The reviews for Washington Square Healthcare present a strongly polarized picture. A sizeable portion of reviewers praise the facility for its rehabilitation services, veteran-focused care, warm environment, and specific staff members who are described as compassionate and attentive. These positive reviews highlight comfortable rooms, a nicely decorated lobby with veteran tributes, active social programming, capable rehab therapists, and friendly front-desk personnel. Several reviewers explicitly recommend the facility for short-term rehab, respite stays, and hospice, and note institutional recognitions such as a Best of the Best designation (reported as a multi-year honor).
Counterbalancing these positive accounts are numerous, repeated, and serious allegations of understaffing, neglect, and unsafe care. Multiple reviewers report staffing levels too low to meet resident needs, leading to delayed responses, unattended call lights, missed monitoring (for example, blood sugar), and hurried or unsafe care practices. There are specific safety incidents described: falls resulting in head injuries and surgeries, a feeding incident allegedly causing aspiration, medication administration and monitoring concerns, and other events that required hospitalization or intensive care. Several accounts state that family complaints to facility administration and to authorities were ignored or inadequately addressed, and one review alleges family visitation was denied during an end-of-life period.
Staff behavior and professionalism emerge as inconsistent themes. Many reviews single out individual nurses, aides, or teams as compassionate, attentive, and helpful, while other reviews describe staff as rude, uncaring, inattentive, and even cruel. Complaints include staff using cell phones while on duty, eye-rolling or dismissive behavior toward family members, not wearing nametags, and boundary-crossing incidents. This variability suggests significant differences by shift, unit, or individual employee rather than uniform facility-wide performance.
Facility cleanliness and maintenance reports are mixed but alarming in some cases. Several reviewers praise the facility as very clean with no strong urine smell and well-kept common areas, while others describe dirty conditions, soiled clothing left on residents for days, unmade or soiled beds, dirty garbage, and even a roach infestation. These directly contradicting reports indicate inconsistent housekeeping practices and potentially unit-specific or time-specific lapses in environmental care.
Dining and nutrition show both strengths and weaknesses. Positive comments reference a pleasant dining room and staff who provide a comfortable meal environment; negative reports focus on dietary mismanagement—diabetic diets being ignored, meals that are overly pureed or liquids overly thickened, repetitive menus (e.g., pasta daily), and high kitchen costs. Nutrition-related lapses are particularly concerning when paired with other safety and monitoring issues described by reviewers.
Management and administrative responsiveness are also polarizing. Some reviewers praise management as engaged, continuous in improvement efforts, and proud to serve veterans. Other accounts describe management as cruel, dismissive, or unresponsive—failing to rectify complaints, failing to hold staff accountable, and in at least one reported instance, denying proper family access. This split suggests that different families have had widely different experiences with leadership and grievance resolution.
Overall pattern and implications: the reviews indicate a facility with respectable programs (notably rehab/therapy and veteran services) and pockets of very good, even exemplary, staff and amenities. At the same time, there are recurring, serious concerns about staffing levels, safety, hygiene, dietary management, and inconsistent professionalism. The divergence in experiences appears to be significant—positive and negative reports coexist frequently—pointing to variability by unit, shift, or staff cohort rather than uniformly positive or negative operation.
For prospective residents and families, the reviews suggest prudent steps before placement: ask specific, recent questions about staffing ratios for the unit of interest and weekend/overnight coverage; request copies of recent inspection reports and any corrective action plans; tour multiple units and visit at different times of day to observe staff interactions; inquire about how the facility handles falls, medication errors, feeding assistance, and end-of-life visitation policies; and seek out references from current family members of residents on the same unit. The most reliable expectation from these reviews is that experiences may vary substantially, so targeted, up-to-date inquiry and observation are essential to assess whether Washington Square Healthcare can meet an individual resident’s needs safely and consistently.
