JourneyCare was the right choice for my husband's hospice care. The hospital recommended a different company but after much research and several recommendations from close friends/nurses I decided to go with them and I'm really glad I did. I'm truly grateful for the wonderful CNAs, social worker, bearevement therapist, and their whole team. My husband chose home care so I wasn't sure they were the right fit since we're located in Chicago and some of reviews for the city area were not great but went with my gut on this and they've exceeded my expectations. I believe our team was out of the Deerfield office. My husband was in his 50s, had a strong will to live despite battling stage IV cancer for 9 yrs, and a dark sense of humor. It wasn't an easy transition but the whole team worked with us both to address all of our concerns and helped him find comfort and peace. Every time I called the on-call nurse/manager they were able to help out and come up with solutions tailored to his needs. Communication was key here since my husband was reluctant to taking pain meds and anything of the sort. We didn't get to use their facilities so I don't have that experience as others have mentioned but the home hospice care was just what we both needed. I just felt very well supported throughout the entire process and was consistently kept informed. read more

In August 2024, we received hospice care from JourneyCare during the final weeks of my wife's cancer journey - first at their inpatient facility on the Rush Hospital campus for 5 days, and then at home for 2 weeks. Overall, we found her direct care team (RNs and CNAs) to be fantastic - compassionate, skilled, and present. At home care and support was excellent, The inpatient facilities, operations, and administration, however, fell well short of expectations. Specifically: 1. Handover from the Rush Hospital team to JourneyCare was handled extremely poorly. Our POA paperwork (which had been on file with the hospital for 5 years) was lost twice. A Christian minister (outside of our faith tradition) was sent to help us draft end-of-life wishes after the second loss despite our having taking significant care to prepare these documents with our lawyers. This failure of the basics created significant unneeded stress. 2. The inpatient facilities are an embarrassment - located in old office spaces far away from the primary hospital patient buildings, our room reeked of old cigar smoke, the bathroom was moldy and shower facilities unusable, and the much of the space was being used to store stacks of old furniture. There are no nearby amenities, and the door to the building is locked with no attendant during most hours of the day - making it extremely difficult to go out for food and coffee when staying with loved ones. 3. The attending physician and supervisor team persistently made decisions about our care based upon what is covered by Medicaid and assumptions about willingness to pay -- despite us having to assert repeatedly that these were not constraints. At one point I actually showed the physician the receipt for the $5 copay for a pain management drug that we knew worked well for my wife but that she insisted over and over again wouldn't be covered and had to be convinced to prescribe. 4. While the majority of the care team was excellent, there were notable exceptions. My wife had large, extremely painful lesions in her legs. Despite telling a team that had come to bathe her, they grabbed her leg forcefully to turn her over in bed - resulting in her crying out in extreme pain. On another occasion, we were quietly playing music on her phone next to the bed to try to calm her anxiety. A nurse tech came in and said "if we're going to have a party let's turn it up!", grabbed her phone, and started blasting music next to my dying wife. 5. The ambulance service that they contracted for her transport home was not informed that there were 8 steps to enter our house, and upon arrival at first refused to carry her in the stretcher (because of her leg lesions she couldn't be placed in a chair). Ultimately, one of the drivers agreed to lift her together with me and two friends - a group of middle aged women trying to haul 300+ pounds up a steep flight of stairs. Once we had her home and transitioned to the home care team, it was like night and day. Service and support was excellent and extremely well managed from beginning to end. Overall - JourneyCare needs a major reset of their inpatient facility and operations. I would have never agreed to it had I known how it would be -- and am astonished that Rush, a national cancer institute that is renowned for the quality of its patient care, would allow themselves to be affiliated and to leverage them as their go-to hospice provider. read more

My mom passed away with the support of JourneyCare. She was well cared for both at home and in the inpatient unit in Barrington. We were so impressed with the staff and are so grateful to everyone involved. We highly recommend JourneyCare. read more

JourneyCare acquired Apple for physical therapy services and due to previous positive experiences with Apple, we went with JourneyCare for my father's ongoing PT needs. The lack of responsiveness is stunning. Only if they sense they will get paid will they respond to you. If there is an inkling that Medicare may turn down the request, then it is crickets. They don't even respond to tell you the order was not approved by insurance. You are supposed to figure out through their unresponsiveness that something is amiss. Unprofessional. read more

