Forest Lake Health Care in Martinez, GA

Pros

• The staff were great and very courteous.
• The rehab team is spectacular.
• The Place at Martinez was great with rehab; everyone was nice and kind and they took good care of residents.
• The facility was clean and the residents were calm.
• Weekday staff are better than weekend staff.
• The staff took great care of residents and kept families informed about care and rehabilitation.

Cons

• The Place at Martinez is described as awful, outdated, and unprofessional, with an overwhelming smell that greets visitors.
• Reviewers report neglectful care, including meals forgotten and a call button system that takes forever to get a response.
• The majority of staff are described as rude or hostile, with a lack of compassion toward residents.
• Residents are sometimes found without clothes or left unfed and unattended, and basic care like bathing is neglected.
• The facility is depicted as dirty and infested with roaches, with rooms in disarray and food described as terrible.
• Medicaid paperwork is mishandled, and discharge practices are improper, leaving families to juggle hospital transfers or bed assignments.
• Staff are said to spend more time on phones or socializing than on patient care, leading to poor attentiveness.
• The environment is portrayed as depressing, with residents experiencing decline and isolation rather than recovery.
• Several reviews urge others not to place loved ones there and call for the facility to be shut down due to safety and care concerns.

Review

Forest Lake Health Care in Martinez is best suited for families pursuing short-term, rehab-focused skilled nursing where the care team can be monitored closely and the primary goal is mobility and therapy progress. The facility shows occasional flashes of effective rehab work, with some reviewers praising the rehabilitation team as “spectacular” and noting real gains in independence when the care environment aligned with effort. For families who can maintain active oversight, advocate for timely meals, attentive monitoring, and consistent therapy, Forest Lake can serve as a workable bridge to longer-term living arrangements. In short, it is a potential fit for rehab-driven needs, provided there is readiness to supervise and intervene when gaps appear.

Those weighing alternatives should proceed with caution if priority is consistently compassionate care, reliable hygiene, and dependable day-to-day operations. The reviews repeatedly flag serious red flags: odors, cleanliness lapses, and overall neglect in basic daily care; meals forgotten and call buttons that do not promptly summon help; and a sense that some staff are overwhelmed or disengaged. For families seeking a facility with a pristine environment, consistently proactive communication, and a culture of warmth and respect, other options in the area are likely to deliver greater reassurance. Dementia care and long-term comfort also emerge as risk areas here, where paperwork missteps and administrative friction can compound as needs evolve.

The key positives, the capable rehab team, relatively clean common spaces in some visits, and moments of courteous, attentive staff, do not fully offset the weight of the core cons. When the environment feels unwelcoming or unsafe, those rehabilitative strengths lose their bite. Families report experiences ranging from courteous interactions to abrupt, inattentive responses from nurses and social workers. Even when care givers are praised, consistency is a challenge, with weekday staff sometimes outperforming weekend teams and patients repeatedly describing a lack of proactive care. The most troubling patterns involve safety gaps, such as missed medications, delayed help during calls, and instances of patients not being bathed or dressed promptly.

The most concrete, risky failures cited by families center on airway, wound, and medication concerns in acute, urgent moments. Multiple accounts describe patients not receiving meals or hydration, medications given inappropriately, and elders being left in distress or discomfort. Hygiene issues, soiled rooms, unmade beds, and even roaches, underscore a broader problem with environmental maintenance and infection-control discipline. Administrative missteps compound the danger: improper Medicaid paperwork and bed mismanagement can leave residents stranded or discharged inappropriately, sometimes with downstream consequences for hospital readmissions and transfer stability. These are not minor irritants; they directly touch resident safety and family peace of mind.

For decision-making, a practical path is essential. Prospective residents should plan multiple visits across shifts to observe how staff respond to calls, how therapy is scheduled and delivered, and how meals and daily care are actually managed on the floor. Asking for recent state inspection reports, speaking with the director or administrator about staffing levels, turnover, and training, and requesting direct feedback from current residents or family members can illuminate ongoing patterns. It is also wise to probe the rehab schedule, wound-care expertise, medication administration practices, and what contingency plans exist if a resident’s needs spike. If possible, request a short-term trial and a formal review point to reassess progress and concerns.

In the end, Forest Lake Health Care presents a cautious, insistently practical choice. It carries a real rehab capability and some staff who perform with care and courtesy, but the frequency and severity of cleanliness problems, care gaps, and administrative issues color every other positive note. This facility is most appropriate for families who can tolerate a variable environment, insist on tight oversight, and prioritize rehabilitation potential while remaining prepared to pivot quickly if daily care fails to meet expectations. For those who cannot compromise on consistent safety, hygiene, and compassionate daily care, exploring alternatives with stronger staffing stability and cleaner environments is highly advisable.

Restaurants

• Waffle House (0.5 miles)
• Five Guys Burgers & Fries (0.6 miles)
• First Watch (0.6 miles)
• Wife Saver (0.8 miles)
• McDonald's (0.9 miles)
• Sunrise Grill (0.9 miles)
• California Dreaming (0.9 miles)

Physicians

• David W Blackstock (0.7 miles)
• Ryan Thomas Smith (1.6 miles)
• Reginald A Pilcher Pc (1.7 miles)
• Ross-Douglas Brandi K MD - Doctors Hospital of Augusta (1.8 miles)
• Jay Patel, MD (1.8 miles)
• Augusta Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Specialists PC (1.8 miles)
• Colon-Santini Juan L MD Faap (1.8 miles)

Cafes

• Starbucks (0.8 miles)
• Starbucks (1.1 miles)
• Panera Bread (1.3 miles)
• Starbucks (1.7 miles)
• Starbucks (2.6 miles)

Pharmacies

• CVS Pharmacy (0.9 miles)
• Walgreens (1.2 miles)
• Walgreens (1.9 miles)
• Miller, Aubrey Neal (1.9 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (2.5 miles)
• Walgreens (2.6 miles)
• Walgreens (2.7 miles)

Places of Worship

• Abilene Baptist Church (1.4 miles)
• Stevens Creek Church (2.7 miles)

Hospitals

• Doctors Hospital Of Augusta (1.9 miles)
• Davita Kidney Care (3.5 miles)

Parks

• Lakeside Park (2.5 miles)

Theaters

• GTC Riverwatch 12 Cinemas (3.5 miles)

Transportation

• Daniel Field Airport (DNL) (3.6 miles)