Augustana Emerald Crest III in Minnetonka, MN

Pros

• The staff treat residents with respect and dignity beyond expectations.
• Visitors are always welcomed.
• The staff make families feel like part of the family.
• The pastor, Arlen, is loving and compassionate with all residents.
• Emerald Crest Minnetonka is a beautiful, peaceful, and loving place for loved ones.
• Emerald Crest Minnetonka has been a wonderful placement for a resident’s mom.
• The facility provides 24-hour care and the caretakers are wonderful.
• The programs for the mind, music therapies, and entertainment are available.
• The facility has its own pastor who visits weekly.
• The homes are all on one level with twelve residents per house.

Cons

• Emerald Crest Memory Care is like a prison for the elderly.
• A relative starved themselves to death at this facility because they were so depressed and had no control over their life.
• A family member forced the relative into care against their will.
• The relative had no way to call out to talk to people.
• Other residents would enter the relative's room, trying to take things.
• Staff didn't monitor everyone.
• The relative became depressed and lost their appetite; they grew so weak they couldn't eat without assistance.
• Staff would push a tray of food into the room and leave, not helping the relative eat or drink.
• The relative lost their will to live because the person entrusted with decisions wanted to put them away, and they benefited financially.
• The facility is understaffed and the manager is heartless.
• People are locked in the building; visitors cannot exit without staff assistance.
• The staff were hard to reach for assistance throughout the day.
• A resident fell, didn’t receive timely assistance, and died within a week.
• The meals were not as claimed, often not suitable to eat, with many served as bologna sandwiches.

Review

Emerald Crest III in Minnetonka is best suited for memory-care residents who crave a home-like, small-house environment where staff form close, ongoing relationships and spiritual life is integrated into daily routines. The three-house model, each house with about a dozen residents and all on one level, creates an intimate, manageable setting that supports steady supervision and predictable rhythms. Families prioritizing dignity, respectful treatment, and strong, personal contact with caregivers will often find the fit here, as will those who value pastoral support and structured memory-care programming as part of daily life. Those who want ironclad staffing levels, immediate, around-the-clock responsiveness, or aggressive safety measures may want to consider alternatives.

Praises consistently center on the human side of care. Residents are described as treated with dignity, and families feel genuinely welcomed and supported. The staff are portrayed as caring, responsive, and capable of forming a sense of family around residents. A dedicated pastor and meaningful spiritual programming anchor the day for many residents, and music therapies and cognitive activities add mental engagement. The small-house, intimate layout, the hallmark of Emerald Crest III, supports neighborly interaction and frequent staff contact, while 24-hour care helps ensure that help is available when needed. For families who value a loving, community-oriented atmosphere, these positives form a meaningful counterweight to the facility’s more challenging notes.

However, the picture is decisively mixed in other reviews. Understaffing and uneven availability of staff are recurring concerns, with several accounts describing difficulty obtaining timely assistance or even feeling locked in at times. A harsh memory-care experience is mentioned by at least one family, including allegations of neglective practices, meals that did not meet needs, and safety gaps that culminated in a resident’s death following delays in help. The doors being described as locked and staff responsiveness as inconsistent have been cited as serious safety red flags. Food quality and overall daily responsiveness appear to fluctuate, which matters greatly in a memory-care setting where routine and trust are essential.

Those pros and cons intersect in meaningful ways. When staff are present, engaged, and approachable, the small-house model and the integrated spiritual program can significantly offset concerns about staffing by providing steady, familiar faces and a sense of belonging. The continuity of care in a three-house progression, from initial memory-care needs to more advanced stages, can help families feel that their loved one is in a setting attuned to the trajectory of memory loss, with specialized programming and a consistent care team. Yet the most troubling reports, loss of independence through restricted access, delayed assistance during critical moments, and questions about safety management, can erode trust quickly and elevate risk, especially for families balancing reliability and safety with beloved routines.

Alternatives should be considered by families prioritizing rapid response times, rigorous staffing standards, and transparent safety practices. If continuous, unambiguous supervision is nonnegotiable, or if there is a history of wandering risks, consider facilities with higher staff-to-resident ratios and stronger incident-tracking cultures. Prospective residents who require a consistently open environment, where exits are not restricted and intervention is immediate, may find a better fit elsewhere. Additionally, families wary of mixed experiences across shifts, or who require highly consistent culinary standards and daily care, may want to compare other campuses with uniform ratings and more predictable day-to-day execution.

Practical steps sharpen the decision. Schedule in-person tours and ask pointed questions about staff coverage by shift, the process for emergencies, and how meals are planned and served. Speak directly with current residents and their families about typical response times, safety practices, and how the memory-care progression is managed across the three houses. Request recent activity logs, incident reports, and inspection results, and verify contract terms, especially regarding staffing commitments and care-plan updates. If possible, visit at different times of day to observe interactions, meals, and the level of staff presence. When values align, dignity, spiritual enrichment, intimate care, and reliable safety, Emerald Crest III can be a compassionate home; when they do not, alternatives deserve a careful, priority place in the decision process.