Overall sentiment in the reviews for Rae-Ann Westlake Nursing and Rehabilitation is highly mixed, with a pronounced split between strong praise for individual staff and rehabilitation outcomes and serious, recurring complaints about staffing levels, cleanliness, safety, and management responsiveness. Many families and residents highlight compassionate, skilled caregivers, effective physical therapy, and emotionally supportive end-of-life care. At the same time, numerous reports describe systemic problems that directly impact resident safety, dignity, and daily living.
Care quality and medical issues: Reviews report a wide range in clinical quality. On the positive side, reviewers repeatedly commend therapists and certain nurses/aides for excellent rehabilitation outcomes and attentive care — specific staff members are named for coordination, transportation, and hands-on help. Several accounts describe significant functional improvement, well-managed rehab programs, and staff who go "above and beyond." Conversely, there are multiple, serious allegations of neglect and unsafe clinical care: delayed or missed medications (including pain meds), failure to attend to oxygen/suction needs, injuries sustained during care, and at least one report of a death attributed by a reviewer to caregiver failure. Privacy and dignity violations are described in detail (undressing without consent, dentures/glasses missing, blood draws performed without privacy or proper notification), and medication regimen changes (for dementia medications) without consultation with families are also reported. These accounts point to inconsistent clinical oversight and decision-making.
Staffing, training, and responsiveness: The most frequent theme is chronic understaffing. Reviewers consistently report long wait times for assistance, ignored call lights, residents left in soiled diapers for hours, and insufficient staff presence in evenings (no non-nursing evening staff or security). The facility’s reliance on agency and travel nurses is noted repeatedly; some reviewers tie poorer care and communication to temporary staff coverage. While many individual employees receive high praise and are described as caring and hardworking, there are also reports of poorly trained or incompetent aides, staff distractions (talking among themselves instead of assisting residents), and occasional rude or defensive interactions with families. These patterns suggest workforce instability and training/management gaps that produce highly variable day-to-day experiences.
Cleanliness, infection control, and facility condition: Multiple reviewers raise alarm about housekeeping and the physical plant. Problems include infrequent cleaning of public showers (reports of only once a week), feces observed in showers, gnats, rooms smelling of urine, and dried stool on floors. At the same time, some families describe the facility as clean and well-kept — again indicating inconsistency. Reviewers also mention outdated infrastructure: old hospital beds, lack of essential assistive equipment (no stand lifts or slide boards), no filtered water, and an overall “old” or “not cheerful” appearance. Infection control concerns arise in multiple summaries (no weekly COVID testing, pest issues), suggesting that cleaning and infection prevention protocols may be unevenly implemented.
Dining and dietary service: Dietary service is another recurring weak area. Several reviewers describe the absence of a dietitian during meals, dietary staff being off the clock, and unattractive or poor-quality food (examples include grilled cheese, tuna sandwiches, and greasy pizza). There are also positive notes from some families who say meals were acceptable, but the dominant pattern is that nutrition and meal oversight are inconsistent and sometimes inadequate, especially when staffing is low.
Management, communication, and recordkeeping: Reviewers frequently criticize facility leadership for being defensive, unresponsive, or slow to communicate. Complaints include not getting callback as requested, delayed or withheld medical records and test results, inaccurate incident reports, and a sense that management minimizes problems. Some reviewers, however, praise administrators and specific staff for being good listeners and for providing regular check-ins, indicating variability in leadership responsiveness or differences in managerial interactions across shifts or cases.
Activities, atmosphere, and community: Several reviews describe a warm, family-like atmosphere with active programming and residents who are engaged and well-attended. Families appreciate transportation, exercise therapy, and daily progress documentation for rehabilitation clients. Others report restrictive guest policies, unpleasant odors, and spaces that feel institutional and dated. These contrasts suggest the facility can offer a supportive community environment when staffing and housekeeping resources are adequate, but that experience is not universal.
Patterns and notable contradictions: The dominant pattern is inconsistency: many reviewers report exemplary individual caregivers and positive rehab outcomes, while an equal or greater number report neglectful care, safety incidents, and hygiene failures. This suggests that quality is highly dependent on staffing levels, shift, or which caregivers are on duty. Recurring specific issues include understaffing (leading to basic care lapses), reliance on agency staff, poor housekeeping practices, questionable management communication, and occasional serious safety incidents. Several reviews mention specific red flags such as privacy violations during blood draws, medication changes without consent, residents left without water or food for extended periods, and reports of feces in shared bathing areas.
Conclusion and implications: Families considering Rae-Ann Westlake should weigh the possibility of excellent, compassionate care from dedicated staff against repeated accounts of understaffing, hygiene lapses, and management shortcomings. If choosing this facility, prospective residents and families should ask detailed questions about staffing ratios, use of agency staff, cleaning schedules, availability of lifts and other assistive equipment, dietary oversight, medication administration protocols, and incident reporting practices. Visiting multiple times and speaking with current residents’ families about recent experiences (not just marketing tours) may help reveal whether the facility’s positive aspects are consistently delivered. For the facility itself, priorities to improve resident safety and satisfaction would include stabilizing staffing (reducing reliance on temporary staff), strengthening housekeeping and infection control, improving communication/transparency with families, and ensuring dignity/privacy protections and proper training for all caregivers.
