Elderwood at Williamsville

    200 Bassett Rd, Williamsville, NY, 14221
    2.3 · 50 reviews
    • Assisted living
    • Memory care
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    1.0

    Compassionate staff but dangerous lapses

    I appreciated the skilled, patient PT/OT, many compassionate aides, decent food, clean facility and available activities - my mom had some good moments there. However chronic understaffing, slow/ignored call-button responses, delayed bathroom help (she was left soiled), lost belongings (hearing aid/dentures), poor communication, rude/unprofessional staff, and serious safety/medical lapses (late meds, missed fractures/UTIs, even reports of deaths without proper notification) outweighed the positives. I would not recommend this facility.

    Pricing

    Schedule a Tour

    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

    2.34 · 50 reviews

    Overall rating

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

      2.1
    • Staff

      2.2
    • Meals

      2.9
    • Amenities

      2.3
    • Value

      1.0

    Pros

    • Skilled and patient PT/OT and therapy team
    • Compassionate aides and some attentive nurses
    • Supportive and helpful social worker in many cases
    • Engaged staff who know residents' names (personalized attention)
    • Variety of activities and events, including family-friendly days
    • Pleasant, park-like outside grounds and outdoor patio
    • Professional admissions/check-in reported by some families
    • Maintenance responsiveness and prompt fixes
    • Clean, spotless facility reported by multiple reviewers
    • Good rehab availability and positive rehab outcomes for some residents
    • Delicious or nourishing meals praised by some families

    Cons

    • Chronic understaffing, high turnover, and reliance on temp agency staff
    • Frequent reports of neglect: residents left in urine, soaked, or unattended
    • Delayed or missed assistance with toileting, hygiene, and calls for help
    • Medication errors, delayed pain management, and misdiagnoses
    • Lost, misplaced, or improperly handled personal items (dentures, hearing aids, walker)
    • Unprofessional, rude, or disrespectful staff behavior and alleged emotional abuse
    • Poor interior maintenance: dirty/filthy carpeting, peeling paint, and cosmetic decay
    • Poor ventilation and air quality, lack of AC on some floors, bad odors, and pests
    • Inconsistent food quality; cold or reheated meals and inappropriate meal choices
    • Management unresponsiveness, inconsistent communication, and billing delays
    • Safety concerns for medically complex and dementia patients
    • Inconsistent standards across shifts and reported absence of staff on some shifts
    • Reports of serious adverse outcomes including severe pain, decline, and deaths

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment across reviews is highly polarized and inconsistent, with strong praise for particular departments and staff members contrasted sharply by repeated, serious complaints about neglect, understaffing, and management failures. Many families describe excellent therapy services, compassionate aides, and a pleasant campus, while many others report instances of inhumane treatment, poor oversight, and potentially dangerous lapses in care. The pattern suggests pockets of very good care existing alongside systemic problems that frequently surface during staffing shortages, shift changes, or when residents have greater medical complexity.

    Care quality and clinical safety are the most frequently contested themes. Physical and occupational therapy staff are repeatedly described as skilled, patient, and effective, with multiple reviewers crediting the therapy team for positive rehab outcomes. Conversely, nursing care and supervision are described as inconsistent: reviewers report delayed pain medication, missed or delayed bathroom assistance, UTIs not promptly identified, open pressure wounds, dehydration and weight loss, and even misdiagnosed fractures. Several accounts allege extreme neglect — residents left in urine or soaked, diapers used because staff could not assist in time, call buttons ignored, and meals not served. There are multiple reports of very serious outcomes (severe unrelieved pain, rapid decline, and deaths soon after admission), which families attributed at least in part to insufficient clinical responsiveness.

    Staffing, culture, and communication emerge as root causes for many negative experiences. A large number of reviews mention chronic understaffing, use of temporary agency workers, high staff attrition, and apparent gaps during shift changes or afternoons/weekends. Where staff are praised, families describe personalized attention, staff knowing residents' names, and compassionate interactions. Where care fails, reviewers cite rude, disrespectful, or unprofessional behavior (including allegations of emotional abuse, inappropriate language, and flirtatious conduct), poor supervision of aides, and a lack of management follow-up. Management responsiveness is another recurring concern: families report unreturned calls, billing delays, missing refunds, inconsistent information, and refusal or delay in allowing family presence during crises. Several reviewers explicitly warned others against placing loved ones here because of these systemic issues.

