Oak Knoll Healthcare Center

    9 Arbetter Dr, Framingham, MA, 01701
    3.4 · 73 reviews
    • Assisted living
    • Memory care
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    3.0

    Good rehab but inconsistent management

    I had a mixed experience: many nurses, CNAs, therapists and office staff were compassionate, supportive and responsive, the facility was clean with pleasant grounds, and rehab/therapy and meals were often excellent. However leadership and staffing were inconsistent - poor communication, occasional neglect/hygiene and safety incidents, and management often hard to reach - so I'd recommend it mainly for short-term rehab and only with close family oversight.

    Pricing

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    Amenities

    Healthcare services

    • Activities of daily living assistance
    • Assistance with bathing
    • Assistance with dressing
    • Assistance with transfers
    • Medication management
    • Mental wellness program

    Healthcare staffing

    • 12-16 hour nursing
    • 24-hour call system
    • 24-hour supervision

    Meals and dining

    • Diabetes diet
    • Meal preparation and service
    • Restaurant-style dining
    • Special dietary restrictions

    Room

    • Air-conditioning
    • Cable
    • Fully furnished
    • Housekeeping and linen services
    • Kitchenettes
    • Private bathrooms
    • Telephone
    • Wifi

    Transportation

    • Community operated transportation
    • Transportation arrangement
    • Transportation arrangement (non-medical)

    Common areas

    • Beauty salon
    • Computer center
    • Dining room
    • Fitness room
    • Gaming room
    • Garden
    • Outdoor space
    • Small library
    • Wellness center

    Community services

    • Concierge services
    • Fitness programs
    • Move-in coordination

    Activities

    • Community-sponsored activities
    • Planned day trips
    • Resident-run activities
    • Scheduled daily activities

    3.42 · 73 reviews

    Overall rating

    1. 5
    2. 4
    3. 3
    4. 2
    5. 1
    • Care

      2.6
    • Staff

      3.0
    • Meals

      2.6
    • Amenities

      2.9
    • Value

      3.4

    Pros

    • Clean, well-maintained facility and pleasant grounds
    • Welcoming front desk and reception staff
    • Many compassionate, caring and friendly nurses and CNAs
    • Strong, effective sub-acute rehabilitation program (in many cases)
    • Specific rehab staff repeatedly praised (e.g., Connor, Rachel, Naomi, Mia, Olmy, Lisa)
    • Daily physical therapy for some residents
    • Good coordination of follow-up appointments and transportation
    • On-site hair salon and varied activities program
    • Good, varied meals with multiple choices (reported by many reviewers)
    • Helpful patient advocates and attentive case management/social work when present
    • Safe, comfortable rooms and attractive interior/exterior
    • Some units report excellent communication with families
    • Therapists and rehab team often make patients feel respected and motivated
    • Helpful environmental/kitchen services and pleasant dining areas (in some reports)
    • On-site physician or physician extender noted in several reviews
    • Staff who take extra time to talk and provide emotional support
    • Cleanliness with no odors reported by many reviewers
    • Short-term rehab patients reporting successful recoveries and positive experiences
    • Transportation to appointments and arranged follow-ups
    • Staff described as 'family-like' and trustworthy in multiple reviews

    Cons

    • Chronic understaffing and overworked personnel
    • Severe variability in care quality between shifts/units
    • Agency/temporary aides perceived as less invested
    • Frequent poor communication with families and relatives
    • Management and administration often unresponsive or unavailable
    • Delayed or absent assistance with bathroom/toileting needs
    • Neglect incidents: residents left unattended, soiled clothes/diapers
    • Hygiene problems reported (feces on toilets/rooms, strong odors in some cases)
    • Falls, unreported incidents, delayed ambulance response, and poor incident follow-up
    • Medical oversights: untreated infections (UTIs), bedsores, weight loss
    • Inconsistent or minimal physical therapy in some cases (claims of only ~1 hour/day)
    • Nutrition/diet mistakes and ignored dietary needs; food sometimes served cold
    • Medication issues: forced large pills, only medication passing, incomplete charts
    • No doctor on-site daily; weekend delays and doctor rarely seeing patients
    • Language barriers among aides affecting communication with residents
    • Staff dismissive, cold, or rude in numerous reports
    • Upper-floor or hidden-unit neglect reported repeatedly
    • Misrepresentation of services and billing/amenity problems
    • Staff afraid to assist due to injury risk leading to lack of help
    • Painful or rough procedures reported (e.g., painful finger sticks)
    • Delayed therapy sessions and long waits for care
    • Expulsion or removal of patients with little discharge planning
    • State investigation and elder abuse allegations in some reports
    • Inconsistent infection control practices including COVID-era quarantine concerns
    • Broken furniture, room damage, and maintenance issues on occasion

