Heartland Health Care Center-Ann Arbor
Nursing Home Facility
4701 East Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Located next door to St Joseph Mercy Hospital, 4 miles from University of Michigan on East Huron River Drive in Ann Arbor, MI, Heartland provides individualized post-hospital skilled nursing care in a comfortable environment. Our clinical and therapy teams are experienced in providing specialized care focused on your needs, interests and ability. This commitment results in a smoother and safer transition throughout your recuperation. You should look for a setting that specializes in providing vital medical care and rehabilitation in a warm and caring environment. We offer a range of services to meet your health care needs.
Operated by Optalis Health & Rehabilitation, which runs 31 communities in our directory.
With 180 beds, Heartland Health Care Center-Ann Arbor is one of the larger communities in the area, senior care communities in Ann Arbor average about 38 beds. Larger communities more often keep clinical staff on site around the clock and can offer a wider range of on-site therapy and activities, though some families prefer the quieter feel of a smaller setting.
Federal reporting puts occupancy at about 77% of its licensed beds. That is above the Ann Arbor average of roughly 59%.
Medicare rates this community 3 out of 5 stars overall, a score based on health inspections, staffing levels and quality measures. Communities in Ann Arbor average about 4.0 stars. Its most recent standard health inspection was in April 2025 and recorded 7 deficiencies.
Residents receive about 3.7 hours of nursing care per day on average, including 0.6 hours from a registered nurse. Communities in Ann Arbor average about 4.2 hours. Nursing staff turnover over the past year was about 50%.
The community is located in Washtenaw County, MI.
Inspection record
In its last three standard inspections and any complaint visits, federal inspectors cited 51 problems at Heartland Health Care Center-Ann Arbor. 4 findings involved harm to a resident. 13 came from investigating complaints by residents or families.
In the last three years Medicare fined this home once, a total of $15,593.
Findings from the most recent inspection cycle
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Caused harm to a resident, one or a few residents
Freedom from Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation
Protect each resident from all types of abuse such as physical, mental, sexual abuse, physical punishment, and neglect by anybody.
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Could cause more than minimal harm, a pattern
Pharmacy Service
Provide pharmaceutical services to meet the needs of each resident and employ or obtain the services of a licensed pharmacist.
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Could cause more than minimal harm, widespread
Nutrition and Dietary
Procure food from sources approved or considered satisfactory and store, prepare, distribute and serve food in accordance with professional standards.
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Could cause more than minimal harm, widespread
Environmental
Make sure that the nursing home area is safe, easy to use, clean and comfortable for residents, staff and the public.
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Could cause more than minimal harm, one or a few residents
Resident Rights
Honor the resident's right to and the facility must promote and facilitate resident self-determination through support of resident choice.
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Could cause more than minimal harm, one or a few residents
Quality of Life and Care
Provide care and assistance to perform activities of daily living for any resident who is unable.
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Minimal harm or the potential for it, a pattern
Resident Rights
Honor the resident's right to be treated with respect and dignity and to retain and use personal possessions.
A citation on its own does not mean poor care, and most are corrected within weeks. What matters most is how serious the findings were and whether the same problems keep coming back. When you visit, it is fair to ask the administrator what inspectors found and what has changed since.
Heartland Health Care Center-Ann Arbor offers nursing home care and senior living.
Facility details
- Organization type for-profit corporation
- Beds / units 180
- Occupancy 77%
- Nursing hours per resident/day 3.7
- Annual staff turnover 50%
- Last health inspection April 2025
Resident & family reviews
I toured three skilled nursing facilities before selecting Heartland for a loved one. I liked its interior?it was comfortable and homey (one of the places in town I toured was a little depressing, with a smell/ very institutional. The other was gorgeous inside, sort of 4-star restaurant. Heartland is more like Bob Evans in many of its interior spaces.) The room is adequate but small. There?s space for a nice bed and an ok sitting chair and a small nightstand, but there?s absolutely no more space: you can?t rotate the chair so the person in it can see the person in the bed. Visitors basically need to stand there. It seems like the rooms were initially planned as single rooms and then made into doubles with privacy curtains: there?s a single light switch to operate the lights over the whole room, and only one person gets a window (the other gets the clock). There is another light over the bed, but someone sitting in bed can?t turn it on, and someone whose balance isn?t great (many of their clients?) can?t really get to it. The therapy my loved one got there was pretty good. All therapists seemed well-trained, the therapy room was nice and modern, etc. The therapy was the best part of the nursing home. They need a lot more nurses/nursing aides. I was very disappointed in the wait times for things. When my loved one would push his button for help, he?d wait ~20 min average for help. This was usually ok?he was hoping someone would come help him change his clothes for bed, and waiting a bit to do so wasn?t a big deal?but no one came to ?triage,? so I always worried that some time he?d be pulling the cord from the floor or something and there for a longer time. The lack of staff results in these long wait times and also in insanity at bottleneck times: we?d come at 11am and my loved one wasn?t always dressed yet, and when we asked the aide about this she pointed out that she?s responsible for 11 people and it takes ~30min/person. I wish they had more helpers or overlapping shifts at bottleneck times or something. Specific people we interacted with seemed good. I thought the food seemed only okay (lots of gravy over very soft meat, sometimes served cool), but my loved one liked the food a lot anyway. Their dishwasher broke his second day there, so the food was served on styrafoam and with plastic utensils (this was still true at his discharge on day 11). I think my biggest frustration was with the administration/communication. We were told different things by different people repeatedly (which day he?d be discharged, whether or not something had been faxed to insurance, which medication they?d changed him to, various important and unimportant things). At our discharge meeting, no one from nursing came and the social worker basically said ?we?d need to ask someone from nursing about that? for everything we asked. When we came on the day of discharge, his nurse and therapists hadn?t been told he was leaving that day.
by Robin F, Aug 2015