Laura Lee's Adult Family Home in Shaker Heights, OH

Pros

• The place is absolutely beautiful.
• Kaycee's tour was very informative.
• The community is highly attractive and well run to support residents and staff.
• Harbor Chase is beautiful, comfortable, and feels like home.
• Under Terry Hornikel's leadership, Harbor Chase is poised to be an exceptional place to live.
• The dining team provides outstanding, friendly, and attentive service.
• The food is excellent and the service is exceptional.
• The staff are uniformly polite, kind, and caring toward residents.
• Harbor Chase offers engaging activities and a calming, uplifting atmosphere.
• Ms. Pat Mosby provides outstanding service during celebrations and events.
• Patrice and Christephan provided excellent service during meals.
• Mom is thriving at Harbor Chase, loving her room, staff, and activities.

Cons

• The facility is a beautiful building but has awful staffing and a revolving door of administration, with no one held accountable.
• The memory care unit had inadequately trained and insufficiently staffed caregivers, culminating in an unwitnessed fall and the resident's death.
• There is turnover of executive and wellness directors and caregiver staff, raising concerns about stability.
• There were incidents where residents were left with no caregiver present to assist them.
• Staff often did not apply compression stockings correctly, causing sores.
• There was excessive time dealing with new administration rather than focusing on resident care.
• The reviewer would not recommend the facility.
• The staff are unprofessional and dismissive, prioritizing dining over residents' health.
• The facility is full of red flags, requiring due diligence before moving a loved one.

Review

Laura Lee's Adult Family Home in Shaker Heights is best suited for families seeking a warm, home-like atmosphere in a visually appealing setting, with an intimate care footprint that favors individualized attention over a sprawling campus. The space is attractive and presents a comfortable, resort-like feel that can be very reassuring for a loved one who prioritizes dignity, hospitality, and a quieter pace of life. This is not a large, high-volume operation; it works best for residents who flourish in a smaller, more personal environment where staff can form closer relationships - provided delivery of care remains steady. The current ownership shift to StoryPoint is a meaningful factor, signaling the potential for deeper organizational polish, clearer policies, and better resource allocation, but it does not auto-correct existing gaps in staffing and supervision.

For families weighing options, alternatives deserve serious consideration if a loved one requires consistently reliable staffing and rigorous oversight. A number of reviews flag ongoing turnover, variable caregiver training, and leadership instability, all of which can translate into safety and daily-care gaps. If predictable caregiver availability, prompt response times, and strict accountability are non-negotiables, exploring communities with longer-tenured leadership teams and demonstrably stronger staffing plans is prudent. Likewise, if programs and meaningful daily engagement are essential - beyond passive activities - compare activity calendars, staffing ratios, and the ability to deliver structured, developmentally appropriate programming before making a choice. The beauty of the building cannot compensate for chronic staffing fragility.

The strongest upside lies in the potential uplift from ownership and governance improvements. The property's aesthetics remain a clear asset, and the prospect that StoryPoint's involvement will align staffing, oversight, and resident-focused practices is compelling. When leadership is steady and empowered, residents receive more reliable supervision, consistent meal service, and a calmer daily rhythm - benefits that can transform a seemingly ideal setting into a genuinely dependable home. This intent to tighten governance and training is promising, and families should weigh it heavily as a factor in the decision. Still, the reality rests on sustained tenure and verifiable, ongoing progress in staffing, training, and accountability.

Nevertheless, the most pointed concerns center on frontline execution and staff continuity. Reviews highlight a revolving door of caregivers, undertrained personnel in memory care, and administrations that struggle to hold staff accountable. A serious incident involving an unwitnessed fall underscores the stakes of caregiver coverage and proactive risk management in memory care. The day-to-day experience can swing from attentive, friendly service to moments of ad hoc care, with lapses in routine tasks like assistive-device management and even basic cleaning questions. Prospective families should insist on concrete data: the current executive and wellness director's tenure, caregiver-to-resident ratios, recent incident histories and corrective actions, and a candid walk-through of shifts to observe real-time caregiving dynamics.

Quality of life remains a critical lever, and where dining and service leaders are present and well-led, meals and events can become meaningful anchors of daily life. When staff leadership is stable, reviews point to pleasant dining experiences and genuinely courteous service that contribute to a positive atmosphere. Families should request to sample a meal, meet dining leadership, and review menus and special-event calendars. It is reasonable to expect a robust, well-structured activity program with clear distinctions between assisted living and memory care offerings. If those elements are consistently strong, they can meaningfully offset concerns about staffing fragility - yet only if execution remains dependable across shifts and days.