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment: Reviews for Oak Knoll Healthcare Center are highly mixed and polarized. A sizeable group of reviewers describe excellent short-term rehabilitation experiences, praising the facility’s cleanliness, welcoming environment, compassionate caregivers, strong therapy teams, and successful discharge planning. Another vocal group reports serious and occasionally alarming shortcomings: understaffing, inconsistent care quality, communication breakdowns, hygiene failures, and safety incidents including falls, untreated infections, and alleged elder abuse. The net picture is one of a facility that can provide outstanding, humane rehab and supportive care in some units or shifts, while in others significant lapses in basic nursing care, oversight, and management lead to harm or near-harm.

    Staff and caregiving: The most consistent theme is variability in staff performance. Many reviewers name specific nurses, CNAs, and therapists (for example, Naomi, Mia, Connor, Rachel, Olmy, Lisa and others) who offered compassionate, attentive care and advocacy. These staff are credited with coordinated follow-up, emotional support, and effective rehab that helped patients recover. At the same time, many families describe chronic understaffing and overworked personnel, including reliance on agency or temporary aides who seem less invested. Reports describe aides on personal calls outside residents’ doors, delayed assistance for toileting and water, refusal to check oxygen, rough handling (painful finger sticks, forced pills), and staff who are dismissive or rude. Language barriers among aides are also noted, creating communication problems for some residents.

    Rehabilitation and therapy: Rehabilitation services are one of the facility’s strongest and most frequently praised aspects when they are delivered well. Multiple reviews describe daily physical therapy, highly effective PT staff, good coordination with discharge planning, and positive short-term rehab outcomes. However, other reviews claim that therapy was minimal (around one hour per day), superficial, or not delivered as promised by marketing materials. This inconsistency suggests that rehab quality may depend heavily on which therapists or unit the patient is assigned to, and possibly on staffing levels and timing.

    Clinical care, safety, and outcomes: Several reviewers report serious clinical failings: untreated or late-treated UTIs, bedsores with possible infection, weight loss from uneaten trays ignored, falls (some resulting in head injury), seizures not reported to family, and delayed ambulance transfers. There are multiple accounts of residents left wet or soiled for hours, rooms with fecal contamination, and other hygiene lapses that increase infection risk. Medication and medical oversight issues are also common themes: incomplete charts, lack of daily physician presence, poor weekend coverage, and reports that doctors rarely see patients. A small but significant number of reviewers allege elder abuse, threats, and state investigations. These reports point to systemic risks for medically vulnerable residents, particularly when staffing is low or leadership is absent.

    Facilities, dining, and activities: The physical plant and amenities receive largely positive comments: attractive grounds, clean interiors, a welcoming front desk, on-site hair salon, transportation services, and a range of activities. Many reviewers applaud the food and dining options, noting varied menus and pleasant dining spaces; however, others report cold meals, ignored dietary restrictions, and residents skipping dinner because the dining area was not used or assistance was not available. Accessibility to communal areas is mentioned as restricted in at least one report, and some upper floors are described as neglected or “hidden from public eye,” suggesting uneven attention across the building.

    Management, communication, and administration: A frequent and critical theme is poor communication and perceived administrative unresponsiveness. Families recount unanswered calls, an unavailable administrator, contradictory or false information about services (for example, PT hours), billing or amenity misrepresentations, and a lack of transparency after incidents. Positive reviews point to helpful office staff and responsive administrators in some cases, but the volume of complaints about management suggests inconsistent leadership and accountability. Several reviewers explicitly recommend close family involvement and daily visits due to perceived lapses in advocacy from the facility.

