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.