The bottom line is practical and decisive: Laura Lee's can be a solid choice for families who prize a beautiful, intimate setting and are prepared to actively verify and monitor care standards, especially during a transition period under StoryPoint ownership. It is less suitable for those requiring ironclad staffing consistency, rapid response, and transparent governance with long-tenured leadership. Non-negotiables should be identified up front: engage with the executive and wellness directors, request current staffing data, obtain a recent incident report, review activity calendars, and, if feasible, arrange a trial period or overnight visit to gauge caregiving dynamics in real time. With disciplined due diligence, Laura Lee's can become a trusted home; without it, alternatives with stronger front-line stability and clearer governance may better align with safety, engagement, and the level of oversight that matters most for a loved one.

This part of Shaker Heights, Ohio, offers a convenient and well-equipped environment for senior living. With multiple pharmacies within close proximity, access to healthcare is easily accessible. There are also various dining options ranging from casual eateries like McDonald's and Burger King to upscale options such as Boss Dog Brewing Co. Additionally, the area is home to reputable hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital Rehabilitation Center and University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center for any medical needs. Parks such as Coventry PEACE Park provide opportunities for outdoor recreation and relaxation. The abundance of cafes like Starbucks cater to those who enjoy socializing or relaxing with a cup of coffee. Furthermore, there are prominent physicians' offices nearby including the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center and Senders Pediatrics for regular check-ups and specialized care. For entertainment, Silverspot Cinema and Cinemark At Valley View And Xd offer movie screenings while various places of worship like South Euclid United Church of Christ cater to spiritual needs. Convenient transportation options such as Greyhound Station and Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport make it easy to travel in and out of the area. Overall, this part of Shaker Heights provides a comprehensive living experience suited for seniors looking for a vibrant community with essential amenities nearby.

Pharmacies

• CVS Pharmacy (0.9 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (1.2 miles)
• Walgreens (1.6 miles)
• Dave's Supermarket (1.6 miles)
• Walgreens (2 miles)
• Rite Aid (2.1 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (2.2 miles)

Restaurants

• Academy Tavern (1.5 miles)
• New Heights Grill (2.1 miles)
• Boss Dog Brewing Co. (2.2 miles)
• bd's Mongolian Grill (2.7 miles)
• McDonald's (2.9 miles)
• Burger King (3.5 miles)
• Burger King (3.6 miles)

Hospitals

• Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital Rehabilitation Center (1.9 miles)
• Cleveland Clinic - W.O. Walker Center (3 miles)
• Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center (3.6 miles)
• University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center (4.3 miles)
• St Vincent Charity Medical Center (5.3 miles)
• Trauma ICU (6.3 miles)

Parks

• Coventry PEACE Park (2.6 miles)
• Anderson Field (5.8 miles)
• Cleveland Metroparks, Bedford reservation (6.5 miles)
• The Cleveland Mall (6.5 miles)
• Willard Park (6.5 miles)
• Desan Park (6.6 miles)

Cafes

• Starbucks (2.9 miles)
• Starbucks (3.1 miles)
• Starbucks (5.9 miles)
• Starbucks (5.9 miles)
• Starbucks (6 miles)

Physicians

• Cleveland Clinic - Taussig Cancer Center (3 miles)
• Cleveland Clinic - Cole Eye Institute (3.1 miles)
• Cleveland Clinic R Building - Cleveland Clinic Children's Outpatient Center (3.4 miles)
• Cleveland Clinic Severance Medical Arts (3.5 miles)
• Cleveland Clinic - Mellen Center (3.5 miles)
• Senders Pediatrics (3.7 miles)
• Rapid Medical Research (4.3 miles)

Theaters

• Silverspot Cinema (4.8 miles)
• Cinemark At Valley View And Xd (5.5 miles)

Places of Worship

• South Euclid United Church of Christ (5.1 miles)
• Messiah Luth Church of Lyndhurst (5.5 miles)
• St Clare's Church (6.3 miles)
• Temple Israel Ner Tamid (6.5 miles)

Transportation

• Greyhound Station (6 miles)
• Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport (6.6 miles)