Overall impression: The reviews of Derry Rehabilitation and Nursing Center are strongly polarized, with a mixture of highly positive experiences and serious negative reports. Many families and residents praise individual caregivers, therapists, and certain leaders for compassionate, rehabilitation-focused care, while an equally strong set of reviewers describes neglectful nursing, safety lapses, and facility problems. This makes the overall sentiment mixed — the facility appears capable of excellent, person-centered care in some situations, but there are consistent and significant reports of lapses that raise real safety and quality concerns.
Care quality and clinical services: A recurring theme is that the facility can provide very good rehabilitation and short-term therapy services. Multiple reviewers report that the rehab/physical therapy team made a measurable difference, with planned therapy, engagement, and encouraging staff. Salon services and other amenities are available, and some residents see the facility as a comfortable, restorative place. Conversely, numerous accounts report inadequate nursing care for long-term and medically complex residents: medication delays, missed breathing treatments, delayed or missing wound care, development/worsening of bedsores, and missed OT/PT sessions. Several reviewers specifically describe critical incidents (worsening conditions, hospice transitions, even death) attributed by families to substandard care.
Staff, communication and variability: Reviews consistently highlight a wide variance in staff performance. Many reviewers name and praise particular nurses, LNAs, administrators and activities staff for compassion, effective communication, and going above and beyond. Daily family communication and involvement from multiple departments is noted as a strength by several families. At the same time, other reviewers report unprofessional behavior (yelling, mean nurses), young or inexperienced LNAs, poor night-shift performance, and inconsistent handoffs between day and night teams. This variability appears to correlate with markedly different resident outcomes and family satisfaction. Staffing shortages are frequently cited as a root cause of missed care, long waits, and reduced activity programming.
Facilities and cleanliness: The facility’s small, home-like size (about 62 beds) is mentioned positively by those who felt it wasn’t an impersonal, large nursing home. The outdoor deck, cook-outs, opportunities to interact with animals, and other activities contribute to a more home-like atmosphere for many. However, multiple reviews describe the building as old, dusty, beaten-up, smelly, and in need of cleaning or repair. These environmental complaints, along with reports of board of health attention, amplify concerns about infection control and overall quality of the physical environment.
Dining and activities: Opinions about dining are split. Some residents (including one account of a father) loved the food and valued the meals, but others describe poor-quality meals (cold breakfasts, soggy lunches, overcooked items, limited choices). Activity programming is often reported as a positive — an engaged activities director, planned outings, deck cook-outs, and special events create social engagement for many residents. Several reviewers, however, say activities are minimal or that therapy patients had limited programming, especially when understaffing limited opportunities.
Management, administration and billing: There are strong contrasting impressions of leadership. Several reviewers praise administrators, citing a supportive leadership team, improvements over time, helpful oversight, and specific staff who made difficult times easier. Conversely, other reviews allege serious administrative and accounting misconduct: claims of checks being cashed and not logged, cross-charging or inappropriate billing (including concerns about VA funds being misused), delays in reimbursements, and reported incitement of family conflict by administrators. One review explicitly referenced a planned state audit. These allegations, if accurate, are major red flags and explain why reviewers advise caution.
Safety and critical concerns: Several reviews describe very serious safety issues: alarms that blared while staff ignored them, long waits for bathroom help resulting in distressing situations, late or missed medications, and reports of delayed breathing treatments. There are also reports of poor wound care and bedsores developing or worsening. Some families reported that night staff seemed unprepared or unprofessional, and that communication breakdowns persisted across shifts. A few reviewers reported formal investigations or board of health attention. These are not minor complaints — they represent clinical safety risks that prospective residents and families should probe directly.
Patterns and likely explanations: The pattern across reviews suggests the facility may do well in short-term rehabilitation and for patients who are active in therapy and engaged with staff — in those cases, families report strong communication, good therapy results, and a pleasant environment. For long-stay, medically complex, or highly dependent residents the pattern is more troubling: inconsistent staffing, night-shift performance problems, and resource limitations appear to lead to delayed care, missed treatments, and worse clinical outcomes. The facility size and individual staff members matter — several reviewers point to specific staff who made big positive differences, indicating leadership and personnel can substantially influence experience.
Bottom line and recommendations: The review set portrays Derry Rehabilitation and Nursing Center as a facility with real strengths (compassionate individual caregivers, rehab focus, engaging activities, and a small, home-like atmosphere) and significant, recurring weaknesses (inconsistent nursing care, safety lapses, facility cleanliness issues, food problems, and troubling administrative/billing allegations). The net takeaway is mixed and highly dependent on the resident’s needs, the time of day/shift, and which staff are assigned.
If you are considering this facility, an in-person visit and targeted questions are essential. Ask about current staffing levels by shift, turnover rates, wound-care and medication administration protocols, nurse-to-resident ratios, recent survey results and any unresolved deficiencies, results of the planned or completed state audit, how night-shift coverage and handoffs are managed, and examples of how management has addressed reported deficiencies. Request to see the therapy schedule and activity calendar, check recent inspection reports, and speak to families of current long-term residents as well as short-term rehab patients. Given the polarized reviews, direct verification of current conditions and staffing is the most reliable way to assess whether Derry Rehabilitation and Nursing Center meets a particular resident’s needs.