This hospice agency is the ultra worst! My husband was being cared for at home. CNAs and RNs would come any ole time they felt like it leaving my bedridden spouse sitting in his diaper with poop and urine until 1 PM, a whole half a day. He is just way too heavy for me to manage or roll physically in bed to clean. He gets resistant as well. The CNAs were scheduled three times a week to come by at 11 AM which went by the wayside going into the second week with us. They are not consistent with giving you a courtesy call that they are on their way or are late. You are left stressed out as to when they'll show up leaving you "trapped" at home to quickly run local errands or do your own thing. The RN, Molly, would often decide to take a day off at the last minute or had two week long "emergencies". We were not notified. It's all BS. One morning my spouse was experiencing a mini-stroke. The RN said that she was just 10 minutes away which became 30 minutes. After 20 minutes all the vital measures would return to normal. She just waltzed into our home like nothing was happening. She offered no reason as to why she was late. I spoke with the supervisor, Tracy Williams that they run a country club agency and fired them after 5 weeks. They should not be in this business giving additional stress to spouses and caregivers. They are not a professional group. Go elsewhere. read more

Planning for the end of a life is painful and difficult, but Horizon made my father's last few months a little bit easier and for that, my mom and I are forever grateful. When my father was given a terminal diagnosis and a dementia diagnosis on top of that, I became his advocate and caregiver. I received a lot of conflicting information from our doctors about when we should reach out to hospice, whether palliative care was worth our time, if we should sign a DNR, etc. Horizon wasn't the first place I reached out to or engaged; I spoke to another hospice and while very informative, they lacked the follow through we sought. More than once we fell into a black hole where calls and emails went unanswered. They also hadn't sold my mom on their services; maybe it was timing, but she felt pushed too far out of her comfort zone as it pertained to electing to stop curative treatment and other difficult decisions. When my dad's meds stopped working, there was no question it was time to engage hospice. I reached out to a few providers and was immediately impressed at Horizon's responsiveness. I filled out a web form early one Saturday and my phone rang less than 15 minutes later. Working with a non-profit hospice appealed to me as did their inpatient unit at Rush (midway between my house and my parents). Our social worker, Amy, was wonderful. My mom liked that she and our nurse, Kathy, lived in our community; they were very familiar with the local services available to us and never pushed us to make decisions we weren't ready to make. More than once Amy made herself available to us when she thought we might need support. When changes would agitate my dad, like the presence of oxygen tanks, Amy and Kathy helped us figure out how best to calm him. In my dad's last few hours, before we knew as much, Amy helped us think about what we wanted for my dad and she and Kathy helped guide us to keeping him safe and comfortable at home. My parents were skeptical about some of the services Horizon provides (masseuse, art and music therapy, etc.); I think some seemed too granola for them, but my dad quickly adapted, wishing his massage therapist could come every day. Horizon was responsive to our needs; emails and phone calls were returned quickly, medications and equipment arrived promptly and the folks staffing the 24-hour hotline were always friendly and patient, even when we were tired and panicked. The folks at AdvaCare, their equipment partner, were very kind and efficient as well. Horizon's engagement with our family didn't end when my dad passed away. Our nurse and social worker reached out to express their condolences. Our nurse also wrote a very kind note on the staff card we received. Additionally, we were notified of the support services available to our family in the wake of my father's passing and I've received at least one check-in call since his passing. As I said, end of life planning is painful and difficult, but having an organization like Horizon to lean on helped. * Horizon has merged with two other area non-profit hospices - Midwest and JourneyCare. read more

