Former Harrisonburg Health and Rehab employee speaks out on ‘horrifying conditions’

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Harrisonburg Health and Rehabilitation Center is once again the target of allegations of patient neglect. This time, the claims come from a former employee who said she has had enough of seeing the facility in its current condition.

For over three years now, patients and their families have been speaking out about problems with the rehab center. WHSV was able to independently verify that the most recent person to make allegations was a former employee of the facility. Although she wishes to remain anonymous, she said the center needs to fix the “horrifying conditions.”

“How heartless can you be to just do this?” the former employee said. “By far the worst one that I’ve ever had to work in.”

Since 2022, several people have come forward, alleging unsanitary and dangerous conditions at the rehab center — including soiled diapers unchanged for hours, blood and drinks on the floor and residents suffering from dehydration and untreated bedsores.

One woman said her mother lost 60 pounds in just four weeks, and another said her father’s catheter was so neglected that it had black growth on it. Now, the former employee said it has not gotten any better after working there for several months.

“Some of them are so bad when they got sent down that they would not even come clean because how long they’ve been sitting for. So, it’s honestly hard to tell how long the residents were sitting on the pads for them to get like that before they were changed,” the former employee said. “Would you want to sit in your own feces for so long without anyone changing you or changing the pad or your pull-up or anything like that? It’s just really heartless.”

She said that after months of working in the laundry room and having feces- and blood-soaked linens sent down to her, she couldn’t stay any longer.

“It’s heartbreaking. Because sometimes you just want to go up there and do it yourself, but you know, if you do, you’re going to get in trouble for it,” the former employee said. “It’s kind of hard to just turn a blind eye and act like nothing’s happening.”

The former employee said she tried to speak with her managers about the problems and alleges her complaints were ignored.

“I felt like my feelings were just being disregarded, like she really didn’t care. That was just kind of really insulting, because when there’s a situation that severe, I feel like it should be taken seriously,” former employee said.

Now that she no longer works at the facility, the former employee said she hopes more people will speak out to help spur change and get these problems fixed.

“The residents there, they are so nice and just so loving, and they deserve more than what they’re getting. I want [staff] to take their jobs seriously, and when someone complains to them, I want them to do something about it, not just say, ‘Okay, I’ll take care of it,’ and never take care of it,” former employee said.

WHSV reached out to the facility’s management for a response to these allegations but have not yet heard back.

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