Sabino Canyon Rehabilitation & Care Center — Local services in Tucson

In short, my 80-year-old grandpa has been living here since February of 2025 and I am extremely pleased with the care he receives from this facility. I 100% recommend this facility to anyone who seeks a rehabilitation or long term care center for their loved one.

Walking through the front doors, you're met with smiling faces and compassionate people, a much more welcoming and jovial atmosphere than I experienced at similar rehabilitation or long term care facilities. Employees at Sabino are a breath of fresh air for someone who meticulously manages the care of her grandparents. Every department - the receptionist, financial department, social services, admissions, CNAs, nurses/doctors, and therapists - is composed of people who are helpful, knowledgeable, and capable. Additionally, those providing medical care, being the doctors, nurses, and therapists, are very thorough and can explain their process, medications, or recommendations on every level ("every level" meaning to me, someone who works in behavioral health, and to my grandma, a very sweet but simple older adult with Alzheimer's). Having medical staff who understand my grandpa's condition and who have accurate and consistent behavioral observations of him is so reassuring to me, as I am intimately involved in his care, and they have done wonders to earn my trust when it comes to his care plan. Additionally, the receptionist is very sweet and always asks for updates on my grandpa, and also has great suggestions, like how to have insurance cover Boosts and Ensures for my grandpa. The financial department and social services was an invaluable resource when navigating the ALTCS application process and the payment process. They are so understanding with my situation and tailored a payment plan that worked for my grandparents' fixed income.

What started as journey of rehabilitation following a colectomy has turned into hospice and long term living. During my grandpa's rehabilitation journey, he became septic twice, contracted Covid (and subsequently pneumonia) from the hospital, and eventually on his own accord refused therapy for about two weeks straight, landing him in hospice care and needing long term care. The care staff, especially Dr. Milani and the nurses, were incredibly attentive to my grandpa and recognized a change in condition with his incision sites and his behaviors and acted very quickly to transfer him to the hospital, undoubtedly saving his life on two separate occasions. They watched him as closely as I did, as my grandpa was having many complications with his recovery, and they remained communicative and kept me updated at every change in condition. The medical care my grandpa receives at this facility is unparalleled by any other facility I have experience with in Tucson. Additionally, when my grandpa was participating in therapy, he had a fantastic bond with "Martin the Marine" who pushed my grandpa to take his first steps following his surgery, and who made sure my grandpa felt safe and secure. I also spoke with several other therapists who had a session or two with my grandpa and they are spot on with their evaluation of his behaviors and cognitive functioning, which means they are fantastic at tailoring their interactions to suit his personality and his level of functioning (as an 80-year-old man with unofficially diagnosed vascular dementia).

You can tell the facility is well-used, but it is always clean, smells nice, maintained, and decorated. The staff are plentiful, friendly, and build great rapport with my grandpa. He feels loved, cared for, and supported here. He has a special relationship with Noelia (and her daughter) and Cynthia, his favorite nurses, and Jacob and Yvonne, his favorite CNAs. There are others he mentions to me but cannot recall their names, these are just the ones I regularly interact with when visiting him and he notes he likes them. I couldn't be happier with the care my grandpa receives here, and I will always consider bringing my family here if I ever need a rehabilitation or care center...

