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Tell about your Home Care Agency experience - Which Agency is good, which did you have problems with?

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At HomeCare- Richmond VA Rating: 2/5
5 - Excellent
4- Good
3-OK
2-Problematic
1-Avoid

Had a great aide for a little over a year - M-F - then when she left got a new one - frequent call outs, transportation issues (I,e, reason for callouts) No floaters - I have had to stay home from work on days that the aide called out. Most of the ides have only been there 3-6 mos. VERY frustrating. We are now on our 2nd aide since April - It is hard on my mother. Current aide reports on time but has to be told what tasks to do.
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Sounds like you need a new agency. Healthcare is what I do. I have done homecare. About your new aide. The agency should tell her about your mom in terms of her condition and needs. However we do not just take care of conditions but people wholistically. So the aide does need you to tell her your loved one's preferences. If you have specific tasks to be done, that needs to be communicated also. Examples: Mom likes to sleep late. Mom's mealtimes are. Every Tues. I would like you to do xyz. In addition you need to orient the person to your home. Expressing what you need is very important especially if your mom is not able to direct her own care. If you had ongoing round the clock care with a consistent team of care givers then they are very good in filling a newcomer in. You will have little worry. Keep in mind all we have to work from is a generic care plan. It may say needs complete care for washing and dressing but it won't say what her preferred soap and lotion is or where they are located. I think you get my drift. If you like the care being given by this new aide and she performs her tasks well I hope she stays with you long term.
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I very much liked working as a LPN for Bayada nurses. If I ever needed homecare that is the agency I would call. They screen their nurses very well. Upon hire you are given testing to tests your clinical skills and questions that test your critical thinking skills. Everyone must be CPR certified. Inservices are regularly given and Bayada has online continuing education at Bayada University. Clients get a client manager who is a medical social worker. That is the person who initially calls me to give an initial report on the client. I could accept or reject.Upon acceptance I could expect a follow up call from the RN supervisor on the case. She gave me a more detailed in depth report . Since the same social worker and RN stay consistently with a case they always can give a lot of info. Next,meeting the client. Well, you are always oriented to the case. Orientation is normally done by a nurse already on the case. Never are you just thrown to the wolves.Seasoned nurse like myself can do all that is required but wants to be filled in on those personal preferences etc. and meet the client and the loved ones if possible. Need to get those details about any preferences. By time ,the nurse already there has spoken with me, I usually have been oriented as to where everything I or the client may need . Even filled in on client's and / or families preferences likes and dislikes. If a client has a chronic condition some client's family members like to orient the nurse themselves a lot of times. Bayada would have told me that beforehand. I still touch bases with the nurse there. On ongoing cases we would receive a phone call about filling in if possible in the event of a regulars absentism. With my long term client over the years I spent there I got to work all the shifts. Frequent callouts and lateness were not tolerated. However people needed days off and vacation time. We covered each other very well. Bayada likes this too, because clients like consistency. My supervisor may drop in anytime. Sometimes to see the client and nurses and /or to give us an Inservice or an evaluation. After my client died, the recession hit. another agency that took care of medically fragile kids. I will not reviethem. My experience was nightmarishthem and that is putting it mildly. Bayada will excellent care of your loved ones. I have not been paid or solicited for this testimony. :-D
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ya just get what you get . advocate in doses proportionate to the shoddiness youre faced with .
my friends wife in the last couple of years has gotten herself trained to be a dental technician -- with flash cards at her kitchen table . im all for putting the populace to work but really , learning a few buzz words does not make a medical professional .
aunt ednas current peckerchecker ( home nurse ) was lying in the gutter , clutching at the storm drain and demanding her G - D phone call 2 years ago .
now shes a " professional " home nurse reporting malarky to our primary care doc .. she cant even spell " malarky " , wtf is this ??
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Pardon the typos toward the end concerning that other agency. I thought I had deleted that part out.
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Captain have read some of your comments on here. You are too funny, a real twisted mister ! Your future may be as a stand up comic.
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We have At HOme Health Care and it's about useless. The 'aide' we have sleeps on the couch and has had my mother fix her a sandwich cause she's hungry when she gets here. She doesn't do a good job cleaning even if we tell her what to do. The only reason we don't protest her is that my mother doesn't want anyone she doesn't know so she wants to stick with this one. ARGH!