    Patterns and risk factors: The most salient pattern is variability tied to staffing, shifts, and unit allocation. Where dedicated, well-staffed teams and strong therapists are present, care is described as outstanding. Where the facility relies on agency staff, has staffing shortages, or has weak management oversight, care quality drops precipitously — with consequences including neglect, medical complications, and safety incidents. The reviews also repeatedly indicate that problems often surface on weekends, nights, or specific floors, and that families who intervene or secure better staff assignment tend to have better outcomes.

    Bottom line and practical implications: Oak Knoll presents as a facility with strong physical assets and potential for excellent short-term rehabilitation and compassionate care, but with significant and recurring systemic issues around staffing, clinical oversight, hygiene, and management responsiveness. Prospective residents and families should be aware of the polarized experiences: individual units, specific staff members, and shift times appear to make a large difference. If considering Oak Knoll, visitors should tour multiple parts of the building, ask about current staffing levels (including weekend coverage and on-site physician availability), verify promised therapy hours in writing, inquire about infection-control practices and incident reporting, and request contacts for active patient advocates or case managers. Families should also plan for close monitoring during the initial period and consider meeting key staff (nurse manager, therapy lead, administrator) to clarify expectations and escalation pathways.

    Location

    Map showing location of Oak Knoll Healthcare Center

    About Oak Knoll Healthcare Center

    Oak Knoll Healthcare Center in Framingham, MA, has been around for decades and runs as a private, for-profit nursing home with 123 certified beds and an average of 113 residents each day, offering a wide range of services like skilled nursing, rehabilitation therapies-physical, occupational, and speech therapy-plus memory care, independent and assisted living, palliative and hospice care, and respite care for those who need short breaks, all backed by a multidisciplinary team of licensed professionals who give care around the clock. This facility handles everything from pain and wound management to diet counseling and medication monitoring, also offering dental, podiatry, and cardiac, respiratory, and orthopedic rehab support, including specialty care like ventilator management and tracheotomy support, and a cardiopulmonary department for things like bronchial hygiene and pulmonary testing, so no matter the need, most things are covered within their careful approach. Oak Knoll emphasizes personalized care plans for each person, using programs in fall prevention, end-of-life care, dementia management to prevent wandering, as well as being "Sepsis Smart," and aims to create a friendly, supportive climate where staff have a reputation for being helpful, joyful, and kind toward residents and visitors, trying to foster a sense of belonging and comfort.

    The facility's team works hard to keep residents active, with social, physical, and mental activities and nutritious meals made with good ingredients for both taste and balance, plus they offer education for families-like webinars on healthcare planning-and participate in wellness campaigns such as Fight the Flu, while also being involved with groups like the Massachusetts Healthcare Safety and Quality Consortium, and supported by resources for finding care and making transitions smooth through their "Care Transitions" program. Oak Knoll operates under the guidance of Greenleaf VI II Inc since 2013, with ownership by Whittier Healthcare Holdings II Inc and links to Whittier Health Network, while receiving recognition for quality care with awards like Best of Senior Living and Best of Senior Living All Star-even though no place is perfect, the nurse turnover rate sits at 39.2%, which is a little lower than the state average and the nurse staffing level comes out slightly above state average, at about 3.92 nurse hours per resident each day.

    On the other hand, Oak Knoll has had its share of regulatory issues too, having received 43 citations for deficiencies-including 5 for infection control-and during a state inspection in October 2024, surveyors listed 10 total deficiencies, 1 being infection-related, along with past citations for delays in assessment data, misuse of physical restraints, and not always honoring residents' rights to refuse treatment or participate in research. Nevertheless, the facility is accredited by the Joint Commission, keeps a focus on reducing unnecessary antipsychotic use, and works on improving its practices through quality and culture change efforts, while at the same time advocating for fair wages for caregivers and making it a priority to help residents experience a safe and respectful care environment. With a "Sepsis Smart" initiative, pain management, memory care for reducing confusion and wandering, attention to infection controls, community activities, and education on healthcare decisions, Oak Knoll Healthcare Center makes a steady effort to provide many levels of support for seniors with different healthcare needs, whether long-term or short-term.

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