Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center

    25 Sunnybrook Road, Raleigh, NC, 27610
    2.0 · 29 reviews
    • Memory care
    • Skilled nursing
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    1.0

    Severe neglect understaffed poor leadership

    I had a mixed but mostly awful experience at Sunnybrook. A few caregivers, therapists and the social worker were caring and the food/therapy could be good, but chronic understaffing and poor leadership led to severe neglect: ignored call lights, soiled diapers left on residents, delayed meds, dehydration, falls, pressure wounds and infections. The building felt old, dingy and dirty (bad smells, stains, bugs, clogged toilets) and communication with family was inconsistent or defensive. A handful of staff tried hard, but systemic problems make me unable to recommend this place.

    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

    2.00 · 29 reviews

    Overall rating

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

      1.9
    • Staff

      2.2
    • Meals

      2.6
    • Amenities

      1.6
    • Value

      2.0

    Pros

    • Caring, attentive individual nurses and CNAs reported by some families
    • Skilled and effective therapy teams (PT/OT) with fast results
    • Helpful social worker (Miss Allison) and supportive rehab program manager/DON
    • Occasional traveling nurses providing attentive care
    • Some residents experienced enjoyable therapy and social staff engagement
    • Positive reports of meals (described as delicious and affordable by some)
    • Clean and well-run experiences reported by some families
    • Available amenities and activities in some reports (hair salon, game nights, programs)

    Cons

    • Severe understaffing, especially nights and weekends
    • Staff neglect of incontinent patients and poor hygiene care
    • Residents left in soiled diapers or underwear for extended periods
    • Delayed or ignored call lights and slow medication administration
    • Falls and injuries during transfers; unsafe handling
    • Unsafe discharges with no wound care supplies or instructions
    • Pressure injuries/moisture-associated skin damage (including stage 2 pressure ulcer)
    • Poor communication with families and misinformation about care
    • Unprofessional or defensive management and leadership problems
    • Dirty, filth-covered facilities (feces, dried blood, strong urine/other odors)
    • Pest problems (roaches, crickets, bed bugs) and general maintenance neglect
    • High staff turnover and inconsistent CNA/nursing assignments
    • Multiple patients per room and shared bathrooms against expectations
    • Reports of overmedicating and lack of POA consent/consultation
    • Inadequate nutrition or poor food quality in many reports
    • Lack of activities or social engagement for residents in numerous accounts
    • COVID-related visitation restrictions and multiple outbreak reports
    • Clinical complications reported post-admission (urosepsis, dehydration, infections, ER transfers, death)
    • Old, run-down building and broken/poor equipment (wheelchairs, TVs)
    • Front desk/unresponsive administrative staff and admission issues
    • Allegations of rough handling, bruising, and hastened decline in some cases

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment across the reviews is highly mixed but leans strongly negative, with frequent and serious complaints about basic care, safety, and facility cleanliness counterbalanced by a smaller number of reports praising individual staff members, therapy outcomes, and meals. The most commonly recurring themes are understaffing and inconsistent caregiving, which reviewers link to neglectful practices (especially around incontinence care), delayed responses to call bells and medication requests, and unsafe clinical events such as falls, pressure injuries, and preventable infections. Several reviewers described particularly alarming incidents — residents left in soiled diapers or underwear for long periods, dried blood and feces found on floors and bedside potties, delays of 30+ minutes for pain medication, and discharge without necessary wound care supplies or instructions. These concrete safety and hygiene failures create a pattern suggesting systemic staffing and supervision problems rather than isolated lapses.

    Care quality and clinical safety are central concerns. Multiple reviews report clinical complications after admission — urosepsis, dehydration, bedsores/moisture-associated skin damage including a stage 2 pressure ulcer, kidney/bladder infections, emergency room transfers, and at least one death mentioned in connection to poor or delayed care. There are also allegations of overmedication and administration of sedatives without consulting power-of-attorney (POA), and instances where families were told misinformation about a patient’s condition or care. At least one reviewer reported a fall during transfer, and others noted bruises or suspected rough handling. These reports combine to indicate persistent problems with clinical oversight, care coordination, and discharge planning (for example, unsafe discharge with no wound-care instructions or supplies).

    Staffing and staff behavior are described inconsistently across reviews. Numerous reviewers emphasize understaffing, especially at night and weekends, leading to long waits for assistance and neglected basic needs. High staff turnover and inconsistent CNA assignments are frequently mentioned. Many reviewers characterize staff as unresponsive, uncaring, or unprofessional; some cite defensive management and poor communication. Conversely, a subset of reviews praise individual caregivers — named CNAs (e.g., Fatima), traveling nurses, therapists, the director of nursing, the rehab program manager, and a social worker (Miss Allison) — as compassionate, responsive, and effective. Therapy teams receive repeated positive comments about producing quick functional improvements and being communicative. This polarizing feedback suggests that while some staff members deliver high-quality, empathetic care, those experiences are uneven and may depend on timing, shifts, or specific personnel.

