Muskoka Hills Retirement Villa

The building is great. Bright and cheery. The nurses are amazing. Friendly and caring. The food is good. Home cooked and fresh. It's only because of these three aspects I am giving it one star. The administration - HORRIBLE. Don't even expect to actually talk to the Executive Director, Debbie Haigh especially when they are in the wrong. Like when important paperwork is not filed thus causing grief and turmoil for the family. The owners are totally hands off and don't really seem to care what happens at the retirement home as long as they are making money. If you are considering a place for loved ones I would NOT select Muskoka Hills if you are looking for a caring community from the top down. The top doesn't care - they are just in it to make a dollar. When they make a huge error and won't even provide you with a phone call or email to say "we are in the wrong and we are sorry" it really isn't good business.

Beautiful setting! I toured the facility and found it very welcoming. A resident confirmed that, by relating to me how wonderful it was. We met Chaplin John who was doing a great job of encouraging other residents. He makes them feel at home and leads the services. We also enjoyed listening to a resident playing the piano as others sat around and relaxed with the music.

There was an incident the other day surrounding staff neglecting a resident. An incident that could and should have been handled better by the staff wasn't, and when a family member called to discuss it the Residency staff then chose to instantly block all three daughters of the resident from communicating with the centre. They are no longer able to review any updates from the Villa's social media pages regarding the centre in general OR the loved one that's in their care. Keep in mind, again, this all occurred after Muskoka Hills Retirement Villa neglected their patient. Their course of action then when the family confronted them about this neglect was to make it go away rather than face their behaviour and accept responsibility (or even give answers to the family). Now they are deleting any negative comments or mentions of this incident and recent behaviour on all of their social pages.

My in-laws love it here. Just like the cottage for sure. Knowing dad has 24 Hr nurses lets me rest easy. Even the owners kids visit most weekends. The owner visits and chats with the families and is very approachable.The staff cares about what is left of my family and show love.The food is healthy and tasty, as I often order dinner sometimes to stay/eat with them. Dad was so lonely at home, as he could not get out much, but here they both have lots of friends. I told the staff this and they said do a review. So here you go. Thanks Muskoka Hills. David

My mom had many good times there it is a happy place , staff is excellent , they do the best they can , in these hard times ,

The Executive Director at Muskoka Hills is a nightmare to deal with as a family member and far worse as a senior in her care. It would seem that this woman has become so accustomed to lording her authority over vulnerable seniors that she forgets how to act with integrity and respect to the rest of the population. Any attempt at contact goes unanswered be it via phone, text, email or through their website. As a result, family members have no method of addressing the frequent, often daily, incidents of neglect, disrespect, bullying, missed and/or incorrect medication and extreme lack of resident hygiene practices, to name some of the lesser issues, that my parent contends with at Muskoka Hills. It breaks my heart to know that, never in their long life, has my parent been more miserable than they are at that awful place. The mental health of residents, albeit a huge factor, is only one concern. My parent’s health has declined drastically since living at Muskoka Hills. They have had to call an ambulance them self multiple times after staff deemed it unnecessary. Needless to say, they were admitted to hospital each and every time and kept for an extended stay in order to stabilize their condition. The first time I learned of any hospital visits was always from the hospital staff, never from Muskoka Hills. I can’t help but wonder what goes on under the surface if they are so casual about what any compassionate person would recognize as blatant mistreatment of our seniors. I have so many incidents that I could list here that it is difficult to know what to include. There is only so much that the authorities can do, but they have been made aware and every effort is being made to remove my parent from that dreadful place. Unfortunately finding placement is not an easy task. My greatest fear is that they will die there among such heartless, inept and unprofessional ‘care givers’ and there will be nothing I can do to stop it.

If zero stars was an option..... Hands down my worst experience in LTC as a nurse. Worked here through an agency for a short time. Horrendous. Don't even know where to begin--- If you're a registered and licensed person-- you will probably be the only one. You can go check out their multiple job postings to see they don't require much of applicants (they don't even mention needing vaccination or VSC/Police Clearances). All the staff while I was there were UCPs--- there weren't even any certified PSWs. This place is so cheap, they don't have garbage bags for the medication cart; they don't have plastic measuring cups (or anything to measure medications with); they don't have kleenex/tissue; no masks (forget about gowns/goggles/or N95s); the don't have computer documentation-- everything is paper- PNs, CPs; Assessments; HIRs; Incident Reporting; etc- including paper mars and digipen-- which would be okay if it weren't a nurse to resident ratio of 1:54. The number of medication errors is through the roof!! The DOHW/DOC is never there. According to the staff at the facility-- she works a FT position at another facility. They don't pay their own staff and agency correctly, or at all in some cases--- and the agency I was with was paying me out of pocket. If you do go there and make suggestions or even point these things out--- some of the long time staff will get defensive and say ridiculous things like "you should do what you can instead of complaining" ...... Uh. No, as front line staff, you need to report this mess and stop with the new admissions. Poor residents and poor family members that have to deal with this place. Anyways, believe the negative reviews. If anyone dares rate this place more than 1 star--- they likely work there or have some other vested interest.

The residents are pleasant. Management is nonexistent. Understaffed is an understatement. The building is in dire need of repairs. Wouldn't leave my mum/dad/loved one here. Believe the reviews.