Sandalwood Creek

    5485 Smiths Creek Rd, Smiths Creek, MI 48074
    • Assisted Living
    • Memory Care

    Warm staff, clean, caring community

    I'm very pleased with Sandalwood Creek - the community is clean and home-like, the manager and staff are warm, attentive and accommodating, and meals and activities (including one-on-one attention) are good. My mom is settling in and happy; it's a convenient, caring memory-care option I can recommend.

    Loved one of resident
    Jul 2026

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    Reviews

    4.00·(20)

    Overall rating

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

      3.8
    • Staff

      3.9
    • Meals

      3.0
    • Amenities

      3.2
    • Value

      4.5

    Pros

    • Caring, attentive staff
    • Personalized one-on-one care
    • Home-like, relaxed atmosphere
    • Clean and well-kept common areas
    • Spacious, pleasant dining area
    • In-room physician option
    • Assistance with bathing, laundry, and shopping
    • Convenient location for families
    • Affordable value for level of care
    • Friendly resident community and socialization
    • Responsive phone communication
    • Scheduled outings and outdoor activities

    Cons

    • Inconsistent cleanliness and maintenance across units
    • Variable staff professionalism and presentation
    • Low staffing levels and high employee turnover
    • Limited or inconsistent activity programming and resident engagement
    • Restrictive secured-memory-care exit and visitation policies
    • Administrative and family-communication gaps
    • Outdated private rooms and limited in-room amenities
    • Laundry handling and room-housekeeping lapses
    • Limited availability and capacity constraints

    Summary of reviews

    Overall impression: Reviews present a mixed but instructive picture. Many families and visitors describe a small, home-like community where staff form close personal relationships with residents and deliver compassionate, individualized attention. At the same time, several operational and physical-plant concerns recur across accounts: maintenance and housekeeping inconsistencies, dated private rooms, and variability in staff presentation and professionalism.

    Care and staff: Strengths include attentive caregivers who provide one-on-one support, know residents personally, and are helpful with bathing, laundry and daily needs. Multiple accounts emphasize warmth, compassion, and reliable interpersonal communication by certain staff members. However, reviewers also describe uneven staffing levels, notable turnover, and episodes of unclear or slow communication with families. These patterns suggest the facility can deliver strong personal care but may suffer intermittent capacity and coordination challenges that affect consistency.

    Dining and support services: The dining area is frequently described as roomy and pleasant, and several reviewers commented positively on meals and basic housekeeping in common areas. The community provides practical support such as shopping assistance and an in-room physician option, which can be valuable for families seeking on-site clinical access. At the same time, some reviews highlight laundry left in common spaces and housekeeping shortfalls in private rooms, indicating variation in service execution.

    Activities and socialization: Accounts diverge on programming. Some describe active schedules with many activities, supervision for residents who do not participate, and occasional outings. Others note limited programming, low resident engagement, and common-room scenes of passive TV-watching. The secured memory-care unit is characterized as a locked environment with restricted unaided egress; this arrangement may suit residents requiring higher supervision but also limits spontaneous mobility and requires family members to understand escort policies.

    Facilities and management: Physical-condition reports range from "very clean/spotless" common areas to comments about outdated rooms that lack kitchenettes, TVs, or modern furnishings. Administrative observations include an untidy office area and recommendations to push for clearer communication from staff and management. Visitation practices have been affected by infection-control measures (including COVID-related shutdowns in the past), and some families experienced limits on visiting during those periods; prospective residents and families should confirm current visitation and infection-control policies.

    Notable patterns and recommendation: Sandalwood Creek tends to be a good fit for families prioritizing close personal caregiving, affordability, and a homelike setting within a convenient location. Conversely, it may be less suitable for those seeking consistently modern private accommodations, robust activity programming, or continuously high staffing stability. Before committing, prospective residents and families should tour multiple times, review current staffing and activity schedules, inspect private-room housekeeping and maintenance, and clarify visitation and secured-unit policies to ensure alignment with care and lifestyle expectations.

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    Location

    Map showing location of Sandalwood Creek

    Sandalwood Creek is located at 5485 Smiths Creek Rd, Smiths Creek, MI, 48074.

    About Sandalwood Creek

    Sandalwood Creek sits on a quiet country property and offers a small group home setting with space for up to six residents, and the place is secure so folks with memory issues or a tendency to wander can stay safe, and you'll find the secured memory care section in its own building, which has bracelets that ring alarms if someone tries to leave. The community provides both assisted living and memory care, and it's designed for seniors who want independence but might need help with things like bathing, dressing, or taking medicine, and there's twenty-four-hour supervision by staff who know how to work with memory loss, cognitive decline, and behaviors that can come with those issues. All the rooms-studio, semi-private, and even some two-bedrooms-sit on the ground floor, and every room's got wheelchair-accessible showers, air conditioning, and cable TV. Residents get three meals each day, with options for those who need low-sodium or no-sugar diets, along with snacks and community dining.