    Facility condition, hygiene, and maintenance emerge as another major area of concern. Many reviews describe the building as old, dingy, and in need of remodeling; common complaints include foul odors (urine and other smells), stained or dirty floors, dust-filled vents, clogged toilets, reused garbage bags, and sightings of pests such as roaches, crickets, and bed bugs. More severe hygiene issues are reported too: dried blood and feces on floors and bedrails, unclean bedside potties, and generally filthy rooms. Some reviewers, however, describe the facility as very clean and note good food and programming — again reflecting a split in experiences. Problems with equipment (broken TVs, wheelchairs lacking footrests, old beds) are also noted, contributing to the perception of neglect in maintenance.

    Dining and activities receive mixed reviews. Several families praised meals as delicious and inexpensive, and some residents enjoyed programs like game nights and a hair salon. Other reviewers found the food unappetizing or insufficient (examples include repeated cheese sandwiches), and many complained of a lack of activities, social engagement, or meaningful programming for residents. This inconsistency in dining and activities mirrors the overall pattern of varied experiences: some residents benefit from robust services, while others experience a bare-bones, understimulating environment.

    Management, communication, and administrative practices are frequently criticized. Reviewers report poor family communication, delays in updates, refusal to allow family communication at times, defensive leadership, and problems at the front desk during admission and inquiries. COVID-related visitation restrictions raised tensions and distrust in some cases; multiple reviewers mentioned outbreaks and strict isolation protocols that limited rehabilitation and social interaction. There are also concerns about value for money — promises of private rooms not kept, early discharges, and billing/placement issues. Several reviewers called for regulatory attention, suggesting the facility should be shut down based on perceived risks to resident safety.

    Notable patterns and overall assessment: The reviews reveal a facility with significant variability in care quality. Positive reports consistently point to specific individuals or teams (notably therapy staff, some CNAs, and certain nurses or managers) who deliver compassionate and effective care. However, the volume and severity of negative reports — especially those detailing neglect, hygienic failures, clinical complications, and systemic understaffing — indicate that these positive experiences are not reliably replicable across the facility or over time. The most concerning and recurrent issues are failures in basic hygiene and incontinence care, slow or absent responses to call bells and pain medication requests, poor discharge practices, pest and cleanliness problems, and managerial/communication breakdowns. Taken together, these patterns suggest systemic operational and staffing deficiencies that create safety and dignity risks for residents, even while pockets of good care exist.

    If using these reviews to inform placement decisions, prospective residents and families should visit in person, ask targeted questions about staffing ratios (especially nights/weekends), infection-control practices, wound-care and discharge protocols, policies on medication administration and POA notification, and the frequency and content of therapy and activities. Ask to see recent inspection reports and documentation of corrective actions for cited hygiene, pest, or clinical-safety issues. Be aware that experiences appear highly shift- and staff-dependent: some residents receive exemplary care, while others report neglect and unsafe conditions. The pattern across reviews points to a need for stronger oversight, consistent staffing, and improved communication and hygiene practices to address the recurring, serious problems described by multiple families.

    Location

    Map showing location of Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center

    About Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center

    Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center sits on Sunnybrook Road in Raleigh, North Carolina, with 95 certified beds and an average of about 83 residents each day, and you'll find both private and semi-private rooms here, along with a range of services that focus on recovery after surgery, serious illness, or for those needing longer-term care, and they have skilled nurses and caregivers available around the clock, although nurse turnover has been high lately at 55.3% which is a bit above the state average, and nurses spend about 3.75 hours per resident each day, which is just a little less than what other homes in the state show. The facility got a total of 14 deficiencies in recent inspections, including one related to infection and a couple with potential for harm, like staff not always telling residents or their families about bed holds if someone gets moved to the hospital or is on a hospital leave, and another about pharmacy services not always making sure drug plans are free from unnecessary medicine, but there's been no official harm from these things, just the potential for some problems down the line.

    Southern Healthcare Management LLC has run the center since 2014, and the place is part of Sovereign Healthcare Holdings and uses the business name Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center LLC, though some people might still remember it as Hillhaven Sunnybrook Center or Sunnybrook Healthcare, but regardless of the name, someone coming here will see large rooms with a homemaking feel, landscaped grounds, a pleasant courtyard, indoor and outdoor common spaces, activity areas, a library, dining spaces, and even salon services, so you do get many of those comforts that help with daily life, and they try to keep things friendly and supportive. Care here covers both inpatient residential stays for folks who need permanent care and short-term stays following a hospital visit with 24-hour nurse coverage, plus outpatient services and a special Post COVID-19 Recovery Program for people who've been in the hospital with COVID-19 and still need help getting back on their feet.

    Sunnybrook has therapy services like Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy that run up to seven days a week in a dedicated Rehabilitation Gym, and there's telemedicine equipment on hand for virtual doctor visits both during the day and after hours, which can help with medical needs that pop up outside the usual work hours. The team uses clinical programs aimed at boosting recovery and works on drug abuse information and recovery if that's a concern, along with providing specialty programs for different recovery needs thanks to ongoing staff training on newer equipment. There's a focus on senior care and skilled nursing, and the place keeps a steady rhythm with newspaper delivery, phone and cable TV, laundry, meal services, and easy access to common activity areas so residents have the basics covered. It's not BBB-accredited, but is tied to the North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association, and is always open, with admissions and therapy available all week, managed by administrator Hannah McIntyre. The aim here is to offer a caring, steady environment with programs and amenities made for comfort and steady recovery, and while things aren't perfect, staff put in regular work with resources and features to help people feel cared for during their stay.

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