Highgate At Paoli Pointe

The Renaissance of Highgate Paoli: I've just come from four-days of visiting at Highgate with my 75-year old brother.  He's been living at Highgate for over a year and is happy, healthy and well-entertained. Yes, the facility has been through some challenging times, but has emerged as the gem it's meant to be. We both love the elegant look and feel of this classic building. The entire building is now immaculate and has been beautifully decorated for Christmas. I live in the Midwest and have been managing my brother's care from afar. I've spoken at length with many of the staff and was greeted like a long-lost friend when I arrived. Reception knew where my brother was and what he'd been doing that day. We had a chat and a laugh about my gentle, sweet brother.My last evening there, my brother was sitting down to play Bingo with the other residents, and joined by a local group of boisterous Girl Scouts.There's now a lovely happy, holiday feel at Highgate Paoli.

A lovely community tucked back in the heart of town. The internal team is quite welcoming and the center feels lively and engaging for residents. The external outreach team, Shannon, Amber & Becca in particular, are lovely to work with; truly invested in quality and the continuum of care.

Cautionary Tale. Don’t buy non-refundable tickets if you’re planning to place your family member at Highgate at Paoli Pointe for a respite stay. The night before admission, the director of Highgate at Paoli Pointe called to inform me she was cancelling the two-week respite stay. The reason given was she did not have staff that were able to administer a liquid medication (a squirt into the mouth)—a task that could easily be performed by a four-year old. All required forms, medication list and payment were submitted weeks before the respite stay was to begin. I received several emails from Highgate that all was in order and they were looking forward to the visit. The director had three weeks to review the medication list but chose to make the decision to cancel the stay the evening before the family vacation. This left me with non-refundable airfare and booked tours.

What a heartbreaking decline. This place once felt like a safe haven. When I moved my father in two years ago, the first few months were promising—warm smiles, attentive care, and a sense of relief that he was in good hands. But that hope has crumbled into frustration and fear. The level of neglect here is staggering. They’ve repeatedly failed county health inspections—don’t just take my word for it, look it up. Staff have been caught sleeping in empty rooms overnight, leaving vulnerable residents unattended. There’s been so much medication theft that they had to install locks on everything. Leadership? A revolving door. They’ve gone through executive directors faster than they change residents’ diapers—six directors in just two years. And the building itself is falling apart. Major water leaks are a regular occurrence. After one so-called repair, they left the common room ceiling gaping open for six months, dust sifting down like a grim snowstorm. The heating and cooling systems haven’t worked for over a year. One summer day, my father’s pastor—not a staff member, mind you—brought him a fan because his room had climbed to 85 degrees. The worst? The morning I arrived to take my dad to radiation, I found him sprawled on the floor. He had fallen and been lying there for two hours. No one came. They had even removed his call button, so he couldn’t cry for help. Two broken ribs later, he’s bedridden, his independence stolen. We had to put him on hospice. And the final insult? They doubled his rent and care costs—even though their “care” nearly killed him—only to now push him out because it’s too expensive for us to keep him there. Shocking considering the company just filed for bankruptcy.