Overall sentiment across reviews for The Laurels of Gahanna is highly mixed, with clear and repeated reports of both strong, compassionate front-line care and serious gaps in clinical oversight, cleanliness, and communication. Many reviewers praise individual aides, therapists, and certain nurses for going above and beyond, citing successful rehab outcomes, effective wound care (including wound VAC), on-site dialysis, excellent PT/OT teams, and staff who are friendly, accommodating, and skilled at discharge planning and care coordination. Several named staff members and departments (therapy, kitchen, admissions, activities) receive consistent positive mentions and are credited with helping residents improve, stay engaged, and return home successfully.
However, an equally large set of reviews describe troubling and sometimes dangerous problems. Cleanliness and odor issues are one of the most frequent negative themes: reports of sticky, smelly floors, dried blood in bathrooms, soiled diapers left unchanged, infrequent bathing, and rooms that are not properly prepared recur across multiple accounts. Housekeeping is described as inconsistent — in some accounts daily cleaning and a new housekeeping manager led to notable improvement, while in many others rooms and bathrooms were filthy and housekeeping practices inadequate.
Clinical care and nursing practices are another major fault line. Numerous reviewers report rude, unprofessional, or disengaged nursing staff, long delays in medication administration (including antibiotics), medication list confusion, and apparent medication errors. Critical equipment problems were described (oxygen not turned on for an hour on arrival, broken beds, unavailable supplies), and some families reported lack of RN involvement or supervision. Safety concerns are prominent: patients reportedly left on toilets for extended periods, patients found on the floor requiring EMS/hospital transport, inaccurate blood pressure readings, and other incidents that families interpreted as neglect or passive neglect. These safety and clinical lapses frequently prompted families to intervene directly or seek hospital care.
Communication and management issues appear repeatedly. Families cite poor shift-to-shift communication, misplacement of personal belongings (even found in supervisory offices), unresponsive front desk and phones, and a perceived unwillingness by management to acknowledge or rectify concerns. Weekend and night staffing are singled out as particularly problematic, with reports of unprofessional behavior, lack of on-duty supervision, and significant delays responding to call buttons (20–30 minutes or longer in some reports). Conversely, several reviews praise new executive leadership and improved transparency and accessibility of clinical staff, suggesting variability over time and potential improvement under new management.
Therapy, activities, and some ancillary services are consistently among the facility’s strengths. Multiple reviewers highlight exceptional therapists and therapy outcomes, daily therapies, motivating staff, successful transitions home, and valuable programs that improve resident mood and engagement. The kitchen and dietary services receive mixed marks: several reviewers appreciated specific kitchen staff and meals, while others reported cold food and poor dining experiences.
In summary, The Laurels of Gahanna appears to be a facility with capable, compassionate individuals and strong rehabilitation and ancillary services, yet it struggles with systemic issues in nursing consistency, cleanliness, timely clinical care, and management responsiveness. The pattern suggests variability by shift and unit: where staffing, leadership, and housekeeping are functioning well, families report excellent outcomes and caring staff; where they are not, families report neglectful care, safety incidents, and unprofessional behavior. For prospective residents and families, the reviews indicate the importance of direct, recent observation of the facility (especially night and weekend conditions), asking about RN coverage and medication protocols, verifying housekeeping practices, and clarifying how the facility handles complaints, supervision, and transitions of care. For the facility, priorities based on these reviews would include strengthening nursing oversight and accountability, enforcing infection control and hygiene standards, improving call response times and communication protocols, securing personal belongings, and sustaining any positive leadership or housekeeping changes already underway.
