Overall impression: Reviews for Excelcare at Lewes (Breakwater Village following a name/ownership change) are strongly mixed, with a recurring pattern of highly praised frontline staff and several alarming reports of inconsistent clinical care, cleanliness, and management issues. Many families express deep gratitude for specific nurses, CNAs, and admitting/liaison staff who provided compassionate, patient-centered care — several individuals are singled out repeatedly by name for going above and beyond. At the same time, a substantial minority of reviews recount serious lapses in care, delayed responses, and environmental concerns that materially affected resident safety and family trust.
Care quality and clinical patterns: A dominant theme is variability. Numerous accounts describe excellent, attentive nursing and aides who form family-like relationships with residents, provide strong communication to families, and support rehabilitative goals. Rehab/PT teams are praised in multiple reviews for helping patients progress. Conversely, other reviews document missed therapy, medication errors or lost medications, delayed physician attention, premature discharges, and situations that led to emergency room visits or hospital readmission. Several families explicitly described a resident's condition worsening while at the facility or outcomes they considered avoidable. Call light delays (some reports up to eight hours), slow responses to basic needs, and inconsistent one-on-one care were repeatedly noted — these are serious patterns that affect the overall safety and clinical reliability of the facility.
Staffing, culture, and communication: Staffing is a bifurcated theme: reviewers frequently praise dedicated, compassionate staff and name clinicians who provide exceptional support, emotional comfort, and strong family communication (examples include Loretta, Lora, Nurse Mary, Jacquline, Beth, Rebecca, Izzy, Elisa, and Pam Graham). However, other reviewers described understaffing, perceived lack of training or clinical assessment skill among some staff, rude or unprofessional behavior, and poor coordination between shifts or with upper management. Multiple reports call out weak communication from administration, and some families filed complaints after experiencing insufficient follow-up. The facility's recent ownership/name change is mentioned several times—some reviewers see positive changes and upgrades under new ownership, while others remain concerned about instability and inconsistent management practices.
Facilities, cleanliness, and environment: Physical environment feedback is likewise mixed. Positive comments highlight spacious, semi-private rooms, in-room bathrooms, attractive grounds, quiet protected outdoor spaces, and a home-like central living area. The building is described as having a pleasant location and peaceful atmosphere. Contrastingly, several reviews report cleanliness and maintenance problems: dirty rooms, sticky floors, dirty bathrooms/showers, dead bugs, brown water, ripped bed sheets, missing towels, and an overall "ragged around the edges" feeling. Multiple reviewers mention the building and furniture are older and could use cosmetic refreshes such as paint and updated equipment; some note that upgrades are in progress. Laundry system problems are reported, contributing to dissatisfaction for some families.
Dining and activities: Activity programming and social opportunities are frequently cited as strengths. Reviewers mention active engagement, bingo, cards, and staff encouragement to participate; activities staff are considered dedicated by many. Dining feedback is split: several reviews compliment appetizing meals and good food service, but others report cold, inedible food and inconsistent meal quality. These mixed reports suggest dining experiences may vary by shift, meal, or unit.
Safety and concerning incidents: Several reviews describe acute safety concerns that warrant attention: patients left unattended or found without dignity-restoring coverings, smell of marijuana in the parking lot, medication mishandling, reports of brown water and dead bugs, and at least one account of a nurse dismissing an issue that later resulted in an ER visit. Families reported long waits for clinical attention and failures in discharge planning that may have contributed to clinical decline or readmission. While many families explicitly stated they felt their loved ones were safe and well-cared for, repeated serious complaints from other families create a clear red flag about inconsistent safety practices.
Management, transitions, and fees: Reviews note management and administrative variability. Some families praise top-notch management and positive changes since new ownership, with visible improvements and a patient-first focus. Others describe "upper management nightmares," poor inter-staff communication, lack of follow-up, and concern over a high upfront ambulance fee. The facility's name change/ownership transition is a recurring context for both optimism (upgrades and new leadership) and worry (growing pains, inconsistent policy enforcement).
Bottom line and notable patterns: The single most consistent positive across reviews is the presence of individual staff members who provide compassionate, empathetic, and attentive care — many family members explicitly attribute improved quality of life or comfort at end-of-life to these caregivers. The most consistent negatives are variability and inconsistency: in clinical care, therapy provision, cleanliness, responsiveness, and management communication. These contradictions mean experiences can range from "excellent, family-like care" to "unsafe or neglectful" depending on unit, staff on duty, or recent administrative changes.
Implications for families and facility priorities: For prospective families, the reviews suggest the value of a focused in-person tour that inspects room cleanliness, asks about staffing ratios, therapy availability, call-button response times, laundry procedures, and recent ownership changes. For the facility, priorities based on these reviews should include standardizing clinical protocols (medication handling, call response), improving housekeeping and maintenance, clarifying discharge and follow-up procedures, addressing laundry/linen reliability, and improving upper-management communication and oversight to reduce variability. If these operational issues are addressed while preserving the strong culture of compassionate caregivers many reviewers praise, the facility could better align its consistently positive interpersonal strengths with reliable, safe clinical care.
