My child's father was taken in for hospice there after being diagnosed with cancer. The staff was…read moreamazing and very caring beautiful place inside and out. I definitely would recommend this place.

A Bad Experience. We chose Care Dimensions:Kaplan House in…read moreDanvers, MA for our loved one's end-of-life care after reading and hearing positive reviews. We made a last minute decision to switch and admit during a time of crises. Unfortunately, we did not have the same experience. I am sharing this review as a warning to other families who may be making this incredibly difficult decision. Our concerns were poor communication, limited patient check-ins, and staff making assumptions rather than taking the time to understand the individual patient's needs and wishes. We often felt that a "one-size-fits-all" approach was being used rather than individualized care. We were made to feel judged.. not my words.. these were the words of an aide on duty and told to back off and let them do their job. We also felt that family input was not welcomed or adequately considered. Despite communicating our loved one's wishes to staff, those wishes were not honored in the way we expected. We did not receive a consistent daily update or helpful info. regarding her condition or prognosis, which left us feeling uninformed, helpless and lost during an extremely critical time. We also had concerns about how some nurses and LNAs interacted with us and our loved one. We received a mix of care and icy interaction. In our experience, more training appeared to be needed in compassionate communication. There was a lack of communication with patients who were still lucid and able to express themselves rather than just giving orders to the patients not taking into consideration the patient's desires or needs for comfort. Our loved one entered Kaplan House lucid and able to stand on day one. By day two, she was unable to stand. By day three, she was having hallucinations, was unable to communicate, and then passed away. We understand that end-of-life decline can happen very quickly, but the lack of communication and our concerns about whether her individual needs and wishes were being adequately addressed made an already devastating experience even harder. We also experienced what appeared to be staffing limitations. There were times when we felt there simply were not enough staff available to provide the level of attention and individualized care we expected. I realize that every family's experience may be different, and I cannot speak for anyone else. This is simply what our family experienced. My strongest advice to families considering any hospice facility is: ask questions, clearly communicate your loved one's wishes, and stay involved and insist on a daily prognosis that we did not receive. If possible, have a family member present as much as possible. Families may not realize everything that is happening when they are not there. End-of-life care is an incredibly vulnerable time. However, if you are present overnight, insist on regular staff check-ins even if you stay - especially over night. Families deserve compassionate communication, individualized care, respect for the patient's wishes, not be judged, and to feel that their concerns are genuinely heard. I sincerely hope Kaplan House takes this feedback seriously and uses it to improve communication, staffing, compassion, and individualized care for future patients and their families. We made the mistake of changing hospice agencies last minute from Lahey Health at Home to Care Dimensions. The nurse who came out from Care Dimensions to admit did not know the situation and made harmful assumptions. Her inaccurate assessment set the tone for a traumatic 3 days which continues to this day. I waited to write this review to allow the grieving process. However, the experience has left me with ongoing unsettled sadness and regret for choosing Care Dimensions. Im giving 2 stars instead of one because one of the doctors was understanding and compassionate. Unfortunately, our contact with a doctors was towards the tail end of that misfortunate journey.

It's been almost 3 months since my dear friend passed away at Sawtelle and the care he received…read morestill disturbs me. I live out of state and came up to Massachusetts for two days to be with my friend. During my time visiting I notice that staff wasn't attentive as they claimed to be. Basic end of life care is such a sensitive time and if you are a patient there with no family, it's a very lonely place. I needed to track down staff several times asking for the basics. Water, coffee, soup, straw, mouth swabs, how about shaving my friend, change of a diaper. I had the time to sit with my friend, the staff did not. Two days after I returned home I received a call at 11:09am from Christa H. at the Sawtelle Hospice House informing me that my friend had passed away. When I ask Christina what was the time of my friends passing she replied, "about 20 minutes ago and I was with him". As comforting as it may sound, it was a blatant lie. When I received the official death certificate from the town of Reading, the MD who came into Sawtelle that morning documented and pronounced my friends passing at 6:00am that morning. My two stars go to the 2 social workers that were compassionate and professional. Linda B. RN and former hospice nurse.

Specifically Tyler (female) LPN being the only nurse on duty and in the building was horridly rude…read moreand refused my access to say goodbye to my aunt. I spoke with this nurse who not only broke HIPAA but when I specifically asked her whether it would be a good time to visit my aunt, she advised that I would be welcome to come visit at any time during the facility visiting hours. Upon arrival, I was accosted by this LPN and told that she had "already had to make her family leave" as my dying aunt was growing increasingly agitated because Tyler, LPN "can't be expected to keep up with all these med passes while family is in the way so now I'm playing catch up." My lovely and adored aunt passed away early the following morning and I was never allowed to relay my father's message to her before she was gone exclusively due to this LPN's "authority" in which she would not "permit" me "access to (HER) patient". This human who made ethical promise to "do no harm" did at least express that she found it "very unfortunate" that I had made the 2 hour trip (after speaking with her on the phone TWICE mind you) "for nothing". I have not yet filed a formal complaint with the agency that employs Tyler as we are still in mourning but, being a nurse myself with 10+ years of hospice experience specifically, I do intend to make the MA Board of Nursing aware of this individual's deplorable behavior in addition to holding the agency accountable for allowing a nurse holding a license that restricts her scope of lawful practice from providing imperative and ethical intervention implicitly resulting in inhumane practice supported by the agency during times when holistic and evidence based patient and their family's care and comfort are paramount in their most vulnerable and precious last days of life.

