Overall sentiment in these reviews is mixed but leans positive around the staff and facility environment while raising significant and recurring concerns about staffing levels, safety, and dining. A dominant theme is that many families and residents experience warm, compassionate, and individualized care from employees: reviewers repeatedly note that staff are kind, caring, know residents by name, and create a small, family-like atmosphere. Multiple comments praise specific staff roles (nursing, therapy, admissions) and leadership (Director Tega, the administrator), calling out effective physical therapy, quick medical responses (for example, a portable oxygen tank provided quickly), and private rooms. The building itself is frequently described as clean, well-maintained, and home-like, with at least one reviewer explicitly noting no urine odor in their wing and thorough cleaning practices.
Despite the positive personal care and environment, several serious concerns recur across reviews and should not be overlooked. The most prominent negative pattern is chronic understaffing and low staff-to-patient ratios: reviewers describe few, overworked employees and mention low pay as a possible cause. This understaffing is linked to concrete safety and responsiveness problems — for example, an unanswered call button for 40 minutes, a patient fall from a bed that reportedly had no bed rails, and instances where patients were left alone in wheelchairs without seat belts or nearby help. These incidents point to potential systemic issues with monitoring and timely assistance, and they contrast sharply with the individual praise many staff members receive.
Dining and nutrition emerge as another area of consistent concern. Multiple reviewers report that meals are often cold, not tailored to individual chewing or dietary needs, and heavy on starches such as bread and pasta. Specific examples include pizza that was not suitable for a resident who had trouble chewing and no substitutions being offered, and criticism of frequent processed, high-sodium meats. While some families might tolerate these issues given other positives, the combination of inadequate meal accommodations and understaffing (which can affect feeding assistance) raises quality-of-care questions for residents with specialized dietary needs.
Activity programming and daily engagement also receive negative notes: reviewers state that advertised activities were not actually provided. This ties back into staffing — when employees are stretched thin, nonessential services such as social programming are often the first to be reduced. Meanwhile, other operational/process concerns appear in the reviews: an exit procedure that uses a daily-changing keypad with no front-desk coverage was mentioned as potentially inconvenient or insecure, and some reviewers described patient rooms as small or cramped. Importantly, there is a mix of strong endorsements (“highly recommend,” “best place in town,” “family-like care”) alongside harsh criticism (“not recommended,” “worst nursing home in Putnam county,” “food is horrible”), indicating variability in experience that may depend on timing, shift, or specific staff members.
In summary, Hickory Creek at Sunset appears to offer many strengths typically associated with small, community-oriented nursing facilities: caring, attentive staff who form close relationships with residents; a clean, home-like environment; effective therapy and recovery services in some cases; and helpful leadership and admissions staff. However, these positives are tempered by repeated reports of understaffing and staffing-related consequences — delayed responses to call buttons, safety lapses such as lack of bed rails and unattended wheelchair-bound residents, insufficient activity programming, and inconsistent meal quality and dietary accommodations. Prospective residents and families should weigh the strong personal care and intimate setting against the operational vulnerabilities described. If considering this facility, ask management specific questions about current staffing ratios, how they handle fall prevention and call-response times, their protocols for feeding and dietary substitutions, and measures to ensure consistent programming and security coverage across all shifts.
