Sunset Manor Avera

    129 E Clay St, Irene, SD, 57037
    3.3 · 13 reviews
    • Assisted living
    • Memory care
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    1.0

    Unsafe uncaring staff, residents neglected

    I appreciated a few kind nurses, but my overall experience was awful - staff mostly uncaring, residents left to fall from beds, emergency services often unreachable because of terrible signal, and I don't feel it's safe; I would not recommend and think it should be shut down.

    Pricing

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    Amenities

    Healthcare services

    • Activities of daily living assistance
    • Assistance with bathing
    • Assistance with dressing
    • Assistance with transfers
    • Coordination with health care providers
    • Medication management

    Healthcare staffing

    • 24-hour supervision

    Meals and dining

    • Diabetes diet
    • Meal preparation and service
    • Special dietary restrictions

    Room

    • Cable
    • Fully furnished
    • Housekeeping and linen services
    • Telephone
    • Wifi

    Transportation

    • Transportation arrangement (medical)
    • Transportation to doctors appointments

    Community services

    • Move-in coordination

    Activities

    • Community-sponsored activities
    • Scheduled daily activities

    3.31 · 13 reviews

    Overall rating

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

      2.3
    • Staff

      3.7
    • Meals

      3.3
    • Amenities

      3.3
    • Value

      3.3

    Pros

    • Kind staff
    • Caring nursing staff
    • Loving and caring people
    • Some family appreciation reported

    Cons

    • Terrible signal reception
    • Inability to contact emergency services
    • Serious safety concerns
    • Residents allowed to fall from bed (neglect)
    • Uncaring and unfriendly staff
    • Reports of abuse
    • Facility described as unsafe and not recommended
    • Strongly negative overall ratings (one-star)

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment from the provided reviews is strongly negative, dominated by acute safety and emergency-communication concerns, though a small number of reviews praise individual staff members as kind and caring. The most urgent and recurrent complaint is that the facility has "terrible signal reception" and that staff or systems were unable to contact emergency services (police, ambulance, fire department, hospital). Reviewers explicitly link this communication failure to endangering residents, which raises a critical safety and regulatory concern rather than a simple convenience issue.

    Care quality is a central theme and is portrayed very negatively by multiple reviewers. Specific allegations include neglect (for example, residents "let... fall off bed") and statements calling the care "poor." Some reviews escalate their criticism to claims of abusive behavior and calls that the facility "should be shut down." These are among the most severe charges and reflect not only dissatisfaction but alleged harm. At the same time, a minority of comments describe "caring nursing staff" and "loving, caring people," indicating that positive experiences exist but appear inconsistent or limited in scope.

    Staff behavior and attitude are also a mixed but predominantly negative pattern. Several reviewers describe staff as "uncaring" and "unfriendly," and the overall tone from many reviewers is one of distrust and warning ("not safe for loved ones," "warning," "not recommended"). Conversely, some reviews single out specific staff as kind and deserving of appreciation. The coexistence of these opposing statements suggests variability in staff performance or differences in experiences across shifts, units, or individual caregivers.

    Facility issues extend beyond interpersonal care to operational problems. The explicitly mentioned "terrible signal reception" implies that both in-house and external communications may be unreliable. Given the reports that emergency services could not be contacted, this operational failure has direct implications for resident safety and crisis response. There is no detailed information in the reviews about the physical plant, cleanliness, dining, or recreational activities; the complaints focus overwhelmingly on safety, emergency response, and staff conduct rather than on meals or programming.

    Management and oversight themes are implicit but strong: reviewers express a belief that the facility is unsafe and, in some cases, that it should be shut down. Such language indicates a lack of confidence in management's ability to ensure resident safety and to address serious complaints. The prevalence of one-star and strongly negative ratings suggests systemic problems rather than isolated incidents, although the presence of positive remarks about certain staff suggests inconsistent standards or uneven implementation of care policies.

    Notable patterns and implications: (1) Safety and emergency responsiveness are the most frequently and urgently mentioned issues; these merit immediate investigation by families and regulators. (2) Care quality is described as poor or neglectful by several reviewers, including allegations of falls and abuse, which are among the most serious types of complaints for a senior living facility. (3) Staff performance appears inconsistent—some staff receive praise while others are described as uncaring—pointing to potential training, supervision, or staffing-level problems. (4) Reviews do not provide information about dining, activities, or many facility amenities, so no conclusions can be drawn about those areas from the available summaries.

    In summary, the dominant message from these reviews is a high level of concern about resident safety, emergency communication failures, and poor or abusive care—contrasted with a smaller set of reviews that praise individual staff members. Families and stakeholders reading these reviews should treat the safety-related allegations as priorities: verify emergency systems and protocols, ask facility management for evidence of functioning emergency communication and staffing/training policies, and consider regulatory or inspection records. The mixed reports of caring staff suggest there may be competent caregivers onsite, but the prevalence and severity of the negative comments indicate systemic issues that require prompt attention.

    Location

    Map showing location of Sunset Manor Avera

    About Sunset Manor Avera

    Sunset Manor Avera sits in Irene, South Dakota, where seniors can live more quietly in a small city, and the facility's been here since 1964, guided by Christian values from Avera and the local community with a Board of Directors from the Irene area, so while it's nonprofit and community-owned, it also keeps ties to the larger Avera Health network, which means Medicaid and Medicare are accepted and the care options line up with many different needs. You'll find services covering assisted living, skilled nursing, memory care for Alzheimer's or other dementia, independent living, adult day services, home care, hospice, long-term care, and rehabilitation, and it's always been focused on geriatric care, with specialized help for traumatic brain injury and challenging behavior programs, which not every facility around here does, and the numbers from 2023 say there were 58 Medicare/Medicaid-certified beds with 18,680 total resident days, so there's a lot of experience caring for different medical and daily needs. Residents have three meals a day served in a dining room, along with housekeeping and laundry services, and each apartment or suite includes heat and air conditioning, a kitchenette with a small fridge and sink, and a wireless call system, and there are smoke and fire detectors to improve safety, plus 24-hour on-site help if anyone needs assistance at any hour. You'll see common spaces like activity rooms, a beauty shop, a community room, devotional activities, and family can ask about floor plans and payment options to see what works best. The staff keep up with incontinence care, diabetic care, and non-ambulatory care, and there are independent and assisted living options, including support with bathing, dressing, or medication. Folks needing more medical care can move into the skilled nursing unit, which runs as a 50-bed nursing home, and those with memory challenges will see special programs for reducing confusion and making things feel safer. If you want to know about ratings, Sunset Manor Avera is included in CMS reviews for overall quality, health inspections, staffing, and care measures, but the latest details are best checked directly. Robin Stockland is the current head, and families can take tours to get a better feel for things. Sunset Manor Avera aims to give seniors a respectful and supportive place to live, whether it's for short stays, long-term nursing, memory care, or living as independently as they can, and right here in Irene, people get access to all the care types in one location without needing to move if their health changes down the road.

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