Westwood Center Bluefield, VA

I had a chance to visit Westwood many times. It looks good, but from the outside it looks more like a hospital than an assisted living. The nurse station is glass enclosed, not open. They’re busy; they're all working and are not overly friendly. They don’t have the time to stop and be pleasant. They need to be more patient-oriented. The rooms were just plain ordinary rooms with two windows. They have a bathroom -- just an ordinary bathroom nothing particularly special. The beds were regular hospital beds with a call light. I did see people in an activity room, but these people looked to me to be very, very sick, and there wasn’t a great deal of activity going on. Everything could be decorated a little differently. It could be more of a bedroom setting, a special chair for company, and a more comfortable chair. It could have brighter bedspreads in different rooms instead of everybody being the same color. Everything needs to be dusted every day, and the garbage needs to be emptied at the end of every shift. First of all, it makes the patient better because the rooms are tidy. It makes visitors feel better because it’s not so cluttered. They need fresh water every shift, and patients need to be encouraged to drink.