I wish I could give 0 stars for the in home hospice care that my stepdad received with JourneyCare. I STRONGLY discourage anyone from using JourneyCare, especially if they don't want their loved one to die with extreme pain. I'm a physical therapist and I'm appalled with the awful medical care he received in his final weeks and days. When he first came home with hospice, the nurse ordered a bunch of equipment, but didn't show my mom or stepdad how to use the equipment (oxygen tanks and concentrator) or properly fit the equipment (walker and wheelchair). They didn't even bother to fit the walker to his height and didn't even send footplates with the wheelchair. I fit the equipment to his height and was able to show them how to use the oxygen tanks and concentrator. The nurse didn't even bother to educate them on when to use the oxygen or give him a pulse oximeter to check his oxygen saturation. When I brought over my pulse ox, his oxygen was in the low 90's and I put the oxygen on him. He was able to get his oxygen up to 98% and said how much better he felt with the oxygen on. I don't know what they would have done without me being in the medical field. The nurse should have educated them but was completely useless. I was over one time when the nurse came over. She was over briefly and didn't do much. Barely checked on him at all. She should have done a full body evaluation of him. Had she done so, she would have found a pressure sore on his hip. In his final days, my mom was unable to control his pain and the nurse just told her to double his morphine dose at home. He was also trying to get up and go to the bathroom and was a HUGE fall risk. No mention of giving him a catheter or sending over a urinal (despite several phone calls to the nurse). My mom was giving him 4xs his morphine dose every hour and the pain STILL could not be managed. He was also having trouble swallowing at this point and they continued to have my mom give him liquid morphine. My mom was worried he was going to choke on the morphine and was petrified of having to give him medication every hour. It's absolutely disgusting that the nurses didn't even bother to give an alternative (like a fentanyl patch) to better manage the pain or prevent choking. My mom called the nurse again and she finally said they would bring him into the hospice facility. My mom was so upset; she had been up every hour to give pain medication and thought she was doing something wrong. No spouse should ever have to have those memories in the final days. It's traumatizing. It was strongly discouraged to even go to the facility saying it would be "more peaceful" to die at home. The facility gave him much better care. I wish he was able to go into the facility sooner since they were able to manage his pain better. read more

The hospice care my mother received from Jennifer and Waja the last few weeks of her life was wonderful. Mom was living at Greenfields of Geneva and the hospice team visited 3x a week. If one of them was out, a replacement was sent. Top notch communication and caring employees meant we definitely felt our mother was well taken care of. I only wish we had signed mom up with hospice care earlier than we did. The extra attention she received was appreciated. Highly recommend! read more

It's 200th review time, and I'd like to give it to this wonderful organization that helped me and my family during my father's last months of life. A hospice, for those unfamiliar, is a branch of the health care field that provides palliative (pain management) care for those who have been diagnosed with a terminal disease. The patient can be in the hospital, nursing facility, or at home to participate in hospice care. Doctors are trained to think of death as the enemy, but it is in fact an inevitable part of life. When my father was diagnosed with CLL (a chronic form of leukemia) medical science was able to keep it at bay for many years. But at the age of 70, this condition, plus his decades-long struggles with diabetes and depression, wore him down. The end of a parent's life is always painful to endure. But it would have been even more so if it had been seeing him hooked up to machines and suffering through surgeries and medical treatments that would have only postponed the inevitable for a short time. The doctors and nurses of Horizon Hospice made my dad as comfortable as possible through his last weeks and months. In addition, there was support for him and our whole family from social workers trained in helping families deal with the maelstrom of emotions taking place. I am very glad that this organization -- and the Hospice movement in general -- was there for us. read more

I recently went through hospice care with my father who passed about a month ago. I felt completely strong armed into the process with no compassion from the hospice coordinator that came to the hospital to evaluate him. As a lone caregiver, I felt like no one cared about the heavy responsibility of home hospice care on me nor did they care to explain it. I was given a sack of medication and instructions on how to administer morphine. I had a wonderful CNA, who treated my dad with dignity (she took wonderful care of helping to bath him and change him) and offered to come sit with me while he was passing, but other than that, I felt like anyone else I called was weary, and treated me like I was an idiot for not understanding the medical changes my father was going through. I felt very scared and alone, especially during his decline, and could have used more medical help or guidance other than,"just up his dose of morphine". It was extremely traumatic and I would not wish it upon anyone. I felt like they were more concerned with filling my dads apartment with medical equipment but not with his actual dying process. read more

