snowbird rentals near GOOD medical areas.

so, my now 80 year old parents have been going south from montana every winter for many years. evolved from pulling a fifth wheel to owning a park model home, in the wellton area east of yuma about 40 miles. dad always said he did not want ever to be in the yuma hospital, and when he came home last spring made a lot of noise about selling out. friends had died off or were unable to make it az., and a couple of immediate care or emergency room trips to yuma had convinced them the little hospital there was overwhelmed, both with snowbirds, and with our neighbors to the south coming there to have u.s. citizen babies. they are both getting frailer and frailer.

they did not sell out, but again went south, the day after christmas, travelling for three days, and then staying in laughlin for three days, through new years eve. 6 days of traveling, after the busyness of the holidays, too much for dad, and so on about 7th he wound up in the yuma hospital, with pneumonia. got out yesterday, is going to sell out and probably come home early.

if he makes it to next winter, he will want to go south, to an apartment rental. would want somewhere he could play some poker a few days a week, but now the priority probably will be somewhere where the medical community is not as overwhelmed as they are in yuma. he is not a model patient, but probably pretty typical of demanding senior patients who feel they payed for their medicare and expect top level treatment. you can roll your eyes, i do, but that is the case.

they are not going to be doing this enough more years to buy anything, nor do they have the financial ability to do a top end transitional facility, so they need a 3 or 4 month rental in a town that might be able to better care for them in the almost sure situation that they would need medical care.

hard to see them get to this stage, but would love to hear anyone's opinions of laughlin, henderson, mesquite, bullhead city, or anywhere else i am not thinking of.?

thanks.

 

We didn't use hospital care while in Vegas, but it was our experience that the medical community is terribly understaffed. If you needed to see a specialist, there were months long waiting lists.

The terms Vegas and good medical care, don't really go together.

Just one example:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-22/doctor-shortage-spreading-in-u-s-presaged-in-las-vegas.html

 

Florida........

 

lake Havasu city

Check out Lake Havasu, lots of good rentals there.

As to to the poker, there might be some poker rooms in town. The only casino I know of is across the lake and I do not know if they have a poker room.

I have always liked Laughlin as a place to stay. Good bus service to the casinos from town. Fair number of condos that rent out places.

 

Sun City AZ, Sun City West and or Sun City Grand -

Available furnished rentals - caters to a population that they know will be there each year - lots of doctors and hospitals

My dad lives there full time and loves it.

 

thanks for the replies so far, they are appreciated. have some followup questions...

my dad does like the laughlin area, what are the medical facilities there? do patients for pneumonia, for instance, need to get to phoenix for care, or is there a hospital there?

i know the phoenix area would probably be the top for medical care, out a ways where there might be a native casino might be best, was not aware a person could rent much in a sun city type place for a three month term, is that sort of thing possible?

thanks!

 

If I were in need of medical services on vacation, and I couldn't get a hold of my regular MD to recommend someone, I would go to the nearest teaching hospital.

Here is a decent article that explains UMC change to a teaching hospital designation.

They rank average in patient satisfaction compared to other US hospitals.

Good luck to your folks!

 

no hospital in laughin itself

Kitson a quick search showed two hospitals in Bullhead city and one each in Needles and Kingman.

Probably not good for your parents need.

I know there are good hospital's in Lake Havasu.

 

My father in law does a 3 month rental every year - Jan 15 - April 15

They have a men's club at Sun City West where there is a cheap poker game going every single day - lots of other games and not just Holdem

 

Sun City, Surprise, Scottsdale... the Phoenix area is a good choice. My cousin is a just about done with her nursing program and she is looking to relocate from Vegas to Scottsdale because healthcare is world's better. Newer technology, better equipment, experienced specialty doctors and support staff.

Laughlin has no medical of its own. You'd have to go to Bull Head City for services and choices are pretty minimal. My husband lived in Laughlin for a short time, while there he had sciatica. He had to come to Vegas for care.

 

This is the first year in I think 25+ that my stepgrandparents (mid-90s) haven't stayed in Bullhead City for the winter. They are finally too unwell to be away from home (or, to make the drive from northern Illinois) I don't know their experiences with medical care there, but they definitely enjoyed it - he plays poker, she plays VP...

 

thank you all for the very helpful answers, it seems clear that nearer to phoenix fit my parents needs best, it is almost inevitable that one or the other would need care sometime during the winter.

it is helpful to know, both for my parents and later on, hopefully, for me, that there are 3 month rentals available in places like sun city west. my preliminary investigation into retirement communities got me in touch with salesmen, who led me to believe that 6 months or a year might be possible, but they really wanted to sell me something. would i be correct in assuming that the older the development, and i would consider the sun cities to be some of the first of the type, have had an aging first wave of residents and now are more flexible in getting renters into some of the homes?

are there some rental management companies that have sprung up catering to renting senior owned homes in those communities that the original owners do not wish to sell yet, or have the real estate sales companies that come with the developments taken over that kind of service??

 

Senior rentals

Kitson, All you have to is choose a location and look for rentals in Senior gated communities.
There are some large rental companies in senior communities and there are
Real Estate agents that do have senior rentals.

I have a friend who chose to rent a condo in Hemet, Calif for a few months.

Then she decided to rent at Laguna Woods Properties. She contacted a real
estate agent. She rented a condo for one year and then decided to buy a
cheap condo for $250,000. She decided to join Kaiser Medical Center and
Hospital. She loves Kaiser. I heard that Kaiser is great for seniors.

 

Laguna Woods is great, but it is Orange County so expect to pay some serious $$$ when compared to AZ or NV. Also it would be a little trek to find a poker game.

 

Palm Springs, Calif.

Palm Springs is filled with retired seniors who demand the best medical services. Lots of snow birds too. There are several casinos in the area.
I plan to retire there when I get to be in my 80's. Humm....maybe sooner.
I love their beautiful mountains and when it gets too hot I can go up to the
snow moutain and cool off.lol. Lucy