Information from Ohio nursing lawyer, Blake Dickson, and publicly available information

The Arbors West nursing home is a 94 bed nursing home located at 375 West Main Street in West Jefferson, Ohio.  It is part of the Arbors chain of nursing homes.  

As you can see from our list, there are 16 Arbors nursing homes listed on our list of some of the worst nursing homes in Ohio.  

The Arbors West nursing home has a staffing rating of 2 out of 5 stars, which is below average.  

The Arbors in Ohio chain has a staffing rating that is below the national average.  

The Arbors West nursing home recently had ten deficiencies recorded, one total penalty enforced, and eight complaints reported.  They received a federal fine of $3,900.00.  The most recent standard inspection found 15 deficiencies, including infection control violations, failure to procure food from approved sources, and store, prepare, distribute, and serve that food in accordance with professional standards, failure to make sure that the nursing home area is safe, easy to use, clean, and comfortable, failure to develop a complete care plan within 7 days of the comprehensive assessment of a resident, failure to ensure medication, error rates are not 5 percent or greater, failure to provide safe, appropriate dialysis care, and pharmacy service deficiencies related to psychotropic medication oversight.  

In a January 2025 complaint, Arbors West was cited for failure to protect each resident for all types of abuse, such as physical, mental, sexual abuse, physical punishment, and neglect.  

In an October 2024 complaint, Arbors West was cited for failure to reasonably accommodate the needs and preferences of each resident, failure to provide care and assistance to perform activities of daily living for any resident who is unable, and failure to provide each resident with a nursing palpable, well-balanced diet.  

The Arbors West nursing home has received 39 deficiencies in the last 3 years.  They failed to properly handle, store, and transport soiled linens.  One resident stated during an interview, that one morning a day shift nurse's aide found towels filled with feces lying on the floor.  In the past, the facility failed to prevent misappropriation of a resident's narcotic pain medication.  The incident involved a resident who had unclear speech, rarely made himself understood, and was moderately impaired for daily decision-making.  The resident was on a scheduled pain medication, but documentation showed that he had not received any opioids in the last 7 days.  

The nursing home is owned by ARK OPCO GROUP, LLC.  The Dickson Firm has a lot of experience with ARK OPCO GROUP, LLC.  According to Medicare, the following have operational and manager of control of the nursing home; Craig Flashner, Noble Healthcare Management, LLC, Yitzchok Perlstein, and Prestige Administrative Services, LLC.  

The citations and complaints against this nursing home show a very concerning pattern.  What is also of concern is that this entire chain of nursing homes has numerous facilities, which have significant problems with patient care, and these problems do not seem to be getting addressed.  This causes concern for a group of owners, who own and operate nursing homes, but are not committed to providing proper patient care.  

Narcotics theft is a very big problem in nursing homes.  Many nursing home residents receive narcotic pain medication.  However, many of those nursing home residents are not able to communicate.  They are either demented because of Alzheimer's or some other issue.  Or they are confused.  Or they have memory issues.  Or they simply cannot speak.  The problem is that they are supposed to get pain medication to relieve their pain.  If a caregiver chooses to pocket that medication, and then record that it was given, it is very hard to discover what has happened.  The nursing home resident is unable to tell anybody what has happened.  And so they continue to be in pain.  The record indicates that they got their scheduled pain medication.  And the caregiver winds up stealing the narcotics, and either selling them, or using them for his or her personal use.  

When a nursing home like this has complaints that there are linens filled with feces in the hallway, it is usually an indication of significant understaffing.  There are not enough nurses and aides, and as a result, they do not have the time to properly change the beds in the facility, and get all the materials into the laundry.  They do not have the time to clean the residents up, and so the residents wind up defecating in their beds.  The staff then just takes the bedsheets, and throws them in the hallway.  Often there are not enough housekeeping staff, and so they are not able to keep up with the laundry.  

According to the Pro Publica Nursing Home inspected database, the facility has had violations including failure to procure food from approved sources and store and prepared according to professional standards, failure to ensure the nursing home area is safe and comfortable for residents and failure to develop complete care plans within 7 days of assessments.  The facility has had multiple complaints.

A January 6, 2025 complaint investigation cited the facility for "Failure to protect each resident from all types of abuse such as physical, mental, sexual abuse, physical punishment, and neglect by anybody."

An October 10, 2024 complaint report cited 4 deficiencies including failure to accommodate resident needs, provide a safe environment, assist with daily living activities, and provide proper nutrition.

Federal investigators imposed a monetary fine of $3,214 on January 27, 2017, citing substandard care. 

Employee reviews paint a troubling picture of working conditions:

• "Management is awful and rude there! So much favoritism. I would NOT send anyone there for work! They have NO staff and can't keep staff. They work short all the time—aides and nurses! Everyone is suffering, especially the residents!”

• "I've worked in elder care and skilled nursing facilities for most of my adult life and while I have worked at some awful facilities, this place was the absolute worst."

• "There was no training. You just got thrown into a job and told to do it, with no training at all. This is dangerous, especially if a resident is on a specific diet or is a fall risk."

• "Too bad they never work with a full staff. If by miracle a full staff shows up, someone is sent home. Too many bosses, not enough staffing on floor."

Reviews describe the facility as noisy, with complaints about food quality and cleanliness issues including cockroaches. Some reviewers express concerns over medical treatment refusal and mistreatment of residents. There are complaints about staff turnover and the facility's refusal to connect callers with residents. 

These reviews are particularly concerning because they seem to speak to a pattern of understaffing.  Understaffing is the source of most issues in nursing homes.  As the one citation indicates above, nursing homes are legally obligated to provide their residents with adequate supervision to prevent accidents.  They are also legally obligated to provide their residents with a safe environment.  They are not able to do this without enough staff.  

If a facility is understaffed, it is simply not possible to provide adequate supervision to all the residents.  This often leads to falls.  Falls are one of the most serious concerns facing nursing homes, and can often be fatal.  Understaffing also leads to the formation of bedsores.  If there is not enough staff to turn and reposition the residents every two (2) hours, and sometimes more frequently, then they will develop bedsores.  Bedsores are caused by unrelieved pressure.  When the nursing home residents are not turned as often as they are supposed to be turned, they will develop skin breakdown.  When a nursing home does not have sufficient staff, there is simply no way to turn and reposition all the residents who need assistance.

All in all, this raises grave concerns for the quality of care at this facility.  We at The Dickson Firm would strongly recommend that if you have a loved one at the Arbors West nursing home that you consider placing them in another facility.  If you are considering placing your loved one in a nursing home in and around West Jefferson, Ohio, we strongly recommend that you consider other nursing homes where they will likely receive better care.  

If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1-800-OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you, and help you in any way that we can.