Palo Alto Sub-acute and Rehabilitation Center

    911 Bryant Street, Palo Alto, CA, 94301
    1.5 · 6 reviews
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    1.0

    Neglectful care, unsafe, poor rehab

    I placed my father here after knee surgery and overall I was very disappointed. The facility was short-staffed and ill-trained-long waits for call lights, slow responses, poor communication, and even a roommate fell out of bed. Rehab and doctor contact were minimal, staff didn't provide individualized care, and the awful, sour, unimaginative food caused weight loss and eventually an ambulance transfer. Security, activities (bingo, church) and PT/speech were positives, but unprofessional behavior and rooms not as pictured made this a negative experience.

    Pricing

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    Amenities

    Healthcare services

    • Accept incoming residents on hospice
    • Activities of daily living assistance
    • Administer insulin injections
    • Assistance with bathing
    • Assistance with dressing
    • Assistance with transfers
    • Coordination with health care providers
    • Diabetes care
    • Medication management
    • Mental wellness program
    • Physical therapy
    • Rehabilitation program

    Healthcare staffing

    • 12-16 hour nursing
    • 24-hour call system
    • 24-hour supervision
    • Same day assessments

    Meals and dining

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

    Room

    • Air-conditioning
    • Cable
    • Fully furnished
    • Housekeeping and linen services
    • Kitchenettes
    • Private bathrooms
    • Telephone
    • Wifi

    Memory care community services

    • Care with behavioral issues
    • Mild cognitive impairment
    • Parkinson's care

    Transportation

    • Community operated transportation
    • Transportation arrangement
    • Transportation arrangement (medical)
    • Transportation to doctors appointments

    Common areas

    • Beauty salon
    • Computer center
    • Dining room
    • Fitness room
    • Gaming room
    • Garden
    • Outdoor patio
    • Outdoor space
    • Small library
    • Wellness center

    Community services

    • Concierge services
    • Family education and support services
    • Fitness programs
    • Move-in coordination

    Activities

    • Community-sponsored activities
    • Continuing learning programs
    • Planned day trips
    • Resident-run activities
    • Scheduled daily activities

    1.50 · 6 reviews

    Overall rating

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

      1.8
    • Staff

      1.5
    • Meals

      1.0
    • Amenities

      1.0
    • Value

      1.5

    Pros

    • Physical therapy (PT) staff praised
    • Speech therapy services praised
    • Security presence noted as good
    • Activities calendar provided
    • Bingo and church visit programs
    • Individualized care plans mentioned
    • Some staff described as OK/acceptable

    Cons

    • Chronic understaffing/short-handed staff
    • Long wait times for assistance
    • Delayed call‑light responses
    • Staff appear poorly trained and lack procedure knowledge
    • Minimal physician/doctor interaction
    • Unprofessional staff behavior
    • Poor food quality (sour, insipid, unimaginative)
    • Weight loss and nutrition concerns
    • Rooms not as pictured / room condition issues
    • Safety incidents (roommate fell out of bed)
    • Poor or no meaningful rehabilitation for some residents
    • Communication problems with staff/management
    • Ambulance transfers / emergency care concerns
    • Residents not treated with dignity or as individuals

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment across the reviews is predominantly negative with a few specific positives. The clearest strengths reported are therapy-related services (physical therapy and speech therapy), a visible security presence, and a range of activities such as an activities calendar, bingo, and church visits. Some reviewers also noted that individualized care plans exist for residents and that certain staff members were acceptable. However, these positives are outweighed by frequent, consistent complaints about basic day-to-day care, staffing, food, safety, and communication.

    Care quality and rehabilitation: Reviewers give a mixed picture of rehabilitation. Several reviewers singled out PT and speech therapy as positive aspects, indicating these services can be effective. At the same time, multiple reports describe little or no meaningful rehabilitation for some residents, suggesting inconsistent therapy quality or inconsistent access. Nutrition and recovery-supportive care are major concerns: numerous comments describe poor food quality (sour, insipid, unimaginative meals), residents being unable to eat, and resulting weight loss. These dietary problems were highlighted as undermining recovery and basic well-being.

    Staffing, training, and behavior: A dominant theme is chronic understaffing. Reviews repeatedly mention being short-handed, long wait times for assistance, and slow or delayed responses to call lights. Beyond numbers, reviewers report that staff seem ill-trained or lack procedural knowledge, and that interactions with staff sometimes feel unprofessional. Several accounts describe minimal interaction with physicians and poor communication between staff and families. Some reviews state that staff did not treat residents with dignity or as persons, indicating problems with culture and person-centered care in addition to training gaps.

