Overall sentiment across the reviews is mixed but leans toward serious concern. Multiple reviewers praise specific supportive staff members and services such as laundry and note that some staff prioritize resident care and make new residents feel supported during adjustment. Several reviewers explicitly recommend Highland Acres for short-term rehabilitation and a subset even describe it as suitable for long-term placement. However, these positive remarks are counterbalanced by repeated and specific complaints about neglect, poor monitoring, and sanitation problems. The pattern in the negative comments indicates systemic issues that adversely affect resident safety and comfort.
Care quality emerges as a central theme in the negative reviews. Recurring complaints include neglectful care, poor monitoring, and allegations of overmedication. Reviewers reported concrete incidents such as residents not being fed, delayed delivery of safety equipment, and lack of timely checks on residents. One review attributes missed care to a "shift-change excuse," suggesting handover practices may be inconsistent or used to justify lapses. The combination of missed checks, delayed safety measures, and possible medication mismanagement points to gaps in clinical oversight and routine care processes.
Staffing and staff behavior are another major area of concern and contradiction. Several reviews describe staff as caring but overwhelmed, which aligns with explicit understaffing reports (one review noted four CNAs on the first shift). Understaffing likely contributes to missed checks, rushed care, and the inability of staff to meet resident needs consistently. At the same time, some reviewers state that staff were supportive, helpful with adjustment, and that working there can be enjoyable for certain employees. This mixed picture suggests variability between shifts, units, or individual employees: some staff perform well under constraints, while others may be disrespectful or behave in ways that make residents and families feel unsafe or undervalued. Serious allegations of racism and staff disrespect are raised in multiple summaries and should be considered high-priority concerns requiring investigation.
Facility cleanliness and infection-control issues are also raised. Multiple reviewers mention a strong odor, dirty conditions, residents not being washed, and even flies around a resident. These reports indicate lapses in personal hygiene care, environmental cleaning, and possibly pest control. Such conditions can exacerbate health risks for a medically vulnerable population and undermine family confidence in the facility’s ability to provide safe long-term care. The single explicitly positive facilities-related comment identified is that the laundry service is good, which shows some operational strengths but does not offset the more serious sanitation criticisms.
Management and administration receive criticism for inadequate responsiveness. While a reviewer notes that management "listened," they also state management was unresponsive to the concerns raised. One review calls out the new administrator, Syreeta Parham, by name in a critical context. This suggests families or staff attempted to escalate problems but felt their reports did not lead to effective corrective action. The presence of these comments combined with frontline complaints about understaffing and quality of care suggests a need for stronger leadership engagement, better accountability, and clearer corrective plans communicated to families and staff.
In summary, the reviews present a facility with notable positives—compassionate individuals, helpful orientation for new residents, a reliable laundry service, and endorsement by some for short-term rehab—but also with substantial and recurrent negatives that cannot be ignored. The most significant concerns are neglectful and inconsistent care, understaffing, medication and monitoring problems, unsanitary conditions, and allegations of disrespect and racism. These issues point to operational and leadership challenges: inconsistent staffing levels and training, weaknesses in care monitoring and handovers, lapses in hygiene and environmental maintenance, and insufficient administrative follow-through. For prospective residents and families, the reviews suggest Highland Acres may function acceptably for short-term rehabilitation in some cases, but the pattern of reports raises caution about reliability and safety for ongoing long-term placement unless corrective actions addressing staffing, monitoring, infection control, and management responsiveness are demonstrated and sustained.