    Every resident gets a personalized care plan, and the staff can help with medications, incontinence, diabetes care, and assisted transfer-even using mechanical lifts if needed, and the team includes nurses on staff and a doctor on call, plus physical, occupational, and speech therapists that come in along with visits from a podiatrist and dentist. They've got an onsite pharmacy, skilled nursing, and offer hospice if a resident needs it. Laundry, housekeeping, and dry cleaning get taken care of, and there's a beauty salon and barber on site for haircuts or grooming. The community's designed with indoor and outdoor common spaces, so there's a TV lounge, recreation rooms, an arts and crafts area, a recreation area with a piano or organ, and lots of areas to just sit or visit-plus outdoor patios, gardens, and walking paths around the grounds. Residents can move in with pets sometimes, and the place is wheelchair-friendly throughout, and families can park nearby with uncovered spots available.

    Sandalwood Creek runs many activities onsite like game nights, cooking clubs, BBQs, picnics, birthday parties, holiday celebrations, and even musical groups formed by residents, and they hold Protestant services and offer devotional activities. The staff encourages residents to stay independent and involved, but they're always ready to help with personal care needs. Folks can come for respite, too, staying for a short time if family needs extra help or just a break, and the home can take residents with more care needs as time goes on so they don't have to move. Payment is by check, and the facility's licensed by the state as an Adult Small Group Home, but it's not Medicare- or Medicaid-certified. Residents at Sandalwood Creek are treated with dignity and respect and get to enjoy a warm, caring place that's been serving seniors with assisted living, respite, and memory care since 1997.

    People often ask...

    Sandalwood Creek offers assisted living and memory care.

    There are 19 photos of Sandalwood Creek on Mirador.

    The full address for this community is 5485 Smiths Creek Rd, Smiths Creek, MI 48074.

    No, Sandalwood Creek does not offer respite care. Respite care in assisted living communities provides temporary, short-term relief for primary caregivers by offering professional care for their loved ones. It allows individuals to stay in an assisted living community for a limited time, giving caregivers a break while ensuring residents receive necessary support and assistance with daily activities.

    Safety & Compliance

    In Michigan, the Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs (LARA) licenses adult foster care homes and homes for the aged, conducting renewal inspections and complaint investigations and publishing the resulting reports.

    License numberAS740408376
    StatusActive
    Facility typeAdult Small Group Home (capacity 1-6)
    License classRegular
    Capacity6 residents
    LicenseeRSR Creek LLC
    Care servedAged, Alzheimer's, Developmentally Disabled, Physically Handicapped
    EffectiveNovember 16th, 2024
    ExpiresNovember 15th, 2026
    View the official license record

    Inspection Reports

    7

    Reports

    11

    Citations

    0

    Complaints

    5

    Years

    13 Dec 2025Investigation
    Identified a disapproved Fire Safety rating by the Bureau of Fire Services due to several deficiencies. The deficiencies included a fire alarm panel in trouble, missing annual fire alarm and fire suppression inspections, missing emergency lighting testing documentation, nonworking exit signs, and a missing fire watch log.
    • R 400.647Safety and maintenance of premises
    07 Oct 2025Investigation
    Identified a resident sleeping in a recliner due to no bed, medication logging issues, and missing weekly menus.
    • R 400.15313(4)Menus
    • R 400.15312(2)Resident medications
    • R 400.15410Bedroom furnishings
    15 Nov 2024Renewal
    Confirmed substantial compliance with licensing statutes and rules; license renewed.
    23 Jun 2024Investigation
    Identified two violations: morphine stored in an unlocked fridge and boxes of medication in the administrator's office, and medications not administered as prescribed with constipation treatment for one resident not given.
    • R 400.15312Resident medications
    • R 400.15312Resident medications
    21 May 2024Renewal
    Identified violations related to staff training, hot water temperature, food service cleanliness, and maintenance of living spaces.
    • R 400.14203Licensee and administrator training requirements
    • R 400.15401Environmental health - hot water temperature
    • R 400.15402Food service equipment cleanliness
    • R 400.15403Maintenance of premises - condition (1)
    • R 400.15403Maintenance of premises - condition (5)
    29 Nov 2021Initial
    Identified substantial compliance with licensing requirements and issued a temporary license with a capacity of six.
    29 Nov 2021Initial
    Identified substantial compliance and issued a temporary license with a maximum capacity of 18.

    Disclaimer

    Mirador Living is not affiliated with the owner or operator(s) of Sandalwood Creek. The information above has not been verified or approved by the owner or operator. For exact information, please contact Sandalwood Creek directly. There is no cost for this service. We are compensated by the community you select.

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