NHC Healthcare - Cookeville

My family member stayed at NHC for six months after a stroke left her unable to walk and use one of her arms. Some of the staff are absolutely phenomenal; LPN Lonna, CNA Courtney, and PTA Emily truly cared about my relative and did everything in their power to make her feel comfortable. That said, as in any nursing home, the CNAs are understaffed and underpaid, and it often took half an hour for them to answer the call button, resulting in avoidable accidents. Another complaint I have is that the physical and occupational therapy was much less intensive than it should have been during the critical first year after a stroke. I got the sense that the nursing home sees itself as the place families drop their loved ones, and just waits on them to pass. (This is probably true for all nursing homes, not just this NHC!) A resident that was there at the same time as my relative had her stomach pain ignored and died that night, but it was brushed off as "old age" without considering possible negligence. The food is subpar. My relative ate only the desserts, of which they provided too many, especially since she's diabetic. One evening, the sandwich bread was so stale it was hard. Meal timing is also inconsistent.

There is a reason this facility has won multiple awards. They are truly awesome from the minute you walk in the front door. The staff is amazing, the every thing is kept clean and you can see that that is a priority. My mom stayed for about 2 months for rehab after back surgery. The care she was given was impeccable!!’ Every person that we came into contact with was kind, caring, and wanting to do their job caring for residents. They met moms needs in far more ways then I could have ever expected. ALL of the staff was fantastic but Lona, Bryn, Tiss, Carolyn, Sam, Paige, Megan, Amanda, and Rita need an extra shout out as these are just SOME of the people that worked directly with mom the most while she was there but I cannot say enough that everyone was fantastic. We were very concern about having to use a skilled nursing center but literally from the minute we toured we could clearly see this place stood out from the other options.