Overall sentiment across reviews for The Pines at Poughkeepsie Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation is strongly mixed and highly polarized. A substantial portion of reviewers praise the facility for cleanliness, a professional appearance, strong rehabilitation services, and numerous individual staff members who provided compassionate, attentive care. At the same time, an influential subset of reviews detail serious lapses in clinical care, communication, and safety that created substantial distress for residents and families. The net picture is one of uneven performance: some units, teams, and shifts deliver excellent, family-reassuring care, while other times and places within the same facility fall short, sometimes severely.
Care quality and clinical safety are the most recurrent themes. Positive accounts describe very effective physical and occupational therapy leading to rapid functional improvements, therapists who are motivating and skillful, and nursing teams that preserved dignity and provided timely care. Conversely, numerous negative reports cite missed medications (including pain medication), delayed or inadequate wound care (including bandage change delays and bedsores), infrequent vital monitoring, poor INR management, unreported bruises and injuries, and residents left unfed or in soiled linens. Several reviewers describe incidents that rise to the level of neglect or unsafe handling (e.g., unsafe Hoyer lift use, oxygen delivery failures, and falls with slow emergency response). These safety concerns are compounded by consistent mentions of understaffing (especially evenings and weekends) and a need for heavy family advocacy to ensure baseline care is provided.
Staff behavior and management patterns are also mixed. Many reviewers singled out specific staff who went above and beyond: admissions personnel (frequently named Samantha and Sam), social workers and several nurses and CNAs, and multiple therapists. Families credited these individuals with easing transitions, facilitating rehab progress, and being responsive. However, there are repeated reports of rude, dismissive, or defensive behavior from other staff members and from management. Complaints include staff arguing with residents, accusing patients of lying, staff retaliation or HR conflicts, and administrators who were unhelpful or did not act on serious concerns. This inconsistency suggests variable leadership visibility and unit-level culture: some floors are praised as caring and professional, while others are portrayed as understaffed and unresponsive.
Rehabilitation services receive particularly divided feedback. Many reviews highlight very positive PT/OT experiences, naming therapists and describing measurable gains and quick discharges. These accounts indicate the facility can provide strong sub-acute rehab. At the same time, there are numerous complaints that therapy was delayed, inadequate, or simply not delivered as scheduled — in some cases allegedly worsening outcomes. Families should therefore confirm therapy frequency and goals, and monitor adherence to scheduled sessions.
Facility, housekeeping, and amenities are usually commended: multiple reviewers describe clean, well-maintained common spaces, effective housekeeping, a pleasant wooded setting with an outdoor patio, and a generally professional reception area. Yet a small number of strongly negative reviews describe severe cleanliness failures — soiled linens, fecal contamination, rancid smells — and portray deplorable conditions. These appear to be isolated but serious incidents; they underline the overall inconsistency reported elsewhere. Room size and layout are also noted as drawbacks by several families: small double rooms with shared bathrooms and no in-room showers reduce privacy and comfort for some residents.
Dining and daily care routines show recurring concerns. While some reviewers called meals acceptable and noted helpful dining staff and snacks, complaints about cold meals, dietary restrictions not being observed, food running out, and residents left hungry appear often enough to be a consistent alarm. Incontinence care failures, missed diaper changes, and infrequent toileting rounds are among the more distressing recurrent issues cited.
Operational issues extend to discharge, billing, and transfers. Several families reported late or inaccurate discharge paperwork, last-minute discharge notices, out-of-pocket transfer costs, and increased distance when residents were moved. Communication breakdowns between the facility, families, and outside providers (including the ER) contributed to confusion and dissatisfaction. Additionally, reports of missing personal items or clothing and sporadic theft concerns add to anxieties about resident security.
Infection control and COVID precautions were another bifurcated domain: some reviewers praised strict COVID policies and safe visiting protocols, while others reported outbreaks, inadequate masking by responders, and failures to notify families or public health authorities. Oxygen equipment failures and delays were also reported, indicating lapses in emergency readiness for some residents.
Patterns emerging from the reviews suggest that The Pines has the capacity to provide high-quality, compassionate, and effective care — particularly in rehabilitation and on certain floors staffed by engaged teams — but also suffers from uneven implementation across shifts and units. Key risk indicators flagged by multiple reviewers are staffing shortages (especially nights and weekends), variable competence among front-line aides, inconsistent leadership response to complaints, and lapses in basic nursing tasks (medication delivery, wound care, feeding, incontinence management).
Recommendations for families considering The Pines: ask specific questions about staffing ratios on the intended unit and shifts, request the names of therapists and primary nursing staff, confirm therapy schedules and discharge planning procedures in writing, and clarify how dietary needs and continence care will be managed. When admitted, maintain active advocacy for the resident—monitor medication administration, wound care, daily toileting, and meal delivery—and document any incidents. Also consider speaking directly with the praised admissions and therapy staff (several reviewers named individuals who were helpful) to increase the likelihood of placement on a well-performing team.
In sum, The Pines at Poughkeepsie offers notable strengths — especially in therapy/rehab, several compassionate staff members, and generally clean common areas — but serious, recurring weaknesses in staffing consistency, communication, clinical follow-through, and occasional safety/infection control that have led some families to report traumatic experiences. Prospective residents and families should weigh both the positive success stories and the documented failures, and use targeted questions and active oversight to mitigate the risk of substandard care.
