In short
I've heard very good things about their hospice care, though obviously some folks have also had bad experiences (just within these Yelp reviews). This is a home-health review. Nothing truly disastrous happened, but it was a very mixed bag and wasted a lot of time.
In long
The positives were the physical therapy and the bath aide. Both compassionate, helpful, organized, and motivating. Really good, capable people who deserve all the credit in the world.
The bad starts with occupational therapy. He has since retired for medical reasons of his own, so he's no longer a liability. But he was a mess on his best days. He would call to schedule an appointment and talk to my wife about nothing--one time for over an hour. And he would complain about being overworked and not having time to get things done. Maybe if a 30-second scheduling call could take place in 30 seconds, rather than 60+ minutes, you'd find your calendar more manageable.
He also complained repeatedly about how state authorities unjustly investigated him at past companies. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.
He would come over to tape up a shoulder for my wife, and literally watch a YouTube video on his phone about how to do it....*during* the session. You don't know how to tape a joint? C'mon, man. At least do that in your car before you come in.
He would come up with inadequate solutions, too. Her shoulder needed a little more support from the arm of her wheelchair. Instead of recommending a thicker armrest, he stacked up pieces of styrofoam packaging from a parcel he had received at home. Obviously that's easy to knock off and she loses the support. When we switched to outpatient OT/PT later in the year, the OT found a perfect armrest online for under $30 and we still use it.
The case manager was another disaster. He was OT by trade, but clearly not up to date, and not focused on what he should be doing. He came over for an eval and she mentioned that climbing stairs would always be a big goal for her. She had tried with PT with mixed results, since her dropfoot made her feel unsteady.
He took her to the main stairs in our house. They're narrower and shallower than the front stoop, which the PT had wisely been using when she had her try stairs. She felt unstable after one stair, so he tried to talk her into taking her ankle brace OFF. Thankfully, she questioned this, left it on, and got back to her wheelchair quickly. Having her tumble down even 2 stairs could have been pretty awful, to say the least.
Thankfully, we got her into outpatient care not much longer after that. It certainly could have been better, but it was a huge step up from Alpha, and she never felt unsafe at all.
Turns out that the best therapists tend to work at in-patient rehab facilities, where they can see the most patients the most often throughout the day, and make the biggest difference. Home health usually falls below outpatient care in competence, from what we understand. Thankfully, she's found a better company for her current home care. Glad to be done with these busters. read more