Cayuga Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

    1229 Trumansburg Rd, Ithaca, NY, 14850
    2.9 · 29 reviews
    • Assisted living
    • Memory care
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousCurrent/former resident
    2.0

    Bright, clean facility but unsafe

    I liked the bright, hotel-like facility, very clean dining and activities, and many compassionate, competent staff who were helpful and professional. However I experienced chronic understaffing, inconsistent management and poor admin-to-staff communication, leading to medication delays (including long waits for pain meds), missed bathroom help, safety lapses (falls, lost belongings, missing supplies), and chaotic transfers. Some caregivers were wonderful, but overall the operation felt unsafe and disorganized - it needs better staffing, communication and oversight before I could recommend it.

    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

    2.90 · 29 reviews

    Overall rating

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

      2.7
    • Staff

      2.9
    • Meals

      2.4
    • Amenities

      4.0
    • Value

      2.0

    Pros

    • Many caregivers and aides described as caring and compassionate
    • Some nurses and administrators reported as professional and responsive
    • Top-notch physical and occupational therapy reported by multiple reviewers
    • Clean, bright, and sometimes hotel-like facility areas
    • Friendly and competent dining staff
    • Large dining and activities area that encourages socialization
    • Range of activities including Bible study and pastoral support
    • Accommodating and polite staff on some shifts
    • Tidy main/common areas in several reports
    • Budget-friendly / accessible to low-income residents
    • Helpful and welcoming reception staff mentioned positively
    • Some reports of quick, competent responses to health issues

    Cons

    • Chronic understaffing and overworked aides/nurses
    • Long delays for bathroom assistance and incontinent care
    • Frequent medication delays and odd medication timing (e.g., meds at 1 a.m.)
    • Inconsistent care and large variability between floors/shifts
    • Poor communication with families and between floors/teams
    • Leadership turnover and inconsistent management
    • Safety incidents including falls, bruises, skin tears, and broken glasses
    • Equipment and maintenance hazards (e.g., unlocked table wheels, mats not down)
    • Loss or misplacement of residents’ clothing and belongings
    • Mistakes in meal service (wrong food, no beverages, missed meals)
    • Chaotic operation and alleged cover-up or avoidance of investigations
    • Inadequate discharge practices and reports of harm after discharge
    • Isolation rooms lacking basic amenities (phone) and poor admission handling
    • Rehab and prosthetic care delays and inadequate follow-up
    • Some areas described as rundown or closed off despite nice common areas
    • Disparity between glowing and very negative experiences (high inconsistency)
    • Reports of infection issues (yeast infection) and poor wound care
    • Reported lack of adherence to special diets (e.g., renal restrictions)

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment across the reviews is highly mixed and polarized: many reviewers praise individual staff members, therapy services, and certain aspects of the facility environment, while a substantial number report serious and recurring problems with staffing, safety, communication, and management. The pattern suggests that residents may experience very different levels of care depending on shift, floor, or which staff are working, producing both five-star impressions and accounts that describe the facility as unsafe or negligent.

    Care quality and staff: The most consistent positive theme is that many caregivers and some nurses are compassionate, personable, and genuinely attentive when they are available. Reviewers repeatedly call out aides and select nurses for genuine care, professionalism, and competence, and physical therapy is described as excellent in several accounts. However, these positives are frequently undermined by chronic understaffing. Multiple reports describe aides and nurses stretched extremely thin (examples include two aides handling thirty residents, and rushed admissions), resulting in missed bathroom assistance, extended waits for help, rushed admissions and transfers, and long waits for pain medication or other critical meds. Medication timing problems are notable: delayed administration, late-night med dispensing (reported as late as 1:00 a.m.), and specific accounts of pain med waits of an hour or more. This creates a contrast where individual staff members often try to provide good care but cannot consistently do so because of staffing constraints.

    Safety and clinical concerns: Several reviews raise serious safety concerns. There are multiple descriptions of falls (including at least one associated with mats not being placed down), bruises, skin tears, broken glasses, and other injuries. Equipment and maintenance hazards are cited (for example, a table with wheels left unlocked), and there are reports of poor wound/infection care (including a reported yeast infection). Some reviewers describe alarming incidents around discharge and transitions of care — for instance, alleged neurological assessment followed by discharge and death shortly after, or prosthetic and stump care delays — which led family members to feel the facility hastened decline or failed to provide necessary follow-up. These accounts raise concerns about both clinical oversight and incident reporting/transparency.

