Sanilac Medical Care Facility

    137 North Elk Street, Sandusky, MI, 48471
    3.0 · 6 reviews
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    1.0

    Understaffed, unsafe care despite therapy

    I relied on this facility for almost two years. Some aides and nurses treated him like family and the daily physical therapy/private rehab room were excellent. But chronic understaffing led to slow or ignored call lights, bare-minimum care, bland food, boring activities, and serious safety concerns - nurses overmedicated him, failed to help feed him or manage his PICC line properly, lied about meds/care, and ignored dialysis dietary needs. Phones and emergency buttons were mishandled; despite a few caring staff, I can't recommend this place without new ownership or major changes.

    Pricing

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    Amenities

    Healthcare services

    • Activities of daily living assistance
    • Assistance with bathing
    • Assistance with dressing
    • Assistance with transfers
    • Medication management
    • Mental wellness program

    Healthcare staffing

    • 12-16 hour nursing
    • 24-hour call system
    • 24-hour supervision

    Meals and dining

    • Diabetes diet
    • Meal preparation and service
    • Restaurant-style dining
    • Special dietary restrictions

    Room

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

    Transportation

    • Community operated transportation
    • Transportation arrangement
    • Transportation arrangement (non-medical)

    Common areas

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

    Community services

    • Concierge services
    • Fitness programs
    • Move-in coordination

    Activities

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

    3.00 · 6 reviews

    Overall rating

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

      2.8
    • Staff

      2.4
    • Meals

      1.5
    • Amenities

      3.0
    • Value

      3.0

    Pros

    • Respectful and courteous staff
    • Staff treat residents like family
    • Aides and nurses described as caring
    • Exceptional staff who go above and beyond
    • Safe and comforting environment (per some reviewers)
    • Highly recommended by some family members
    • Daily physical therapy with regular updates
    • Private rehab room available
    • Long-term continuity of care (nearly two years reported)
    • Staff who bend over backwards to provide care

    Cons

    • Nurses not taking proper care
    • Overmedication / excessive painkiller use
    • Residents becoming incoherent or over-sedated
    • Staff failing to help feed residents
    • PICC line mismanagement by nursing staff
    • Staff dishonesty or lying about care
    • Understaffing and staffing shortages
    • Emergency call buttons withheld or inaccessible
    • Phones taken away or calls hung up
    • Slow response to call lights / call light delays
    • Failure to follow dietary instructions (dialysis patients)
    • Different / unequal treatment of residents
    • Rude staff reported by some reviewers
    • Activities are poor, boring, or insufficient
    • Residents confined to rooms / minimal engagement
    • Bare-minimum care and poor food quality
    • Concerns about overall safety and management

    Summary review

    The reviews for Sanilac Medical Care Facility present a strongly polarized picture of care and operations. Several reviewers describe exceptional, compassionate care where aides and nurses treated residents like family, provided daily physical therapy with updates, and used a private rehab room to support recovery. These positive reports emphasize staff who went above and beyond, created a comforting and safe environment for some residents, and earned strong recommendations from family members who experienced nearly two years of continuous care.

    Conversely, a substantial and distinct set of reviews outline serious concerns about clinical care, safety, and management. Multiple reviewers allege overmedication—particularly excessive use of painkillers—resulting in residents becoming incoherent or sedated. There are specific medical management complaints including PICC line mismanagement and not following dietary instructions for dialysis patients. Several accounts accuse staff of dishonesty about the care provided and of withholding emergency call buttons, taking phones away, or hanging up on calls, which raises acute safety concerns.

    Staffing and responsiveness are recurring themes. Many reviews point to understaffing as a root cause of problems: slow responses to call lights, call light delays, aides not assisting with feeding, and overall bare-minimum care. At the same time, other reviewers praise individual staff members and teams for exceptional attentiveness, suggesting significant inconsistency in staffing performance or variable shift-to-shift experiences. This pattern indicates uneven care quality that can depend heavily on which staff are on duty.

