Overall impression The reviews for Highland Care Center are strongly polarized and highly mixed. A large portion of reviewers praise the facility for outstanding rehabilitation services, compassionate frontline caregivers, and a clean, recently renovated environment. Conversely, a significant number of reviews raise very serious concerns about understaffing, inconsistent nursing care, wound-care failures, hygiene lapses, and management or communication problems. These opposing themes appear repeatedly: excellent therapy and many caring employees on one side, and episodic or systemic safety/neglect problems and unprofessional behavior on the other.
Care quality and clinical outcomes Rehabilitation and therapy are the most consistently praised elements. Multiple reviewers name therapists and describe measurable improvements — regained walking ability, stronger legs and arms, and individualized therapy plans. For many families, rehab staff are the reason they would recommend Highland. Nurses, CNAs and aides receive mixed but often favorable reviews: many comments describe attentive, compassionate nurses and kind, cheerful CNAs who explain medications, assist respectfully, and provide hands-on care. Several specific staff members are repeatedly lauded by name for their positive impact.
However, these positive clinical accounts are counterbalanced by troubling reports of poor clinical care in other cases. Numerous reviews allege insufficient staffing (examples include 1 nurse for 40 patients), medication errors or delays, failure to change soiled gowns, lack of PICC/feeding-tube care, wound-care failures, bedsores, untreated infections, and even transfers to hospital or deaths attributed by families to inadequate care. Several reviewers reported falls, unsupervised incidents, or disputed accounts of incidents that suggest lapses in monitoring and safety protocols. These are serious clinical concerns that recur enough times in the reviews to indicate variability in clinical quality that depends strongly on unit, shift, or staff present.
Staff, culture, and communication Many reviewers commend individual staff across departments — nursing, therapy, housekeeping, front desk, security, social work, and finance — noting professional, friendly and helpful interactions and staff who go above and beyond. Names that appear positively include Patrick, Christina, Victor, Derkys, Mr. Hertz, Rosie/Roza, Jerry, Avi and others. The recreation department and activities teams are also frequently praised for keeping residents engaged.
At the same time, there are numerous accounts of unprofessional or rude behavior by supervisors and some nurses, alleged bullying, and a reportedly toxic work environment. Social work and discharge handling are described as both very helpful by some families and extremely unprofessional by others — in at least one review a social worker is accused of threatening discharge to a shelter. Communication complaints include unanswered phones, intrusive or unwanted daily calls (with repeated opt-out requests ignored), poor handoffs, and information-gathering gaps. These communication failures amplify family anxiety when paired with the clinical concerns mentioned above.
Facility, cleanliness, and dining The physical facility and cleanliness receive frequent positive notes: many reviewers describe immaculate rooms, clean lobbies, renovated and modernized spaces, and tidy dining areas. Housekeeping staff are often singled out positively. Activities, outdoor patio access, and a calm, home-like atmosphere post-renovation are regular positives.
Dining receives mixed reviews: while some families and residents enjoy restaurant-style meals, praise the dietitian's accommodations, and call the food delicious, other reviewers describe the food as unrecognizable or disgusting at times, puréed-only diets inappropriately applied, and long-standing quality issues. This discrepancy appears to vary by unit, meal service, or reviewer expectation.
Management, safety, and systemic concerns Beyond individual staff variability, multiple reviewers raise systemic issues: chronic understaffing, alleged misallocation of insurance funds, reports of theft or redirected mail/money, and management instability. There are reports of potential cover-ups, failure to disclose COVID outbreaks, and problematic escalation responses to emergencies. These issues feed into narratives of distrust for some families and high praise from others, implying uneven oversight and variable enforcement of policies across the facility.
Patterns and actionable takeaways The dominant pattern is high variability: Highland can deliver excellent rehab outcomes, compassionate individual caregivers, and a clean, activity-rich environment — but it also has recurring reports of dangerous lapses (wound care, hygiene, medication errors, falls) and unprofessional behaviors that families should take seriously. Positive experiences often name specific staff and departments (therapy, recreation, housekeeping), while negative experiences frequently reference management, communication breakdowns, social work mishandling, and severe clinical failures.
For prospective families or referrers - Verify staffing levels and nurse-to-patient ratios for the unit/floor where your loved one would be placed. Several reviews connect poor outcomes to understaffing. - Ask specifically about wound care protocols, fall prevention measures, medication administration checks, and how the facility handles infections/COVID disclosure. - Request names of the therapy team and nursing leadership; many positive stories tied directly to particular therapists and nurses. - Clarify dining options and special-diet management; some families found meals excellent, others found them inadequate. - Confirm communication practices (how often updates are provided, who the point person is, and how to opt out of automated calls). - If possible, obtain recent quality metrics, inspection reports, and complaint histories from state survey agencies to cross-check the polarized public sentiment.
Conclusion Highland Care Center elicits very strong praise for its rehabilitation program, many individual staff members, cleanliness, and resident activities. These strengths make it a potentially excellent choice for patients with rehab-focused goals when those teams are present and functioning well. However, there are repeated and serious allegations from other reviewers about understaffing, clinical neglect, communication failures, and unprofessional conduct that cannot be ignored. The overall picture is one of significant variability in resident experience: excellent care in many cases, and dangerous shortcomings in others. Families should perform targeted due diligence, ask detailed operational questions, and monitor care closely after admission to ensure safety and quality for their loved ones.