I am still here in the facility, n am sure I will face retribution for the review I am about to leave, but I want to make sure ppl know what goes on here b4 they make the same mistake I did. First, the facility has seen better days. It is very shabby. Second, this is NO place for a diabetic. I had bread n potatoes with every lunch n dinner. Salad, rarely, fruit, NEVER. Sweet desserts, cake with frosting, brownies, cookies. The Vegetables were overcooked. I had a ham salad sandwich and, I think It was a chicken salad sandwich, on plain white bread, with a teaspoon maybe of filling. Not enough to cover the bread. They had NO sugar free drinks w/meals, no diabetic friendly snacks in the snack machine, and no caffeine free drinks in the soda machine. So I had water, usually warm n not fresh. Thank God for my daughter, who brought healthy, low sodium snacks, n diet, caffeine free sodas. There is no doctor on staff, or pharmacy, so if they don't have medications on your prescribed list, u are out of luck, n the only 2 doctors I saw, walked in n out without saying a word. I am handicapped due to a spinal cord injury n am in severe, unrelenting pain for which I take pain medication prescribed by my pain management doctor. I have been here a week, I leave in 2 days, n STILL have not gotten my pain meds! I will have had 3 days of therapy by the time I leave, out of 8 total days. No Cardiopulmonary rehab, which is what I needed when I got here. Only Physical n occupational rehab, which I did not need, n they insisted I go to with zero pain meds. As others have said, they are mostly incredibly slow to respond to your call light, n in fact, one nite our call light didn't even work! So I walked back n forth to the nurses station all nite to get assistance for my 82 yr old roommate n I. They were VERY insistent that my roommate eat in dining room to "socialize," even though frequently she was one of only half a dozen, or fewer, residents there. I accompanied her sometimes n we were either the only ones there, or ended up sitting w/a man who was sound asleep, drooling on his bib, n his aide, or relative, or caregiver, who didn't speak once. The only other table with ppl at it was full. 6 women in wheelchairs. So much for socialization. My poor roommate did SO much therapy per day she was sound asleep by 7 pm, n had to be woken up at 7 am to dress n go to the dining room for breakfast. She could barely make it to therapy the next day! I was FORCED to go to therapy after a nite of vomiting, no sleep, n uncontrollable diarrhea. I was so tired n so ill. They would not let me take ONE afternoon off however, even tho I was pretty agreeable in general, n wasn't even at the facility for physical or occupational therapy! I was SO NAUSEOUS, n, if contagious, I exposed entire facility to whatever I had! Staff was hit n miss. Either great, or lousy. Outstanding were nurse Gilbert, 6am-2pm, tech David, 2pm-10pm, Vicki, not sure if she is a CNA, or a tech. I think CNA, also 6-2, Marsha, occupational therapist, and the travelling cosmetolgist, Jodi from Holy Roller. She gave me an amazing haircut, color, n highlights, all 4 $45!! Lovely lady besides. There were more great, but mostly lousy, employees. Seems the higher up the pay scale they were, the worse they were! Techs were mostly pretty good, nice n attentive, CNA’s less reliable, although a lot of them were good. Nurses, over all apathetic. A hand full were very good. And of special note, students from Pima community College!! Terrific! So in conclusion, avoid at all cost! Not...

Whatever you do, don't go to this place or take your family to this place! My mom has been here twice. The first time was 3 years ago after she had been diagnosed with cancer. This second time around she was there after she had her gall bladder surgery. (normally, it's an outpatient surgery, but since she's on chemo, the doctors wanted her at a rehab). Of course, we chose the place that we had a good experience at.

She was there for about two weeks & left worse than in the condition she came. When I went to visit her, it took 15-20 minutes anytime she pressed the call button. The staff was rude and unhelpful. We called administration, but got the fact that they are "understaffed and are working on it". They went to her room immediately and said they were going to discharge her, when they need the PT to sign off on that.

This facility can't handle constructive criticism or complaints. I had a nurse tell me she had 33 patients just to herself. The day before she was supposed to be discharged, she was having problems breathing and said she wanted to go to the hospital. They told her that she's fine, gave her some oxygen, and when we tried to call for 45 minutes nobody answered us. Finally, someone answered and told us that there's nothing wrong with her. She was fine. At this point, it is 11pm after hours and I decided to go down there.

When I arrived, she was wheezing and coughing like crazy. Nobody was there to care for her. She needed to use the restroom and there was no toilet paper. I left her and found a woman in the hallway to find someone. The CNA said they had NO TOILET PAPER! She said they locked it up at night and had no access to it. I had her go and borrow some toilet paper from a different patient.

Long story short, the RN came in and didn't know what tests were done. She went to go check & came back saying she's fine and the x-ray (that took two days to get) was clear. Now I'm sitting in a hospital with a lung specialist telling me that it looks like she may have fluid in her lungs. PLEASE! Save yourself the trouble. DONT GO HERE. I had her sign a paper to get out of there releasing them of liability, but if I didn't God only knows how bad her condition would be. If you aren't going to pay for more staff, GET OUT OF...