Overall sentiment across the reviews for Park Forest Care Center, Inc. is highly mixed and polarized. Several reviewers describe a warm, lively, and caring environment with attentive nursing leadership, plentiful caregivers for personal care tasks (such as showers), and an overall homelike atmosphere where residents make friends and enjoy activities. These positive accounts emphasize friendly, helpful staff, specific praised employees (e.g., Kelsey), clean conditions in some reports, and residents or visitors describing the facility as a good phase of life or a satisfying long-term placement.
Conversely, a substantial set of reviews raise serious and specific concerns about care quality, safety, facility maintenance, and management. Multiple reviewers allege neglectful practices such as residents being left in urine, not bathed, not fed, and having care tasks skipped. Reports also include poor staff conduct claims (theft of residents' belongings, staff lying, laziness), harassment related to waking patients, and favoritism that may affect care consistency. These complaints are reinforced by allegations of inadequate restorative services and general understaffing or staff being overworked, which reviewers link to missed or rushed care.
Facility and maintenance issues are another recurring theme with large variability: while some reviewers call the center "extremely clean" and note adequate supplies, others report significant problems including roaches, bed bugs, black mold in the basement, holes in floors, and a history of plumbing failures (burst water pipes). This contrast suggests either inconsistent conditions across areas/shifts or changes over time. Dining and nutrition also appear uneven: several reviewers find the meals unappetizing and note a lack of dining-room assistance. Administrative responsiveness is criticized — examples include phone calls not returned, voicemail messages without callbacks, and a perception of disorganization or poor communication from leadership.
Leadership and management receive mixed evaluations that mirror the polarized overall tone. Some visits praised attentive nurse leadership and personable administrators; others accuse the Director of Nursing (DON) and new directors of incompetence or misassignment, and characterize management as uncaring or ineffective. These leadership issues are frequently cited in reviews that describe broader systemic problems (staffing, maintenance, policies). Safety concerns are explicit in some reviews — including statements that the facility is "not safe," allegations of drug-related activity, and theft — which are among the most serious claims and warrant independent verification.
Patterns that emerge from these reviews include strong variability across shifts, units, or time periods, suggesting inconsistent staff performance and/or high turnover. Several positive reviews emphasize staff kindness and active programming, while several negative reviews cite neglect, pest and maintenance problems, and administrative failures. Given the breadth and severity of some complaints (neglect, theft, pests, mold), combined with positive testimony from other residents and visitors, prospective residents and families should treat the facility as one with mixed performance and seek up-to-date, direct verification: tour multiple units at different times of day, ask about staffing ratios, restorative care programs, pest-control and maintenance records, infection-control practices, recent inspection reports, and how management handles complaints and communication (including phone response and callback procedures). Also confirm visitor and entry policies such as COVID vaccination verification if that affects access.
In summary, Park Forest Care Center, Inc. elicits both strong praise for caring staff, active programming, and satisfying long-term experiences, and strong criticism for instances of neglect, safety, maintenance, and management shortcomings. The volume and specificity of negative reports (neglect, pests, theft, poor communication) are significant red flags that should prompt careful, current evaluation by anyone considering placement, while the positive reports indicate that good experiences are possible and may be dependent on specific units, staff members, or timing.
