Right at Home - Boston Metro West - Newton Upper Falls, MA

I have been a medical professional since 1978 and was very dissatisfied with the services provided to my mother by Right at Home in August and September 2015. At the time, my mother was in the end stages of ALS and required 2 caretakers around the clock to assist her. My siblings and I did thorough research and conducted interviews to hire the most compatible, trustworthy and caring individuals to assist one of us at all times in meeting my mother’s daily needs so that she could spend her last months in her home of 50 plus years. At the time, we all agreed that Right at Home would be the agency and we were willing to pay more for the services they offered. The clinical director/marketing RN was certain that she could provide trained, bonded and insured employees who had been through thorough background checks and would be able to meet my mother’s challenging needs. She informed us that she would supervise them and train them (ex: use a transfer board) if needed. If we didn’t think the employee was a good fit for us, another employee would take her place. Right at Home caregivers were hired to provide physical support, assist with hygiene, prepare light meals, perform light housekeeping and provide some companionship for my mother. With the exception of one caregiver, my opinion is they are lazy, unmotivated, not personable, unprofessional and non caring. Examples are: needing to be asked each time to do any task though there was a daily check list of what needed to be done, they were stretched out on the living room couch with feet up and shoes off (only there for a 3 hour shift), they were frequently chatting on the cell phone, texting, or surfing the web. They showed no initiative. They were unable to measure the correct amount of laundry detergent for the washer or measure the ingredients to make one minute oatmeal. On a weekend evening, a caregiver was sent who had never done more than light housekeeping in an assigned home. We kindly sent her away and when we called the operations director to report this, his casual response was they couldn’t find anyone else and it was only for one shift. We had been very clear on our needs. It is my opinion that Right at Home management fell far short of delivering what was promised. There was no training on the job nor supervision. My mother’s care plan was never updated, as promised in the initial interview, to reflect her deteriorating condition, including a broken ankle, high risk of choking, inability to speak, the development of a pressure sore , etc. I feel I have an obligation to share our experience with Right at Home. We paid Right at Home thousands of dollars for 6 weeks and received unsatisfactory services in return. The only reviews we could find, when we were looking for assistance in caring for our mother, were the glowing testimonials on their website.

My family had a very disheartening experience with Right At Home (RAH) when we hired them to care for our terminally ill mother. We used the 24/7 live-in help for 3 weeks and then switched to shorter term hourly help for another 4 weeks. From the beginning we had various issues with the caregivers which we brought to the attention of RAH, but I believe the crux of the problem was with poor management. RAH did not deliver what they stated/promised on their website...their reality never matched our expectations. Because of the problems (both major and minor) that we had, I question how rigorous their selection process (reference checks, background clearance, personal interview, and competency testing) actually was. Their specialized training to match the aide to her assignment was definitely lacking. The Custom Care Plan for our mother was not particularly detailed and was basically composed from information we gave to their clinical director, not from an assessment done by her. Since the caregivers did not keep daily care logs (as stated they would on their website) my mother's deteriorating condition was never noted so her care plan was not modified accordingly. To assist the caregivers we composed a checklist with the approval of RAH yet, for the most part, it was never consulted or annotated. The promise of regular, unannounced visits to supervise the caregivers was not fulfilled. In the 7 weeks there was one visit, and that was at our request. Although we reached out to RAH with our concerns there was very little follow through from them. Their stated mission to "improve the quality of life for those we serve" fell way short in our case. Please look elsewhere for quality help in your home.

I recommend you DO NOT hire Right at Home for in home health care services. My family and I made the difficult decision to hire in-home health care to care for our mother. We diligently discussed whether to hire an aide on our own or to go a more expensive route and hire a private agency. We chose to go the more expensive route primarily because we were assured we would get trained, insured employees who had gone through an extensive background check and would be supervised. After interviewing 3 different agencies we decided to go with Right at Home because they seemed to be the best fit offering trained, supervised employees (vs contract personnel), customized care logs, individual care plans and were able to meet our time needs. Further they represented that they were bonded and insured and did thorough background checks on all their employees. We looked for online reviews from previous clients, but were unable to find any (except for the positive testimonials that they obviously include on their website) so I am hoping this review about my experience will help others when deciding whether or not to use Right at Home. The majority of what the clinical director represented to us in our initial interview was never delivered, including customized care plans (adjusted if there were changes in condition of the patient), care logs and most importantly competent, trusted, professional employees. In my family’s situation there was always a family member in the home (often times helping) while the Right at Home aide was there. Here is a sampling of my experiences and observations: • Aide # 1 (hired for 24/7 live in care) Napping in her room and missing important meal times, constantly on her cell phone (usually speaking a different language and in one conversation was swearing), lying on the couch with feet up, overslept 3 mornings and had to be woken up by family member, started her shift after having been awake on another job with another employer for 24 hours straight. This was the first aide assigned to us by Right at Home for a Monday AM through Friday AM shift. I asked her on Tuesday if Right at Home supervision had checked in with her to see how things were going and she responded “I have never had anyone from Right at Home check in on me.” • Aide # 2 (hired for 24/7 live-in care) Rummaging through drawers and medicine cabinets without authorization (money and jewelry were discovered missing after this aide’s 3 day shift was over), painting her finger nails and toe nails in the sunroom, asking me for help in using internet so she could apply for other jobs. This aide represented that this was her first assignment with Right at Home and she could make a lot more money if she contracted on her own. • Aide # 3 (hired for 24/7 live-in care) Asked permission to take a nap 2 hours into her shift because she had been awake for 24 plus hours at a previous employer, asked permission to leave while on her shift so she could go to the bank. After 3 weeks of this disappointing experience, we made arrangements for family to cover most of my mother’s needs and only used Right at Home for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night to help with bedtime needs, while pursuing another agency to take over the in home care. I was not impressed with Right at Home management either. The clinical director met the first aide assigned at my mother’s house and said she would stay until both the aide and the family were comfortable. She was late arriving, asked for a tour of the house and then stayed for about 10 more minutes and left. She never called to check in to see if I was satisfied as a first time client. In fact, I had to call her 3 days later to express some of the concerns noted above. She represented that she would be evaluating the care plan regularly and making adjustments if there was a change in my mother’s condition. Over the course of the 6 weeks that we used Right at Home (until my mother’s death) there was a significant deterioration in my mother’s health, but there was never another assessment done by the clinical director. When we reported the missing money and jewelry to Right at Home management they said they would do a thorough investigation and let us know the outcome, report the incident to the Department of Public Health and make adjustments to the invoice for the services of Aide #2. Right at Home never followed up with us on the results of their investigation and did not make adjustments to the invoice. We hope, but do not know if they reported the incident to the Department of Public Health as they said they would so as to protect other innocent families. I could go on and on, but these were the highlights/lowlights of our very disappointing and concerning experience with Right at Home. I recommend you DO NOT hire Right at Home if you are looking for a reputable, trusting agency to care for your loved one.