Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What's included in the base price? A. Room rent, three meals and snacks daily prepared by a professional chef, daily activities, weekly massage therapy, weekly haircuts, administration and accountability of medications, laundry and room makeup and cleaning service, satellite TV in every room. Q. Is there a doctor on the staff? A. We have arranged for frequent visits by a geriatric specialist Doctor for routine checkups and treatment as needed (covered by Medicare in most cases). Q. What’s not included in the base price? A. Medicines (usually provided by the residents’ individual Medicare and/or private insurance plans), special supplies (for instance, incontinent supplies), custom hair styling (available at extra charge). Q. Are special meals available, and are they included in the base price? A. Yes on both counts. We have a professional chef. Other assisted living homes for 10 or fewer residents typically have a caregiver with no particular training in food preparation doubling as the cook. Q. Are guests welcome to eat with the residents? What do you charge for a guest meal? A. We request that you give us 24 hours notice if you would like to eat here with your family member or friend who is an Arcadia Estate Resident, so that we may be prepared with enough food at that meal. There is no charge for guest meals, but we respectfully request that you respect this favor by reasonably limiting such requests. If you wish to eat here very often, please work out a meal plan with us. Q. Since you have only private rooms, are spouses who don't need assistance welcome to live with residents? What is the extra charge for a non-assisted spouse? A. Yes, certainly, spouses are welcome to live here, too. The charge for an additional resident who does not require assistance, and therefore does not count against our license quota of 10 assisted residents, is $1,000.00 per month. Included are room rent, all meals, and of course the unassisted resident is welcome to participate in daily activities. Q. How large are the bedrooms? A. Each room is actually a suite. A typical bedroom itself is 12’ x 15’, including the closet. Also included are a private bathroom with a sit-down shower and a wheelchair accessible vanity. Just outside each bedroom’s sliding glass door is a private patio with a locked private storage closet (patio access). The home also has one much larger master suite, which features a very large bedroom, a sitting room, a large walk-in closet, and a whirlpool tub equipped bathroom. Q. Is there wheelchair access throughout the house? A. The house was designed with perfectly flat floors with wheelchair access in mind. This same design feature makes walking safety better for residents whose steps are no longer as sure as when they were younger. Also, both exterior and interior doors in the house are a minimum 36” wide for easy access, and hallways are 4? to 5 feet wide instead of the normal residential 3 foot hallways found in assisted living homes that are converted regular residences. Q. Is a caregiver awake at all hours of the night? A. At least one caregiver is on duty and awake all night long. There are typically two caregivers on duty from early morning until early evening, and one during the night after all the residents are ready for bed. Q. Why do you say that you try to hire only LPN's and CNA's as caregivers? Is there some lower standard we should watch out for? A. The Arizona Department of Health Services requires that Caregivers hold a certificate called a Caregiver Certificate. The Department does not recognize the higher levels of training of LPN or CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) for this position. While there are Department approved training courses for the Caregiver Certificate, there is no Agency, public nor private, including the Department, which monitors or administers accountability for the award of these Caregiver Certificates. Any licensed Assisted Living Home Manager may sign and award these Caregiver Certificates. Therefore, in order to provide the best possible care for our residents, Arcadia Estate seeks to hire caregivers with greater credentials than the State requires, and to screen carefully all caregivers in our employ. Q. What sort of physical therapy is available? A. Residents are encouraged to use the exercise room and weekly therapeutic geriatric massage service that is included in the monthly rental charge. Residents are welcome to invite private therapists to come to Arcadia Estate for their own personal needs (at their own separate expense, although frequently Medicare will cover physical and occupational therapy). Q. Do you show movies in the home theater on a regular schedule? A. The home theater is available at any time for movies or live television. It features a 10 foot screen, superb sound, and comfortable lounge furniture. We have found that most of our residents prefer the ambiance of the great room, with its large screen rear projection TV, so the home theater is used more on an “on demand” basis. Q. What sort of daily activities do you have? A. The caregivers assist with card games and bingo. The library includes two computers with full time Internet connections for any residents who would like to surf the Internet and send and receive e-mail. Karaoke is available from time to time, but not every day. From time to time, we invite a professional singer who performs requests from our residents. Birthdays and other holidays are observed with parties for all.