    Facility condition is a mixed picture. The exterior and grounds receive fairly consistent positive comments — reviewers mention pretty landscaping and a park-like setting with a pleasant outdoor patio. Inside, however, many reviewers report the need for cosmetic renewal and deeper cleaning: dirty or filthy carpeting, peeling paint, dirty windows, lingering bad odors, bugs, and ventilation problems. Several reviewers specifically noted poor air quality, lack of air conditioning on the second floor, and inadequate bathroom ventilation. Some rooms are described as adequate or hospital-like, while others are criticized for lack of privacy or being poorly prepared for portable air conditioners. Maintenance responsiveness is sometimes praised, indicating variability between functional repairs and broader housekeeping/cleanliness issues.

    Dining and daily living services draw mixed feedback. Some families praise nourishing, delicious meals and attentive dining staff, while others report cold, reheated food, marginal quality, and inappropriate meal choices for residents with specific medical needs. Service problems also include trays left in hallways, missed meals, and slow or inconsistent mealtime assistance when staff are stretched thin.

    Activities, therapy, and social engagement are strengths in many reviewers' experiences. Multiple accounts highlight a robust schedule of activities, helpful social work support, family fun days, and a therapy program that families found valuable enough to recommend. At the same time, a few reviewers found the social worker or administrative staff unprofessional or lacking compassion.

    Patterns and recommendations: reviews indicate high variability in resident experience depending on staffing levels, shift, and which specific caregivers are assigned. Positive experiences tend to cluster around engaged therapists, compassionate aides, and times when the facility is adequately staffed. Negative experiences cluster around staffing shortages, management unresponsiveness, and lapses in basic hygiene and oversight. Several reports of lost personal items, missed medications, and safety lapses suggest systemic process and oversight problems rather than isolated incidents.

    For families considering this facility: expect that therapy and some frontline caregivers can provide excellent, compassionate care, but verify current staffing levels, ask about supervision and contingency plans for shift changes, request recent inspection or deficiency reports, and get written commitments on notification procedures for significant events. During a visit, observe cleanliness in common areas and rooms, ask about ventilation and AC on the resident's floor, inquire how personal items are handled and tracked, and clarify how the facility manages admissions for medically complex or dementia patients. Given the documented variability — from spotless, supportive experiences to accounts of neglect and serious adverse outcomes — careful, up-to-date due diligence and explicit communication of expectations with facility management are especially important.

    Location

    Map showing location of Elderwood at Williamsville

    About Elderwood at Williamsville

    Elderwood at Williamsville sits on a quiet tree-lined street and has 200 certified beds, plus about 150 residents each day, and when you look at the place you'll see both comfortable private rooms with their own bathrooms and semi-private ones too, and there's even 83 apartment-style settings for people who need help with daily activities, like dressing or bathing, so families can come together in a private dining room for celebrations or just share a meal in the restaurant-style dining space, and folks do seem to like the beautiful, landscaped courtyards, a bright airy atrium that overlooks Bassett Park, and plenty of patios among the gardens out back, plus there's complimentary WiFi, weekly housekeeping, on-site laundry, and an on-site salon and barber shop to keep things feeling clean and homey. This place is pet friendly, so animal companions can stay nearby; and when it comes to safety and ease of living, you'll find secure doors, bright wide hallways, and special features to help folks move about safely. The rooms are well-lit and there are common areas for gathering, which gives it a lived-in and welcoming feeling, but it's not all relaxation-there's lively activity programs, daily social events, regular outings, and various wellness programs to keep people engaged. Elderwood at Williamsville offers assisted living, adult day services, and respite care, so a person can get support for as little or as much as they might need, and for specialty care there's Memory Care in the Seasons program, Pulmonary Rehab, and Subacute Rehab, with physical, occupational, and speech therapy for those recovering from illness or surgery, and there's even a 22-bed ventilator unit staffed by respiratory therapists with care led by a board-certified pulmonologist. Doctor visits happen on-site, and specialty care includes oncology, palliative care, long-term therapy, infectious disease, and wound care, so people who need skilled nursing, rehab, or help with memory loss have options here. The facility is pretty close to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and Elderwood's skilled nursing home, so there's a kind of "virtual campus" feeling, with services nearby if someone's health needs change, and a nurse is on site around the clock.

