McKenzie's Assisted Living Home II in Anchorage, AK

Pros

• McKinley Care is described as the best home living assistant for residents needing assisted living, with 100% daily basic services for all residents.
• The care team is praised for hard work, dedication, compassion, and commitment to patient-centered care.
• McKinley Care specializes in great care for residents and is actively renovating and updating equipment and staff around the clock.
• The facility is recognized for continuously operating and improving services with 24/7 operations.
• Some caregivers are noted as loving and very caring.

Cons

• The doors do not lock, compromising residents' privacy.
• Residents lack basic necessities—no warm meals, no refrigerator or stove, and no TV remote.
• Some residents have gone days without showers.
• There is no call button for help, so residents must yell for assistance.
• Staff do not provide needed medications, and care issues have led to emergency room visits.
• Shaw and Kate are described as not caring about residents' safety, and the staff are unprofessional and neglectful; the facility should be shut down.

Review

McKenzie's Assisted Living Home II in Anchorage is best suited for families seeking a small, home-like setting where caregivers know residents on a first-name basis and renovations are visibly underway. It works for seniors who need light to moderate assistance rather than a full medical program, and for families prepared to take an active oversight role to balance inconsistencies in daily care. This is not a setting for residents who demand guaranteed privacy, consistently reliable medication administration, or a tightly regulated, highly structured routine. The atmosphere can feel intimate and invested, but the trade-off is ongoing questions about safety, consistency, and basic amenities.

Those considering alternatives should focus on residents who require dependable medication management, regular assistance, or secure privacy features such as locked doors, in-room refrigeration, or cooking facilities for personal meals. If a resident’s well-being hinges on timely, professional nursing oversight, predictable routines, and proven safety protocols, other communities with stronger clinical staff and documented compliance are worth exploring. Families should also weigh the implications of management responsiveness and the potential for lapses in daily operations, which can be a deal-breaker when care needs intensify.

Pros exist in the form of genuine caregiver dedication and ongoing investment. Some staff are described as compassionate and patient-centered, and the facility’s ongoing renovations signal a willingness to improve and update the environment. The 24/7 operation and visible upgrades can contribute to a sense that the home is moving in a positive direction. Yet these positives do not fully counterbalance the most serious concerns raised by many reviews, including gaps in essential care tasks that directly affect daily safety and comfort.

The most consistently troubling themes center on basic care gaps: meals that do not meet residents’ daily needs, lack of in-room appliances to support personal meals, doors that fail to lock, and an absence of functioning call buttons for timely assistance. Several accounts allege missed or delayed medications, resulting in avoidable ER visits or hospital interactions. Reports of neglect or inadequate supervision, inconsistent communication from leadership, and staff who are perceived as unprofessional compound the risk profile. The stark contrast between occasional praise for touches of warmth and persistent, serious operational failures makes the overall reliability hard to rely upon.

Practical due diligence should precede any commitment. Prospective families should verify medication handling procedures, exact staffing ratios, and the availability of a trained nurse or clinician on-site for urgent needs. Inspect privacy controls in resident rooms, confirm whether a refrigerator or stove is accessible for personal use, and test the call system during visits. Seek recent inspection reports and a transparent incident- and corrective-action process. Speak with current residents and families about what a typical day looks like, and request a detailed, written care plan with milestones and emergency protocols. The aim is to separate hopeful impressions from verifiable, ongoing practices.

Bottom line: this community represents a high-stakes choice. If the priority is a tightly run operation with dependable safety, privacy, and medication management, stronger alternatives should be pursued. If the decisionmaker can insist on concrete improvements, enforce measurable standards, and maintain an exit option if needed, there remains a place for a home-like setting in the mix. For a resident who thrives on companionship and a responsive, hands-on environment, and for a family prepared to stay closely involved, the setting can offer meaningful connection and continued development, but the risk of suboptimal daily care remains a decisive consideration.

Cafes

• Jitters (0.2 miles)
• Starbucks (0.4 miles)
• Blondies Espresso (1.3 miles)
• Starbucks (8.6 miles)
• Caffé D'arte Alaska (9.8 miles)
• Arctic Grounds Coffee Company (11.2 miles)
• Kaladi Brothers Coffee (11.4 miles)

Pharmacies

• Family Pharmacy (0.3 miles)
• Walgreens (0.6 miles)
• Walmart Pharmacy (1.3 miles)
• Fred Meyer Pharmacy (1.5 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (8.8 miles)
• Walgreens (9.6 miles)
• Allegiance Health Care (11 miles)

Physicians

• Eagle River Pain & Wellness (0.3 miles)
• True North Medicine (0.3 miles)
• Acute Family Medicine Clinic (0.4 miles)
• Meadow Creek Dermatology (0.4 miles)
• Acute Family Medicine (0.4 miles)
• Center For Natural Medicine (0.4 miles)
• Chugach Family Medicine Clinic (0.6 miles)

Places of Worship

• St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (0.3 miles)
• Action By Faith Eagle River (0.3 miles)
• Embassy Christian Center (0.4 miles)
• St Andrew Catholic Church (0.5 miles)
• Love of Eagle River, Alaska - Love In the Name of Christ (0.6 miles)
• Eagle River Seventh-Day Church (0.6 miles)
• Southern Baptist Convention (1 miles)

Restaurants

• Domino's Pizza (0.4 miles)
• McDonald's (0.5 miles)
• Taco Bell (0.7 miles)
• New China Chinese Restaurant (0.7 miles)
• Carl's Jr. (0.8 miles)
• EL Pastor (0.8 miles)
• Tips Bar (0.8 miles)

Parks

• Chugach State Park (1.4 miles)
• Peters Creek Community Park (6.7 miles)
• Little Dipper Park (10.3 miles)
• The Polar Bear Park (10.4 miles)
• Chugach State Park (11 miles)
• Thunder Bird Falls (11 miles)

Transportation

• MVT Transportation (4.3 miles)
• Elmendorf Airport (EDF) (9 miles)
• Elmendorf Flight Line (9.1 miles)

Hospitals

• JBER Dental Clinic (8.3 miles)
• JBER Hospital (8.4 miles)
• Alaska Va Healthcare System (8.4 miles)
• Alaska Department Of Veterans Affairs - VA Hospital (8.5 miles)
• North Star Behavioral Health System Hospital (11.3 miles)

Theaters

• Regal Tikahtnu IMAX & RPX (8.7 miles)