    Communication, management, and operations: A dominant negative theme is poor communication — between staff and families, between floors, and between administrators and frontline caregivers. Reviewers cite miscommunication during moves between floors, belongings left on dollies, missed or incorrect identification on laundry bags, and hospital trips that families only discover after the fact. Leadership turnover and inconsistent management are reported, along with limited or constrained family meetings (input reportedly must be submitted in writing in advance and there is little time for Q&A). Several reviews describe chaotic operation, poor callback responsiveness, and alleged attempts to avoid or deflect investigations after incidents. Conversely, some reviewers praise specific administrators and reception staff as responsive and professional, again highlighting inconsistency across leadership and shifts.

    Facilities, dining, and activities: Reports about the physical facility are also mixed. Many reviewers praise clean, bright, and even hotel-like common areas, and some call the facility beautiful and immaculate. The large dining and activities areas are appreciated for enabling socialization, and organized activities — including Bible study and pastoral visits — are valued by residents and families. Dining staff receive positive mentions for friendliness and competency. Yet other reviewers describe rundown interior areas, closed-off sections, small but functional rooms, missing amenities (no phone in isolation rooms, missing blankets), and maintenance needs such as air conditioning and parking lot paving. Food service issues were reported by multiple people: wrong meals being served, no beverage provided with meals, and even missed meals on occasion. There are also reports of poor adherence to diet restrictions (e.g., renal diet not followed), which is a significant clinical concern.

    Patterns and recommendations implied by reviewers: The reviews reflect a facility with pockets of very good care and services (engaged aides, effective therapy, clean common areas) but with systemic problems that undermine resident safety and family trust. The most frequently cited root causes are understaffing and inconsistent management/leadership leading to variable performance across floors and shifts. Specific areas that recur as needing attention are staffing levels and scheduling, medication administration reliability, clearer communication protocols with families and between floors, maintenance and equipment safety checks, secure and accurate handling of residents’ belongings and laundry, and improved incident reporting and transparency.

    In summary, families and residents who encounter well-staffed shifts and particular caregivers report high satisfaction; others who experience understaffed periods, poor communication, or clinical lapses report serious concerns about safety and neglect. The facility shows strengths in therapy, some clinical staff, dining, and activities, but the frequency and severity of the negative reports — including safety incidents, medication delays, and management instability — are significant and recurring themes that would merit immediate attention from administration and oversight bodies. The overall picture is of a facility that can provide very good care in some circumstances but lacks consistent systems and staffing to reliably deliver that level of care to all residents at all times.

    Location

    Map showing location of Cayuga Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

    About Cayuga Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

    Cayuga Nursing & Rehabilitation Center sits on the west bank of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, NY, with views of the water and easy access to the outdoors, and while the building is two stories, inside you'll find 144 beds used for both skilled nursing and rehab services, plus a Memory Care unit for people with Alzheimer's or dementia. Residents have choices of private or semi-private rooms, each one with air conditioning, brand new furniture, cable TV, Wi-Fi, and safety features-big bathrooms with call bells, space for their things, and even individual climate controls, and there's room for pets too, as long as visitors bring up-to-date vaccine records and keep them on a leash.

    The staff includes registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, social workers, aides, and members of 1199 SEIU, and they work around the clock, covering everything from basic bathing and medication to more complex care like stroke recovery, IV therapy, wound care, respiratory support, diabetes care, and transfers. Staff can apply for CNA certification and help out as needed in roles like Maintenance, Recreation, Housekeeping, and Dietary. Residents with memory problems live in a secure Memory Care unit with specialized programs and more supervision.

    Everyone gets helped with daily tasks when needed, and the activities schedule keeps folks busy, whether that's movie nights, art in the arts room, music, games, or community-run programs. There's a library, a corner store for snacks and small items, areas for small family gatherings, fitness and wellness spa rooms, and a garden where residents can get fresh air or spend time with pets. Residents eat in dining rooms with restaurant-style meals, day or night, and there are meal options for diabetes, allergies, and other requirements, all made by a chef. Each hall has its own lounge and unit dining rooms for more private meals or social time.

    Cayuga Nursing & Rehabilitation Center offers both short-term rehab and long-term care, with professional staff and a community feel. Speech, occupational, language, and feeding therapy come from Gorge Falls Therapy SLP, OT, PLLC. The staff helps with moving in, keeping rooms clean, laundry, and getting to appointments, and the facility contracts with Medicare and Medicaid for help with costs. The setting lets people stay active and independent as much as they can, with transportation and parking services, a packed recreation schedule, and the support needed for serious health problems or just extra aging support. This place has focused on long-term care, recovery, and community connection for years and tries to adapt to meet changing needs, offering flexible program names, personal attention, and amenities designed for comfort, safety, and engagement.

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