Visiting Angels are great people to work with. They are very responsive to requests and able to…read moreprovide advice and help tailored to our mother's needs.

I use Visiting Angels to look after my mother while I live overseas. So far I am overwhelmed at…read morethe response my mother has had to the quality of care she receives. The people who look after my mother are incredibly kind and loving. We've used other agencies and had other folks in our home that are just there to go through the motions... Visiting Angels provide TRUE companionship for the elderly. They talk, the listen, they care and the respond. Most importantly for me is that I have a great caseworker who keeps me in the loop with things that occur in the house. She is a great resource for suggestions on how to handle tricky situations and also a great resource to coordinate things like food deliveries and other things that take place in the house while I am away. If you are reading this you have a loved one that needs support, it is a stressful situation and you sometimes feel like anything you do will be a mistake. I'm here to say that Visiting Angels eliminated so much of that anxiety for my family. Please engage with them and see how they can do the same for you.

They make excuses not to come out and see you, only person in the office is competent. All outgoing…read morenurses are horrible and are hard to reach and are too busy to take on any new cases

I requested PALLIATIVE care for my husband as I was crumbling as a caregiver. Care Dimensions came…read morein and treated him as END-OF-LIFE, stopped all his meds, told me I could not take him for back surgery to ease his pain and that I should pay someone they provided to watch him overnight at $$ per hour. They gave me morphene to administer for his pain. Luckily I ended the connection within a week or he would have been dead. My husband subsequently had successful spinal surgery and lived another nine years pain-free! I would never recommend this company.

I knew some people who had used Good Shepard for their family member's home-based hospice care and…read morethey all praised the organization and expressed gratitude. So when my husband needed hospice care, I turned to Good Shepard. I expected that as a non-profit organization that their resources would be fully focused on caring for the patient and the family. My son (who took intermittent family leave) and I provided all the hands on care for my husband under the guidance of the hospice nurses. My husband told me that talking to his hospice nurse and her oversight made him feel less anxious. And he was very relieved that his pain/discomfort was managed so well. He had an assigned primary nurse M-F and weekend nurses visited as needed. We had frequent visits in the last few weeks. All our calls when things were difficult in the night were managed quickly and well. I highly recommend Good Shepard to other patients and families.

The greatest regret in my life was turning over my parent's care to Good Shepherd Community Care…read morefor in-home hospice "care." They made all kinds of promises to get our family to sign away Medicare benefits so that they could begin collecting fees and delivered on none. They made diagnoses based on scant information, told us we would direct decisions about care, then just plowed ahead with their own plans without communicating at all. Nursing care was burnt-out, depleted and lacking in compassion. Social work/grief counselors were inexperienced and unprofessional. Leadership was unresponsive and antagonistic. They facilitated our parents' demise and somehow, made the most difficult time imaginable markedly worse.

This company dropped me without explanation and without a plan suddenly. I wouldn't want that to…read morehappen to anyone else's loved one. The nurses seem to have trouble understanding what "fragrance free" is and it took 4mo for them to send out a nurse to assist with my Rx and cathetering (extremely dangerous). My PT was okay but didn't respond when I got a call they were dropping me so I didn't know if she was continuing services or if it was just the nurse. These people make up rules as they go. I wouldn't trust them with a loved one.

We chose All Care after my 93-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer's, broke her hip. I should have…read moretrusted my instincts and walked away after the first few phone calls. Unfortunately, the company I originally preferred wasn't available right away, so I proceeded with All Care. From the director of the VNA side on down, the staff was consistently rude and dismissive. They made me feel as though I wasn't making the right decisions for my mother's care, even though I was advocating for what she truly needed. That should have been my red flag--especially considering that hiring them was part of the decision they were judging. In terms of care, the physical therapist spent less than two hours with my mother over a two-week period. There was no clear communication, no care plan shared with the facility where my mother lives, and no follow-up. They essentially gave up on her, implying she was bedbound, and then discharged her without notifying the staff--leaving them completely unprepared and without direction. Thankfully, I've since hired the original company I wanted. After just one hour with my mother, she was up and sitting in a chair. That speaks volumes about what's possible with the right care and compassion. If you have a loved one with Alzheimer's who needs post-surgical physical therapy, I strongly advise you to look elsewhere. This was a deeply disappointing and frustrating experience that could have had serious consequences.

My experience with Seasons Hospice is that they support the Health Care Proxy only and do not…read moresupport family members. They will not talk with you, return your phone calls or emails. When I called looking for someone to talk with confidentially about my own anguish they put me in touch with the social worker who after we spoke, called the health care proxy and broke confidentiality and told them of my call to them. I have no idea how my mother is doing except through the health care proxy who is not able to keep me fully informed. The nursing facility where she is has been shut down for 3 weeks and have offered no compassionate visits with her and Season's Hospice will not return my calls. I gave them 2 stars because the staff that I did speak with seemed compassionate and I would rather have them see her then leave her in the hands of a non-caring nursing home.

