Overall impression: The reviews paint a deeply mixed and highly polarized picture of Carthage Health and Rehabilitation Center. Many reviewers praise individual employees and specific departments—especially CNAs, certain nurses, and the rehabilitation/physical therapy teams—who reportedly provide attentive, effective, and compassionate care that leads to measurable improvement for residents. At the same time, a substantial number of reports describe systemic problems: inconsistent care quality, staffing shortages, unprofessional behavior, and serious cleanliness and safety issues. The result is a facility where resident experience appears to depend heavily on which staff are on duty, which unit a resident is placed in, and the current state of management.
Care quality and safety: A dominant theme is the variability and unpredictability of direct care. Multiple reviewers describe attentive, capable CNAs and therapists who facilitate recovery and independence; conversely, many accounts allege neglectful or dismissive nursing behaviors, missed basic care (residents going days without being cleaned), ignored call lights (one report of a 30-minute unanswered call light), staff preoccupied with phones, and rushed vitals or tasks. Several reviewers reported serious adverse outcomes allegedly tied to these lapses—falls, transfers to the hospital, ambulance calls, and at least one account that attributes a death to facility care. There are also allegations of overmedication or residents being “kept doped,” which compounds concerns about resident agency and appropriate clinical oversight. Multiple reviewers said they reported issues to the state, indicating that some families perceived violations of standards or laws.
Staffing, teamwork, and workplace culture: Reviews show a fractured staff experience. Positive comments cite friendly, helpful staff and leadership that supports residents and staff alike; some reviewers explicitly thanked therapy teams and described administration or a proactive Director of Nursing stepping up to improve care. However, a far larger volume of negative accounts describe understaffing, lack of teamwork, and a hostile work environment — including public humiliation, unfair firings, and reports of harassment or discriminatory behavior. These workplace issues are presented as drivers of poor care: overworked and underpaid frontline staff, low morale, and staff turnover all appear repeatedly. Several reviewers also accused management of being unresponsive to complaints, or of responding only to positive reviews while ignoring substantive problems.
Facilities, cleanliness, and infection control: Cleanliness and maintenance concerns are frequent and often severe in the negative reviews. Complaints include persistent strong odors (urine/feces), dried bodily matter on walls, dirty bedding and clothing, spider webs and insect presence, cockroaches, and even reports of scabies. Physical maintenance problems crop up as well: rundown rooms, broken dressers, cabinets pulled out, and dirty windows. Conversely, some reviewers wrote that housekeeping kept areas looking nice and that there was no odor in the building. The juxtaposition of both extremes reinforces the overall pattern of inconsistency; some areas, shifts, or time periods appear well-maintained while others are reported as filthy and unsafe.
Management, transparency, and communication: A recurring concern is management’s handling of complaints and transparency. Multiple reviewers stated that comments or complaints were deleted and that reviewers were blocked, creating distrust and fear of retaliation. Other reports describe corporate unresponsiveness, rude phone reception, and a sense that administration only addresses positive feedback. On the positive side, there are accounts of new management turning the facility around and of leadership being proactive and helpful. This split suggests recent or uneven management changes and that administrator engagement varies substantially across time or departments.
Rehabilitation, dining, and resident experience: Rehabilitation and therapy receive consistently strong praise across many reviews—outpatient services have been added, and physical therapy is repeatedly labeled excellent and a source of improvement for residents. Dining also has positive mentions: a daily menu with alternatives and several reviewers describing the food as good. Many reviewers emphasize the emotional value of the staff and residents, noting that residents’ happiness and staff-resident relationships are high points, and some long-term residents and employees report satisfaction and gratitude.
Notable patterns and recommendations for prospective families: The most notable pattern is inconsistency. Positive experiences appear to be concentrated around particular employees, therapy programs, or times when leadership and staffing are strong. Negative experiences cluster around understaffed shifts, perceived managerial negligence, and serious cleanliness and safety failures. Reports of deleted complaints, blocked reviewers, and misleading marketing add concerns about transparency. Given these patterns, prospective families should verify current staffing levels, infection-control practices, inspection reports, and how the facility addresses complaints. An in-person tour across multiple times of day, direct conversation with families of current residents, and review of recent state inspection reports would help ascertain whether the positive elements (strong CNAs, effective therapy, improved leadership) are consistent and whether the documented problems (cleanliness, response times, safety incidents) have been remedied.
Bottom line: Carthage Health and Rehabilitation Center elicits strongly divergent reports. The facility has clear strengths—especially in rehabilitation/therapy and among many individual caregivers—but also persistent and serious allegations around staffing shortages, neglectful care, unprofessional behavior, cleanliness and pest problems, and managerial unresponsiveness. These mixed signals mean the facility may offer excellent care under certain conditions but also carries measurable risk of substandard or unsafe experiences depending on timing, staffing, and unit. Families and referral sources should validate the current state of care and oversight before committing, focusing especially on staffing consistency, cleanliness/infection control, safety records, and complaint resolution processes.