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Bayada is taking great care of congress. So far in 2014 they have raised $70K in PAC money and have spent $40K on campaign contributions. Per opensecret.org
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ohdear mentioning the company name six times sounds like advertising to me, trying to drum up some business? inappropriate on this forum, so too is bashing companies rioblu
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windoverwater You are certainly entitled to feel the way you do but keep in mind that feelings and opinions are not facts. Also please read my post again. I did not name any specific company.So what company are you talking about that I publicly bashed ? Also I stated any negative remarks that was made I thought I had deleted.
Also I am well experienced in healthcare and know not to identify an agency by name publicly to make negative comments about them.
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pamstegman My concern is with the clients I have taken care of. I liked working with a company that cares for the nurses, CNAs and HHAs as well as for the client. Politically I do not get concerned unless a company is doing something against human rights. Otherwise the company' s owner can do as he pleases with his money. In healthcare we focus on positive outcomes for the client, not politics.
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I like helping people both clients and their loved ones. I spent a lot of time telling about the experience of working for a homecare agency to empower you more by giving you some guidelines you may want to use as a healthcare consumer. Bayada does not need my help to advertise for them. They can and do launch their own advertising campaign that I am sure reaches more people than my post on this site.
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I'd settle for anyone coming in to do anything even if it was just visiting with my mother. Medicare/medicaid pay for nothing as she lives with us. I've done the job of visiting LNA, caregiver. I owned an operated a level 3 care facility where nurses and caregivers came for select clients. Frankly, I think many who write here expect a "maid" and a caregiver with credentials akin to a LPN. Reality check. These caregivers are paid a minimum wage or maybe a bit more.This does not attract "professionals". They travel from job to job using their own car. You think you need a break? Try asking your visiting caregiver what she/he is up against day after day.
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Olmaandme, you speak the truth. I was fortunate enough to work as an LPN, so my wages were quite satisfactory.
We are only suppose to do dishes for the client and clean up after ourselves when we finish in the kitchen. In short we are not Heloise, built in housekeeping . It is not part of the services you get. I believe you want, "Merry Maids". As for you and members of your medical advice seeking house hold. Stop asking your nurses to check your BP or seek some type of other medical advice from us. We are not covered with liability insurance to do anything for you. Also you expect to be paid for your labor. We have to support ourselves and families with real money. We are not volunteering our services. You might not see yourself as such but perhaps a more objective opinion would help you to see just how difficult you make life for any caregiver who comes to your home. Perhaps this is why no one stays and the agency is hard pressed to find anyone for you. You ran through 5 agencies before you got to mine. I could go on and on.Your sweet elder makes sexual advances, unwanted touching, and no those types in my experience are not the confused ones.
Lots of families act like no one other than them are in the house. So the drug usage, loud arguments, knock down drag out domestic violence scenes still continue right in front of us. Sometimes nurses wind up dialing 911. Think of every condition you can encounter on a daily basis from one extreme to another and those are the scenarios your caretaker faces and more.
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windoverwater not bashing....Asking for personal experiences with companies. Home Health Care is a lifeline to help people like me that have to work to be able to work during the day, in peace, and then care for their family member after work. I'm looking for names of companies that others have had good results with. It's ridiculous for aides to not show up or sleep on their shifts or text all day. It's also ridiculous that they are only paid $8/hr if it is a Medicaid case. That is discriminatory and suggests that people that receive Medicaid are less than people that can afford Private Pay home health care. However, it may also be the agency trying to get more $$ as I have heard of another agency here that pays $10/hr for Medicaid cases.
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Assured and Associates Personal Care of Florida is was our 5th and WORST agency in 10 months! Visit the AHCA website for details on their history and performance issues.
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I have been doing a lot of research in the past month re: caregivers. I need to get one for my mom on a part time basis. I will be honest with all of you.
I need a nurse, a housekeeper, and a maid, all rolled up in one. All this for $10/hr. I know it's unrealistic, so I'm not sure it's fair to jump all over the agencies. Most people take caregiving jobs because they cannot get anything else. The job is very demanding, psychologically and physically brutal.