Miserable hospice. snippy nurse, under-aged, inexperienced social worker all combined for…read moreunnecessary drama at the end of life experience for my beautiful husband suffering from body-wracking merciless cancer. It should have been a calm ending, they only hastened his death by absolute incompetence and upping a situation that was complex enough. Social worker should start looking for another job at a call center where she could put her two cents in at a comparable salary.

Communications! Especially with family. The individual nursing/patient care seemed good, the…read morereverend or pastor Tony, outstanding, the social worker not helpful at all and all of it poorly communicated with the family of the patient creating a lot more stress on the family on top of stress of caring for an aging parent.

Having a loved one in Hospice care is difficult enough without having to worry about them not…read moregetting the care they need. From the day my father-in-law entered into hospice with them, they have truly been part of a team making certain that he is receiving the very best care possible. They have developed a plan and have had weekly check ins not only for my father-in-law, but also to make sure my family has access to everything we need to cope with my father-in-laws decline. Sadly this is not the first of my relatives to end up in hospice care, I just wish I knew about Compassionate care back then. Words can not express how grateful I am the staff for helping us through this difficult time.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about this home care agency. From the very first interactions,…read morethe Firstlight team demonstrated compassion, professionalism, and dedication to providing the highest level of care. Every caregiver who supported my mother (who can be difficult at times) treated her with dignity, patience, and kindness, creating an atmosphere of trust and comfort that immediately put our entire family at ease. The staff went above and beyond to ensure all needs were met. Communication with Firstlight was always clear, reliable, and reassuring. I have to give a special shout out to Elise, who I primarily communicated with from Firstlight. She was always responsive, flexible, and proactive, which made an incredibly stressful time feel manageable. Her weekly updates helped my family work with the team to be proactive for next visits. That was greatly appreciated. Firstlight takes the time to understand individual preferences, routines, and personalities. Their attention to detail and compassion gave us peace of mind knowing our mom was in the best possible hands. If you are looking for a home care agency that delivers service with integrity and professionalism, I wholeheartedly recommend them.

The ladies are sweet enough, the owners were a bit demanding on criteria. . First light didn't…read morereally listen to my needs, so on some days it was a hit or miss. If you are someone seeking long-term care top dollar pricing, this may be a good fit. What I did like about them is that every single person showed up on time. Some aids had their own special talents. One was a champion towel folder, and then Jenny was intimidated By the way those towers were folded and opted to keep them in a plastic bag, and then demanded that I folded my own towels. Jenny scented in Jimmy Choo perfume at $150 a bottle, but still needs training in customer service, listening skills and most importantly mindfulness. Had this awful habit of picking something up and putting it down and then forgetting where it was and spent 30 minutes of my time, looking for something things that she put down because she wasn't paying attention. Then out of frustration questioned me on why I needed this item. I found her to be wasteful. Some of the other ladies were respectful and delightful. I just can't think of their names at this moment. And then of course my favorite. KIARA! OMG, what a GEM! Always willing to do whatever I asked. Genuinely happy to come back. We formed a real kinship. She is a registered nurse and I believe The higher education made the difference in this scenario. Through her training to become a nurse she taught me a little tips and tricks that I can use for myself, things that I will treasure forever. FIRSTLIGHT, gives the impression that they'd like to be better than the competitors, and I do believe that they are and that their effort to unite the caregivers with an online training is wise. I would only suggest that they throw in a couple of new classes every now and again , so nothing else slips through the cracks. I have to add Kiara is a true asset to your company, & I hope you value her as much as I did.

We were so fortunate to have an amazingly compassionate, thoughtful and caring hospice team at…read moreFaith and Family. All members of the team were tightly coordinated and in sync in supporting us as my husband's transition accelerated after a very painful fracture of the shoulder. From Faith, a very experienced hospice aide, to McKenzie, the case manager who visited us almost every day, to Connie the weekend nurse whose wisdom, insight and patience carried us forward, to Catherine, the social worker, Valerie, Reiki specialist, and Frank the Chaplin - all brought unique and supportive perspectives as we navigated this challenging time. My husband and I wanted to do hospice at home and as his decline accelerated, this hospice team made the journey possible. I am forever grateful for the wonderful care my husband received and the comfort care my family was given. I would strongly recommend this hospice! Hard to express how truly outstanding the team was!!

Faith & family hospice has the most compassionate staff. From the beginning, with our intake…read morenurse,Emily to our primary nurse, Lindsay we were treated with respect, caring & expertise. If someone was unable to answer a question, they admitted it & got the answer for us. As a nurse, I can be very picky with medical care. We were so lucky to have Lindsay as the primary nurse for my mother in law. She guided the entire family ( 6 children!!!) through the dying process. She was able to anticipate needs of everyone & facilitated them, while always putting my mother in law first. She was also able to arrange for a well needed massage from Poppy who was perfect. I cannot say enough about this hospice team!!! The best- don't go anywhere else.