Life Care Center of Westminster

Dirty, terrible food and under staffed.

Life Care Center of Westminster provides rehabilitation services that can't be beat. Caring therapists took time to ensure my mom had everything that she needed. The nursing staff were caring and attentive, and when we thought we had a problem with how long my mom would have before leaving; administrators responded quickly, and resolved our issues immediately. Everybody was so helpful and friendly, they all knew my and my families names and said hello every time they saw us. I couldn't ask for a better place for mom.

Life Care was very busy at dinner time. I thought that the carpet was dirty and the walls were pretty badly damaged in various areas. I felt like everybody was rushing around and didn’t have a lot of time to spend with people, and there wasn’t enough staff. The staff was friendly. They had an exercise room.

We chose Life Care Center of Westminster because it got excellent reviews from a govt. ratings site (the Federal Center Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). My mother-in-law was there for almost 4 years until she died. The reviews, however, were very misleading as we were to later discover. Staffing was said to be better than average. If that's true, then average is not at all good. The only time there were lots of staff were when govt. auditors were scheduled to appear (BTW, the nursing home knew in advance when the auditors would show up, so it was very easy to bring in staff in advance). My wife spent almost every single day visiting her mother, even if for only an hour or two. However, many times she stayed for half a day or more. She has eyes, she could see that there was NOT enough staff to provide the services she was told by management that would be provided. Management, however, thought they were adequately staffed, even over staffed. Of course they did, they're management and Life Care Center is a "for profit" company. So, in my opinion, the most important criteria was providing more millions of dollars into the pockets of the top few people; the money was not spent for staffing or to those who actually did the "dirty work" day after day after day. Despite the adverse way that management ran the center, the nurses and CNAs treated my mother-in-law with as good a care as possible under their limited circumstances (because of being responsible for too many residents). Because of being understaffed, they were not able to do what was originally promised by management that would be done. That is why my wife ended up doing for her mother what should have been done by the staff. Again, nothing was the fault of the nurses or CNAs; management was totally responsible for the (lack of) care. All things being said, Life Care Center is a nursing home after all, and no nursing home can disguise the purpose of those permanently residing there. I would heartily recommend that if you are looking for a nursing home that you strongly consider one that is non profit.