    While Elderwood at Williamsville gives residents a lot of amenities and medical services, regular state and federal inspections have found 19 deficiencies, which is above average, and the issues noted relate to not always following nutrition and dietary rules, not always enough nursing staff or licensed nurses there, and some lapses in accident prevention, so families may want to ask about how these issues are being addressed. Management, under Warren Cole and Jeffrey Rubin since 2011, runs Elderwood at Williamsville as a for-profit business affiliated with Elderwood, and nurse turnover has been high at 63.5%, while nurse staffing falls below the state daily average at 3.52 hours per resident, so it pays to keep an eye on how care levels match up to expectations. Still, the senior community aims to offer a mix of social life, daily care, rehab, and specialized programs meant to support aging in place, so people can find services for both physical and memory needs in one place, with the added comforts of pleasant surroundings and a friendly atmosphere.

    People often ask...

    Nearby Communities

    • Front entrance of a brick multi-story building with a covered porte-cochère and a 'Brookdale' sign above the doors.
      $3,448 – $4,482+4.7 (112)
      Semi-private • Studio
      independent living, assisted living

      Brookdale Mt. Lebanon

      1050 McNeilly Rd, Pittsburgh, PA, 15226
    • Exterior view of a large, multi-story senior living facility building at dusk with lights on inside. In the foreground, there is a landscaped area with a sign that reads 'Legend Personal Care Memory Care' and the number 425. The building has multiple windows and a sloped roof.
      $5,725 – $7,442+4.3 (30)
      Semi-private • 1 Bedroom • Studio
      assisted living, memory care

      Legend at Silver Creek

      425 Lambs Gap Rd, Mechanicsburg, PA, 17050
    • Outdoor entrance sign reading 'Sunrise Senior Living' mounted on a white picket fence with surrounding landscaping.
      $3,760 – $4,512+3.9 (101)
      Semi-private
      assisted living, memory care

      River Oaks Assisted Living & Memory Care

      500 E University Dr, Rochester, MI, 48307
    • Exterior view of a senior living facility named Legend of Lititz showing the main entrance with a covered drop-off area, landscaped greenery, and a clear blue sky.
      $3,575 – $5,270+4.1 (130)
      1 Bedroom • 2 Bedroom
      independent, assisted living, memory care

      Legend of Lititz

      80 W Millport Rd, Lititz, PA, 17543
    • Three-story modern senior living building with balconies set behind a grassy lawn and a pond with a fountain.
      $3,000 – $7,000+4.5 (98)
      suite
      independent, assisted living, memory care

      StoryPoint Novi

      42400 W 12 Mile Rd, Novi, MI, 48377
    • Covered entrance to a brick building with glass double doors, two chairs on either side, potted plants, and greenery around the entrance.
      $2,214 – $3,800+4.4 (137)
      Semi-private • Studio • 1 Bedroom
      independent, assisted living, memory care

      Exton Senior Living

      600 N Pottstown Pike, Exton, PA, 19341

    Assisted Living in Nearby Cities

    1. 110 facilities$6,135/mo
    2. 83 facilities$6,202/mo
    3. 115 facilities$6,135/mo
    4. 96 facilities$6,261/mo
    5. 128 facilities$6,099/mo
    6. 119 facilities$6,084/mo
    7. 58 facilities$6,235/mo
    8. 83 facilities$6,328/mo
    9. 41 facilities$6,083/mo
    10. 81 facilities$6,268/mo
    11. 65 facilities$5,501/mo
    12. 66 facilities$5,501/mo
    © 2025 Mirador Living