frail looking and had trouble getting around and getting things for themselves in the dining room and hallways and public rooms, yet there was no one around to help them. I was surprised to see people that appeared in such poor condition from a mobility standpoint and weakness. I expected to see more active seniors in that kind of place. This was like being in a nursing home. Twice I even helped residents who were struggling to get up from their chair and I thought they might fall and they were very unsteady. One woman was calling out for some help to get something to drink and was just being ignored by the servers. I asked if I could help her and only then did someone who worked there come over.
4. The employees I saw around the facility seemed very rushed and tense. I saw no smiling happy employees which kind of makes the whole atmosphere a downer. One employee spoke such bad English I just could not understand them at all. At the front desk when you come in, no one was there. A few residents were milling around and a couple of wheelchairs. I thought one woman worked there and asked her a question only to find out she was a relative of a resident trying to find an employee to help her with her relative for some problem. She was still waiting as I left. I never on any of my visits saw anyone who looked like they were a manager or supervisor, only employees who looked like regular staff.
5. I went to visit him in the hospital before he died. I guess my violation on Unilocal before was that I wrote things that my friend had told me about his care, injuries, etc. and they said that was second hand. I will say first hand that I saw him in the hospital with horrible bruises on his chest and back and head and arms and he had two black eyes. He was kind of propped on his side and had machines hooked up. The rest of his body was covered with sheet and blanket. He was unconscious. He died a few days after I was there. The rest I know about what happened to him, etc. I will not say since it is second hand from my friend I guess.
6. After going there and seeing and hearing things, I wanted to understand what exactly these assisted living places are, since I never really knew about places other than nursing homes. The most useful information I discovered was that they are regulated by the state. They are inspected and investigate complaints and they write up reports that the public can read. You can ask the facility to see their reports because they have to keep a copy there for the public to see. Also, in some places, like San Diego you can check online to see these complaints and reports. There is a site by «CARR» that shows citations, violations, etc. If you read for yourself, like I did first hand, the state reports for Merrill Gardens Pacific Place in Oceanside you will see some very disturbing documented violations and citations by the state. They have been cited for medication errors, not informing family of injuries to residents, being under staffed, allowing residents to escape «locked» units for dementia and being injured, keeping residents that were disruptive and physically abusive to staff and residents, keeping residents who needed a higher level of care, failure to submit incident reports and other information to the state licensing agency, excessive calls to 911, etc. I was kind of shocked by all of these state reports over a relatively short time. Out of curiosity, I looked up other assisted living facilities that I had seen driving around town. There were some that had no violations at all and there were others with some violations, but not a lot.
This is my first hand impression and observations.