    Safety and facilities: Safety-related incidents were reported, including at least one roommate falling out of bed, which raises concerns about supervision and bed safety practices. Room condition complaints include rooms not matching online pictures, implying disappointment with the physical accommodations. On the positive side, security was called out as good, suggesting a level of campus safety is maintained even while staffing shortages affect care delivery.

    Dining and nutrition: Dining is one of the most frequently and emphatically criticized areas. Words used by reviewers include horrible, very bad, sour, insipid, unimaginative, and boring. Multiple reviewers linked the food to weight loss and inadequate nutrition during recovery. Given the importance of nutrition to rehabilitation outcomes, the repeated negative reports about meal quality and availability are a significant recurring problem that multiple reviewers identified as affecting overall care.

    Activities, communication, and management: Activities such as bingo and church visits are available and appreciated by some residents. However, reviewers frequently cited communication problems, both about care plans and day-to-day issues. While individualized care plans were mentioned as a positive in some cases, reviewers also noted that care differed widely by case and that residents’ individual needs were not consistently met. This inconsistency points to management and operational gaps—policies or plans may exist but are not reliably implemented.

    Notable patterns and overall conclusion: The most consistent, high-frequency issues are understaffing, poor food/nutrition, slow response times to call lights, and inconsistent or inadequate training of staff. Positive remarks are concentrated in therapy services and some recreational offerings, but these do not fully counterbalance the structural and day-to-day problems cited. Families and residents should be aware of potential safety and nutrition issues and expect variable quality in rehabilitation and staff interactions. If considering this facility, ask targeted questions about staffing ratios, call-light response times, meal planning and nutrition monitoring, how individualized care plans are enforced, and specific examples of physician involvement and staff training to verify whether recent improvements have been made.

    Location

    Map showing location of Palo Alto Sub-acute and Rehabilitation Center

    About Palo Alto Sub-acute and Rehabilitation Center

    Palo Alto Sub-acute and Rehabilitation Center has 66 certified beds and is part of Covenant Care. This place provides skilled nursing, sub-acute care, and several types of rehabilitation for people recovering from surgery, injury, or illness, and the nurses and certified nursing assistants are there all day and night, seven days a week, which helps make sure residents get care at any time, and obviously with 4.40 nurse hours per resident per day, they work hard, though the nurse turnover rate is a bit high at 42%. The facility is certified for both Medicare and Medi-Cal and does many things to help each patient get to their best possible level of function, with physical, occupational, and speech therapists who can work on therapy up to seven days a week and all sorts of specialists like audiology, dentistry, psychiatry, podiatry, ophthalmology, and more coming in as needed, not to mention the social services team who helps with transportation for appointments outside, so people don't need to worry as much about getting to the doctor.

    Staff there speak English, certain Filipino dialects, and Spanish, and they can use picture communication aids if needed, so folks who don't speak much English can still have their needs understood, and families can even bring their pets to visit, just so long as they talk about it with the charge nurse first. Palo Alto Sub-acute and Rehabilitation Center supports both short-term and long-term stays, with monthly activities that cover Bingo, cooking, movies, arts and crafts, going out for outings, petting zoo visits, music, physical fitness, church services, and more, trying to give people things to enjoy and look forward to, plus a hair salon that's open Sundays and Mondays for folks who want a trim or a wash, and it's nice for people to do things they used to do at home, even something as simple as lunch in an open dining room or having their blood pressure and pulse taken by the CNAs who also help out with meals, dressing, and bathing.

    Doctors visit the center every month and are always on call, which is something people like, and there's a big focus on infection control, though inspections have found issues, including 30 total deficiencies in things like food safety, infection protocols, and how garbage gets handled, and the place has been told to improve how it buys food and disposes of trash, so it's something to consider if safety is a concern. They do have a registered dietitian and a dietary supervisor who watch the meals, but the kitchen has had some troubles in the past. The nurses keep up with wound care, diabetic management, pain, continence, contractures, and skin health, and there are special programs for stroke recovery, orthopedic fractures, and respiratory care, as well as services like tracheostomy, hospice, ostomy and PICC line care, cardiac recovery, outpatient therapy, IV therapy, TPN/PPN, and support for feeding tubes, and people can even leave the facility temporarily as long as there's a doctor's order, except for some Medicare Part A patients who have different rules.

    The care teams hold walking rounds together to check in with each person and make sure care plans stay up to date, adjusting as people get better or have new needs, and the therapists and nurses seem attentive and try to help each person get back to their regular life or adapt to a new normal, and the discharge process is organized so people can go home when they're ready. Palo Alto Sub-acute and Rehabilitation Center accepts admissions any time of day, and staff work to be welcoming and responsive, though like many places there are things to keep an eye on and areas where improvements have been needed, especially in the kitchen and infection control, but they provide a wide range of medical and rehabilitation services aimed at helping residents regain function and independence.

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