Rights to privacy while living in an assisted living facility. How do we bring this up with management?

This is a stickler. Yes, he definitely deserves privacy. But he also has to be safe.

I can't blame the staff member totally. There may be regulations in place that the staff have to see the residents with their own eyes, to make sure they're okay.

Let's say this incident was a different outcome... your father fell in the shower, or had a medical emergency, and couldn't call for help. If that had been the situation (thank God it wasn't), you'd be glad someone walked in when there was no response. Better to risk a "whoops" than someone not get help.

If your father has some sort of schedule, like say he showers around 9:00AM, this can be made known to the staff so they won't knock at the time and wait until he's out and ready.

My had this exact problem. I had to finally read him the riot act on this one. He became quite paranoid about the entry of staff in his ALF. He was level one on care, meaning basically self care. But yes, in ALF if there is no answer, they WILL walk in and check if they suspect there is a reason the person is unable to answer. As you can imagine, there are falls. Frequently. The staff at Dee's facility were kind, and they had it all over the care plan please not to enter without permission unless there was GOOD reason to suspect injury. All cleaning personnel knew not to dust his place as he feared loss of his last "pretties". They didn't enter or clean unless he was there.
But there was a limit and I had to tell him that. THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE if they suspect it is too long with no answer, or time for medications that are being missed, or someone who isn't at meal without notice and without sign out. I had to tell him that this is the way it is now for him.
The system cannot be perfect for each person's needs. That just isn't how it works. So meet with administrator by phone or zoom, be certain care plan protects his privacy as much as they are able, but ALSO let him know that it will not be perfect, and there will be times they do not get an answer and they check on him.
Wishing you best of luck. Dee was always so cooperative, but he LOATHED that people could enter his premises without his permission.

Moving into Assisted Living means precisely that: the person is in need of assistance. That said, the caregivers knock on the door, then they enter.....to administer medication, to check to make sure the resident is okay, any number of reasons. It goes with the territory of agreeing to reside in Assisted Living. As long as the staff knock before they enter, and stopped when they were told to, they're respecting your dad's privacy and shouldn't be expected to do more, especially considering he's deaf. And, being deaf, how would he hear the phone even if they DID call before they came in? Since your father doesn't want you to mention it to the management, I'd let it go if it were me and save it for something truly important which is likely to come up eventually.

AL living is not perfect; there are issues that WILL come up from time to time, that's for sure. My folks have been in AL since 2014 and I wound up moving them from Brookdale corporate to a private AL after 10 months. To say the chronic BS in Brookdale was insufferable would be an understatement. Not once in 10 months did I receive a correct bill, the food there was literally inedible, the list goes on and on. So finally I gave up and toured some other local ALs and found the privately owned one which I moved them into. It's not perfect either, but it's HEADS above Brookdale in every way imaginable.

As long as you feel your father is getting a good level of basic care, decent food, good accommodations, etc., that is the main thing to focus on in my opinion. If the staff brings him the wrong meds, THAT is a problem! Pick your battles, you know?

Wishing you the best of luck with the new lifestyle in AL~!

I am training myself so rigidly to knock and peep round any door before entering that I find I'm doing it in my own bathroom, in my little house where I live alone.

Calling your father on the phone would just mean that your father (assuming he hears the phone any better than he hears a knock at the door) would have the hassle of going to pick up the phone. I think on balance it would cause him more daily nuisance and intrusion than it would save.

The routine should go:
Knock and wait.
Knock and wait.
Knock, gently open the door part way, and look round it. If there is a naked gentleman in the room, back out and call to announce yourself through the partially open door.

Your father certainly does have a right to privacy and dignity. Perhaps the practical compromise is that if a caregiver known to him glimpses him in his shorts there's no great harm done?

It worries me more that your father is unhappy about something but doesn't like to tell the management. I would URGE him to tell them. They cannot solve a problem they're not aware of. Maybe you could draft a nice memo for him asking the caregivers not to come fully into the apartment until they are sure he knows they're there.

Two other possible ideas:

1. A notice on his door reminding callers that he may not hear a knock, so please be patient and look in to check before entering.
2. A large, loud, old-fashioned bell hung behind the door which will ring whenever anyone opens it.

Attitudes to privacy vary so much! I went to a new client recently, and while I was still washing my hands his wife came steaming out of her bathroom absolutely in the altogether, with her own HCA trailing in her wake with a towel, because the wife had wanted to catch me to update me on her husband before I began his routine. I hope I did manage to look as if it was perfectly normal to have this kind of conversation with a stark naked and dripping wet 90 year old lady I'd never met in my life before - the HCA kept her eyes closed, trying not to laugh I think.

There are doorbells for people with difficulty hearing. The doorbell will cause a light to flash.
A sign on his door might work. If he remembers to place it so that people know he is not available.
If he consistently takes a shower sometime between 6 and 8 am is it possible to tell staff not to enter his room until after that time, or after he has breakfast. That way if he has not come for breakfast by 8 they know there might be a problem.
The problem with any of these is if he does not respond the staff does have a duty to check to make sure everything is alright.
Frankly I would chalk this up to one of the disadvantages to living in Assisted Living. Now if he were in Independent Living I am sure the staff would follow other rules.

Talk to the administration to see what they can do to modify their routine when entering his unit. The AL facility that my mom and dad were in were very good about trying to accommodate resident wishes and preferences. They don't want to fight with their residents or families!

But AL is also a care facility that operates under a lot of regulations. They have to count every fall and when the number exceeds the regs, the resident has to find a higher care level facility. They have to keep everyone safe: if a resident burns their toast, as my dad did once, the smoke alarms go off and the entire residence is subject to evacuation for a potential "fire." That is a MAJOR problem. So the toaster goes away.

If the staff cannot contact the resident, if the resident does not answer the door to the unit, they will come in to do a well being check. They won't wait until the resident finds it convenient. That is the trade off for 24/7 help being available.

Ask about a door bell that could be on entrance door and bath door. They don't require any wriring, just battery. You might buy just one to see if loud enough for him to hear w/out hearing aid.

Or, just talk to management and put a note on the door to remind staff they shouldn't just knock and walk. Give him a little time to answer the door like he would do at home. A cute little sign - I enjoy my privacy. If you knock, please count to 10. I might need to get dressed before letting you in. Thanks.

These places are marketed as "homes" and a lot of people like to believe than but at their very core they are institutions, and the staff who work there have an institutional mindset. A lot of lip service is given to privacy and respect for the people who live there but staff that have to check and/or assist a few dozen people are not going to stand around outside the door waiting to be granted entry or come back multiple times if they aren't granted it, it's not practical. That said it never hurts to remind them of their manners - I can remember visiting my aunt when an aide barged in, announced it was time to remove her patch and the proceeded to root around under her blouse until she found it, that should never have happened! Talk with the admin about this and ask for their take on it and suggestions, a little give and take can often result in a compromise that satisfies.

Put a big note on his door to knock loud before entering.

Or, have your Dad hang a sign out that says Do Not Enter whenever he is taking a Shower.

Inform the Caregivers and Management your Dad's feelings of privacy and that he will have a sign when he doesn't want anyone coming in.

If your father is fully capable of doing this (and remembering to undo it afterwards), one solution would be to have a "do not disturb" sign to hang outside the door, just as is done in a hotel. He would need to be consistent in removing it when he is out of the shower and dressed. This (sometimes!) works in a hotel.