Is there a way to indicate NO stars for this company?? My 80+ year old beloved mother went into hospice with Journeycare a few years ago. I should have reviewed more quickly, but I was so livid about the experience. They did a nice job for about a week, but as my mother deteriorated, their "policy" about not sending a nurse unless my mother was in dire straits was awful. I had to BEG them to send someone 12 hours before my mother died. My mom was in terrible pain and her breathing was so painful. They didn't give her the correct dosage of morphine, so NOTHING was peaceful or comfortable about her last 24 hours of life. The WORST part was the nurse they sent who walked in the door, didn't even take off her coat and said, "what's wrong, she looks fine to me". She didn't even take her vitals - if she would have, she would have noticed her fever and her labored breathing. Then she had the nerve to tell me that she didn't think she could stay because sometimes they see Medicare fraud. What??????? My mother was about to die and she had her coat on, saying she wasn't sure she could stay to help because of Medicare fraud? My mother died 9 hours later after this conversation. In the meantime, I'm BEGGING her to help make my mom comfortable. I had to call the company and beg them to either send someone else or tell this nurse to stay. (she was still telling me she didn't think she could stay.) Finally, she understood my mother was nearing death and then unfortunately for me, I had to spend the last 9 hours of my mother's life with an awful, lazy, bitchy nurse who didn't want to help us. PLEASE do not call them or utilize them. It was the most awful experience of my life and I still have nightmares about how my mother was struggling for breath and so uncomfortable in her last hours of her life. read more

My Dad is on hospice and journey care was the absolute worst hospice company I ever dealt with. One of the nurses, the aide, to the Dr. failed our family. One time it took 10 days to get the supplies I needed to care for my Dad. When my dad was vomiting the aide covered her mouth with her jacket and said she was gonna puke if she looks. Also the one RN was short and snotty. This is a time when we need compassion and kindness. I did finally change and we are happy as we could be at a time like this. I felt that ever situation was like a bad dream. I did contact the supervisor and she was very nice but after about 10 terrible things I could not stay even though it was veery inconvenient to change. read more

I work in the Chicago area as a nurse and care coordinator, and frequently have to refer patients to hospice through Internal Medicine. I've also worked with hospice as a son, nephew, and friend, especially in the past few years as I too get older and those around me are beginning to pass. I can say without any hesitation that Journeycare has one of the finest teams I've worked with. From the initial referral to consistent care and follow up for a myriad of issues large and small, they come through every time. One example is a recent referral I placed for a PCP through Internal Medicine. The intake team picked up my phone call within 3 rings, they asked me a few extra questions, and after receiving the referral, called me within 30 minutes stating they had reviewed and an evaluation by an intake nurse would occur within 60-90 minutes. From the time I initially called to the time of evaluation was only about 2 hours. I was astounded. Not to say it can happen this quickly in every instance, but the responsiveness was amazing. I also appreciated that they took the time to call me with a confirmation of the order and gave me a realistic timeframe for follow up, very professional, and efficient. As a clinician, and also a family member that has personally used Journeycare services, I would have no hesitation in recommending them to everyone. Going through end of life care is such a personal and difficult process, but the team at Journeycare makes it easy to understand and has a full team to support the entire family as they focus on keeping their loved one comfortable and helping them to pass peacefully. read more

This has not been a good experience at all! The CNAs have been very rude and lazy.. The benefits that you are entitled to through Medicare you have to fight for even though they are billing Medicare for them. Not a good experience at all, so we had to leave and go to another Hospice Provider. The senior staff and social worker was very unresponsive. Please carefully review any medical care that you are considering, people will take advantage of you during times of stress. read more

The staff at Horizon are either well trained actors and have no hearts or my husband of 40 years just fell through a crack somehow. I wish I could believe this business, which is what it is, had at it's core some kind of humanity but I noticed far too many things about it that disturbed me. We had so little time to investigate anything that we took a leap of faith. My husband was gone within five days of coming home and the people we dealt with seemed caring and sincere but since the early morning of his death I have heard not one word. Not that I want to but be careful and if you have time please do some research. (Received one "team" card with lukewarm wishes today, Feb 22, 2015) Too little too late. How sad for a patient to be forgotten after so much pain and suffering. read more