    Activities, engagement, and dining receive mostly negative comments. Several reviewers describe activities as poor or boring and state that residents often remain in their rooms with little social or recreational programming. Food quality is repeatedly described as poor or bland, compounding dissatisfaction for families and residents who expect better nutrition and engagement in a long-term care setting.

    Management and systemic issues are also highlighted. Reports of staff lying about medications or care, phones being taken, calls disconnected, and calls for new ownership or closure reflect a lack of trust among some family members. These allegations, combined with the safety-related claims (withheld call buttons, medication mismanagement), suggest potential problems with oversight, training, incident reporting, and accountability.

    Overall, reviews indicate a divided experience at Sanilac Medical Care Facility: some families encounter compassionate, high-quality care and effective rehab services, while others experience serious lapses in clinical care, responsiveness, and safety. The most consistent patterns in the negative reviews are understaffing, medication and clinical management concerns, poor dining and activities, and inconsistent staff performance. Prospective residents and families should weigh both the positive and negative reports, seek specific information about staffing levels, medication management protocols, call-light response times, dietary accommodations for medical conditions, and recent inspection or incident reports. Visiting the facility at different times, speaking with current families, and asking management for documentation of training, staffing ratios, and clinical oversight would help clarify whether Sanilac can meet an individual’s care needs reliably.

    Location

    Map showing location of Sanilac Medical Care Facility

    About Sanilac Medical Care Facility

    Sanilac Medical Care Facility has been caring for seniors since 1968, serving as a county medical care facility with skilled nursing, rehab, and long-term compassionate care all under one roof, and folks have even seen it expand a couple of times over the years, in 1978 and 1996, so the place is set up to handle a good-sized group. The facility has room for about 60 residents in its nursing home area, and every year sees around 150 new admissions come through the doors, with a team of about 150 employees on hand, which includes registered nurses, assistant directors of nursing, a therapy staff, and medical staff like Dr. Buttar, Lori Nugent the Physician Assistant, and Dr. Tan. Residents can expect care 24 hours a day, every single day, and the team works with individual plans for each person's needs, whether someone's staying for a short stint or settling in long term.

    Sanilac Medical Care Facility is part of a bigger network with other senior communities and assisted living places nearby so they know how to handle different stages of care, from folks who need just a little help to those who need specialized support. The staff can help people with disabilities or illnesses by giving them accessible living spaces, and they make sure residents who use wheelchairs or who can walk but need some help can get around safely. Residents with dementia or Alzheimer's can stay in the specialized dementia unit, which has a more homelike and secure environment, with dining areas, living rooms, and a locked courtyard so residents can wander safely and not feel boxed in. Staff in that dementia unit have training to help with memory issues and do their best to keep residents as independent as they can, treating each person with respect and dignity.

    The place provides different services like independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, respite care, and even home care when needed, and those who move in often come with different legal and insurance details-the office can handle all that paperwork, whether it's Power of Attorney, Guardianship, Social Security, or insurance cards like Medicare, Medicaid, or BC/BS and AARP, and they help process transfer forms for those coming from other facilities. Residents can bring televisions, and the Maintenance Department will get those set up, while the Laundry Department keeps everyone's clothes in order. Amenities support the needs of people in retirement and 55+ communities, and the Social Services department tries to make sure everyone feels welcome and safe.

    Therapists work with residents on speech and other rehab needs, while the Activities program offers both group and personal pursuits to keep days interesting. For folks visiting or thinking about moving in, there's a map of the facility and tour options, giving a real look at the building, staff, and people living there. Sanilac Medical Care Facility emphasizes routine and independence, with holistic programs looking at the resident's body, mind, and spirit, and there's always an effort to foster communication among families, care staff, and residents. The whole place feels like it's about balancing care with a sense of home, giving people a structured but supportive place to live as independently as possible for as long as they can.

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