Nice clean place, mom had friend there and liked it. Friendly emplioyees. I''m starting to seeing…read moreher invoices - The reason for one star. I was shocked. OMG - The MOST expensive senior place anywhere, including California and Arizona.

Horrible communication, staff calls off a lot or they have nobody to cover shifts! Little regard…read morefor scheduling timeframes asked for, send staff earlier than agreed upon with no notice ! No continuity of care--decent workers but different workers every shift--strangers coming and going Hubby is a disabled vet and is entitled to 8 hours a week/-when I complained to bright star about what was happening they cancelled our contract and said VA Did it which was a flat out lie! Horrible communication with staff, clients, when you hv a different person coming every shift I had to stay and supervise Mostly great workers but horrible agency --not a staffing issue but a management issue COMMUNICATION NON EXISTENT. A ONE star is given cuz it's not fault of workers

I have used Bright Star for five years to assist in caring for my aging and disabled mother. The…read morelocal office changed managers over a year ago and a lot has changed. Previously, every Bright Star aide was at least a CNA. That was one of the things that sold me on them. But under the new management you are likely to get a non-CNA caregiver (CG). They still charge you as much as you pay for a CNA, but you won't get the assurance that the caregiver has the same level of training. They will have "in-house" training instead. That's not to say that the caregivers aren't good. With the exception of one or two over the years, the quality of care is very good. You just pay for a lot more for what you get than you should. The new emphasis since management changed seems to be on making more money for the owners rather than on putting the client first. (The La Crosse location is a franchise owned by people in Madison.) Bright Star doesn't take insurance. Rates have gone from just under $20 per hour in 2014 (with periodic increases) to the current $25. One of the first things the new manager did was to raise rates drastically. The form letter explaining the reasons to raise rates cited its necessity in order to attract and maintain workers in a competitive field. If you think that means they arre going to pay their workers more, think again. The workers don't earn a lot more than $10 per hour but they charge clients $25. Over the years I've asked the workers whether they've received a raise whenever there was a rate hike and the answer has always been "no." The only raises they get are based on length of service or increase in level of service (like going from a CNA to an LPN). The rate increases go to administrative costs and to padding the bottom line. Another emphasis I've noticed is on protecting the company. Once the supervising nurse decided that we should sign a form indicating that we would provide proper equipment and that we understood that Bright Star aides are not allowed to do any more in assisting the client to get up than to gently pull on the gate-belt. This is because one of the aides claimed to have hurt herself in a transfer. The nurse was in such a hurry to get written acknowledgement and since she couldn't get hold of me, she had my mother (who is legally incompetent and under a guardianship) sign the form. It didn't seem to matter to the nurse that my mother didn't understand a thing she was signing. But the nurse did what the office wanted her to do and got a signature. That it will never hold up in a court of law didn't seem to be a consideration. Bright Star's motto is "a higher standard." It is a lot lower than it used to be. Five years ago, I would have given them five stars. They are now a three.