We only worked with the team from Journey Care for a week with my dad at home and that week was the opposite of everything you might think hospice care represents or provides. The team was incredibly inefficient, the internal and patient/family communications were duplicative and frustrating and in total they took my dads temperature twice and sent medical supplies after he passed. Inconsistent, lacking empathy, terribly managed and overall, incredibly disappointing during a terribly difficult time for our family. read more

I'll just say this... My 47 year old husband died in pain needlessly. I never met a doctor and when I called to complain and I asked for help- was told to talk to a "supervisor". That got us nowhere. He was on hospice for five weeks and I was left with zero instructions - except for more and more ineffective pain meds which apparently I was in charge of - with zero medical background. Not to mention the other things like-how to change a hospital bed, how to manage bathroom issues, how to pick him up or move him safely, etc etc etc. Funny, when we were sent home from the hospital their team came in and told us they would be there for everything we needed..... awesome sales job! They had the audacity to send me a computer generated survey of what I thought of their company. I filled it out honestly and asked for them to please contact me to discuss further....no answer. Shocking. Let's see if they respond to this....doubtful. People deserve to die in dignity and their caregivers deserve help. #Shameful read more

The nurse that came to our home for the initial interview was less than professional and I felt that we were on a sales call rather than an interview for a hospice. Later that evening when he became worse and I called them for help in getting him admitted as an in-patient I was told that was not something that they would do, they only provided at home help. In-patient care at Rush Medical was not available. At this point, I asked what did I need them for, all they would do was what I was already doing. Finally called our primary care physician and told her I was taking him to the ER and I needed her to help get him into the hospice at Rush. She came through and he was admitted. He passed away 4 days later. The nurses and staff gave wonderful care to my husband while he was an in-patient at Journey Care at the Rush Medical Center location at the Johnston Bowman Center. However, getting him into hospice as an in-patient was somewhat of a nightmare. read more

JourneyCare was amazing to me and my family during the most difficult time in my life. They were professional, caring and responsive. They quickly got my mother home where she wanted to be and made her transition as peaceful as possible under the circumstances. Afterwards they provided grief counseling with experienced counselors who understood just what I was going through. I highly recommend JourneyCare to anyone who needs hospice. read more

I'm just wondering, after a loved one dies, when does someone from Horizons reach out with even a visit or even a phone call or maybe even a simple card to offer condolences and check up on the caregivers that watched a horrible demise of a loved one? Is it a week? No that can't be. A month? A year? Or is it continued silence from the professionals who promised they would be there afterwards? Hmmmm I wonder how long their silence will continue? read more

The interior looks nice for visitors and potential clients, but they are only concerned about Medicare dollars.

My wife died recently. Horizon was great. If they made a mistake - which was rare - they corrected it immediately. They definitely helped give my wife the dignity that she deserved at the end of her life. read more

Journey Care made my grandmother's last days miserable!!!! They did not provide adequate care at all. We were not given supplies that we needed to take care of her. Journey Care claimed that the materials would be delivered the next day but they never showed up during the time that she was in hospice care. My family had to buy all supplies that we needed and we were never reimbursed for them. Our nurse Tycee was not helpful at all. My grandmother needed a catheter and we were told that she was too mobile and did not need one. We could not lift her or move her. She was forced to wet the bed and we had to struggle to lift her to change her bed pads. On her last day she could not swallow and we called for 7 hours to get her some liquid medicine. The medicine was not delivered until 1am with her passing later in the morning, My grandmother was supposed to be in comfort during her last days as said by Journeys and she was not. She spent her last days scared and in pain, although she was surrounded by her loving family. I would not recommend Journey Care to any one who cares about their family. We only had two nurses who actually did their job and that was at the last hours of her life. I wish I could give this company a negative review!!!!!!!! Not even worthy of this 1 star. I wish we could get our money back or sue, this company should be ashamed of themselves. My grandmother passed and no one has called us to check on us, console us, or anything. All they did was come pick up that uncomfortable hospital bed, the toilet, and the oxygen machine. I AM SO DISAPPOINTED THAT WE WERE GIVEN JOURNEY CARE AS A HOSPICE SERVICE FOR MY DYING GRANDMOTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS COMPANY NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN! read more