The reviews for Hillcrest Care Center present a strongly mixed picture with clear, recurring patterns — some families describe exceptional, compassionate care and strong therapy and social-service support, while others report significant failures in basic nursing-home functions such as staffing, supervision, cleanliness and communication.
On the positive side, many reviewers praise individual staff members and departments. The therapy/rehabilitation team receives repeated commendations; social services and administration are described as welcoming and helpful, with examples of successful discharge planning and coordination for returning residents home with home health. Numerous reviews highlight caring, friendly aides and nurses who know residents by name, go out of their way to help, and create a family-like atmosphere. Facility amenities and environment also earn praise in several comments: a newer building or renovated areas with good lighting and windows, spacious rooms with sinks and storage, an accessible garden that residents enjoy, exercise and therapy rooms, and a robust activities program led by an activities director.
Contrasting sharply with those positive accounts are a set of consistent, serious concerns. Understaffing is the most frequent theme: reviewers report chronic staff shortages, overworked or burned-out employees, and frequent times when no staff are visibly available. That links directly to safety and supervision issues — poor oversight of nurses and aides, no clear assignments so aides’ whereabouts are unknown, nurses observed sitting at desks rather than assisting, and extremely slow response times to call alerts. Several reviews describe staff smoking and taking long breaks that reduce available coverage. These operational problems are connected to reports of neglectful or unsafe care, including urine puddles and persistent human-waste odors, at least one reported staph infection and hospitalization, and allegations of poor clinical judgment (for example, inappropriate antidepressant medication). A few reviewers described very severe outcomes, including transfers out of the facility and deaths, which they attribute in part to inadequate care.
Communication and management appear to be additional systemic pain points. Multiple reviewers cite poor communication between staff and with families, lying or covering up by staff, poor record-keeping, and a lack of follow-through on family-raised concerns. There are also specific complaints about hospice coordination and transparency (including at least one allegation that staff lied about hospice involvement), rude or unprofessional exchanges with nursing staff, and billing questions. Workplace culture issues are mentioned — gossip among CNAs and nurses and staff being fired for taking short breaks — all of which suggest inconsistent leadership and morale challenges.
Dining and cleanliness earn mixed comments. Some residents and families praise the food and say mealtimes are enjoyable (with family members even joining for lunch); others report poor food quality or that food was unappealing to residents with altered taste perception (for example, after a stroke). Cleanliness is similarly mixed: some reviewers call the center extremely clean and pleasant, while others note persistent urine odors, puddles, and general uncleanliness in certain shifts or areas. This reinforces the pattern of inconsistent performance rather than uniform quality.
Overall sentiment is polarized: several reviews portray Hillcrest as offering top-of-the-line, compassionate care with excellent therapy services and an engaged staff, while an approximately equal number describe a facility struggling with staffing, supervision, cleanliness, and management to the point of risking resident safety. The most frequently reported risk factors are understaffing, poor supervision, slow alert response times, and erratic communication and record-keeping. These issues appear episodic and shift-dependent in some reports (for example, night vs. day staff, or certain teams vs. others), which helps explain why experiences vary so widely.
For prospective families: the review set suggests Hillcrest can be an excellent option in specific units or shifts where staffing and leadership are strong, especially for rehabilitation and social-service coordination. However, the recurring operational and safety concerns warrant careful, proactive evaluation. Ask about current staffing ratios and turnover, how call lights and alerts are handled, infection-control records, medication review and oversight processes, supervision structure for aides and nurses, hospice coordination procedures, and how the facility addresses family complaints and documentation. If possible, visit multiple times (including nights/weekends), talk to therapy and social-service staff, and request recent inspection reports to gauge whether the positive strengths cited by many families are consistent and whether the serious negatives have been addressed.
