Overall sentiment across the reviews is sharply mixed, with a clear polarization between highly positive experiences and serious negative incidents. Several reviewers praised Sterling Care at Frostburg Village for strong therapy services, attentive and pleasant staff, clean grounds, active social programming, and a helpful admissions office. Those positive accounts emphasize excellent occupational and physical therapy (including frequent, well-equipped therapy areas and multiple trained therapists), responsive clinical teams that corrected medications and ordered appropriate lab work, dignified handling at end of life, and a small, homelike environment with independent living options.
However, an alarming number of negative reports describe significant lapses in basic nursing care and staff training. Specific and serious allegations include residents being left in bed for hours without water, not being fed regularly, being left soiled, and being transferred without proper privacy protections. Several reviews described nurses as not attentive or dismissive, and some families needed to monitor care closely or involve social workers to restore responsiveness. One reviewer reported an untrained aide performing a “naked transfer” using only a transfer belt, raising both training and dignity concerns. These accounts suggest inconsistent care quality that may vary by unit, shift, or individual staff members.
Staff and management impressions vary by reviewer. Positive comments highlight polite, informative nurses and caregivers who respond to questions and care needs, as well as a “fabulous” admissions office and social work involvement that helped resolve problems for some families. Conversely, other reviewers reported unresponsiveness and dismissive attitudes and said they had to escalate issues to get appropriate attention. The pattern that emerges is that clinical responsiveness can be good when staff are engaged or when family/social work intervention occurs, but it can also slip to serious neglect when oversight is lacking.
Facility and environment feedback is similarly mixed. Multiple reviewers describe the facility as clean, well-kept, and pleasant with attractive grounds and plenty of activities and game rooms. Yet other reviewers reported an older, poorly maintained environment with old furniture, peeling paint, and missing handles, along with an atmosphere some called “horrid.” Independent living options were noted (and that residents can leave if in good health), but a limitation mentioned is the lack of in-room showers in independent living apartments. This again points to variability in different parts of the campus and potential deferred maintenance in some areas.
Dining and programming show the same split: several reviews praise impressive meals and individualized diet plans, while others report disgusting or cold food. Activities are cited positively by those who felt the community provided plenty of engagement options. Therapy is one of the most consistently positive themes—multiple reviewers credited the therapy teams with meaningful functional gains and even prolonged life in at least one case.
Taken together, the reviews indicate a facility that can deliver excellent rehabilitation, compassionate end-of-life care, and a pleasant environment, but that also has recurring and serious lapses in basic nursing care, staff training, and consistent management oversight. The dominant pattern is variability: outcomes and daily experience appear to depend heavily on which staff are on duty, how actively families or social workers advocate, and possibly which unit a resident is in.
Recommendations for prospective residents or family members based on these patterns: tour multiple times and observe different shifts if possible; ask specifically about nurse staffing ratios, staff training procedures, and incident reporting/response processes; inquire about therapy staffing and schedules (a clear strength); ask how the facility prevents and addresses neglect claims and how families are notified of care issues; review maintenance standards for the areas you will use; and consider arranging initial close oversight (or an advocate) during admissions and early stay to confirm expected standards of care. Where the reviews highlight strong practices—therapy, admissions, and some compassionate caregivers—those could be substantial benefits if the facility’s management consistently enforces training and oversight to eliminate the types of neglect reported by other families.