I came to a conclusion that an agency is only as good as its' employees. MOST people just need a paycheck. That goes for majority of professions. This is where the disconnect is between the family hiring and the hiree. NOBODY wants to be a cheap servant.
I'm also finding out that agencies want to call themselves "non-medical", but find themselves providing healthcare , like changing urine bags, giving insulin...The agencies want people to pay cash because they don't want to deal with the insurance reimbursements. It's a mess out there.
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Hi SuzieQQQ... Unfortunately our experience has proven to be just the opposite. The agency is only as good as it's administrators! Honesty, ethics, morals... when they are lacking caregivers are placed in the precarious situation of following their lead and reducing themselves to the level of the administration; or performing their duties with integrity and risk losing their job! I am a Florida CNA and have a very clear understanding of how demanding the job can be.
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Jdvinfl,
I guess in speaking with agencies, I took their side. I apologize. I'm sure it's different from the workers point of view.

I am very frustrated with trying to find care for my mom. I have spoken to friends, co-workers, and it's a recurring theme of good help is hard to find...

I also heard about a local agency where the employees are very unhappy and blame the owner.

Can you give examples of issues? I'm learning. As a perfectionist, I am really afraid of hiring someone for my mom. I'm in the NE. Nonetheless, your story would help me maneuver this help seeking mess.
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We are in a different situation... My husband is 49 years old with a masters degree in social work. He is also a C5-C6 quadriplegic requiring 24 hour care. For over 30 years he chose his own caregivers. A year ago Allstate handed all choice over to a nurse case manage they placed. He has been argued with, ignored and yelled at; had 2 level 3 decubiti; has a uti that required injectable antibiotics; numerous no-call, no-shows; caregivers who could not speak the language; caregivers with no spinal cord injury or hoyer lift experience; had his cath pulled to the extent of bllood in the urine and from the penis; been gauged by fingernails; had caregivers sleep so soundly that I was forced to actually go touch them to wake them!
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he's also 6 ft tall and over 200 pounds... he's been sent a caregiver with a back injury and another with her arm in a cast! There is no such thing as the good hands people... more like a fist
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Jdvinfl,

Wow, that's scary.
Pardon my ignorance, but I would think that someone of your husbands' stature would require more than one person handling his situation. A nurse in addition to an aide would be a must. IF anything should happen while operating the Hoyer lift, the NURSE should be the main person there.
I am appalled at how little nurses do nowadays as compared to years ago. All the heavy work is dumped on aides. I can understand how the jobs at a hospital are delineated, and nurses mostly do charting, but home care is a different thing. Giving meds is the easy part (which is what nurses want to do). It's the other stuff that requires muscle and knowledge.

The problem with insurances is that nurses are too expensive and even if you get a nurse, they dump the work on to an aide. They just check in as supervisors. Well, I can SUPERVISE myself without the hefty charge of a lazy visiting nurse.This what happened to a co-worker of mine. I think this may be the reason that unqualified people are being sent in to do "nursing" work.

I think if nurses want to do home care, they need to "do" home care. Otherwise stay working in the hospitals.

I will be calling more agencies tomorrow. I'll report my findings here.
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jdvinfl, can you request a male RN or LPN to help out, they would be much better with the heavier lifting.
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Thank you freqflyer and SuzieQQQ. My husband has repeatedly asked for male CNAs. He has also asked that particular CNAs, like the one who injured him with her fingernails be removed. All has fallen on deaf ears! He is continually reminded that Allstate will make caregiver choices.
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I finally left the agency and now have found a good agency which is Jewish Family Services. They are non-profit and seem to be focused on providing good care for the client.
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