Assisted Living Concepts |
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Consumer reviews about Assisted Living Concepts |
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hiswife
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Dec 28, 2011
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Care given to senior residents
I was promised the moon and stars when I placed my husband in a ALC facility in South Carolina. He was admitted for rehabilitation services. As the other respondant said, he was dumped in his room, never to be checked on again. I was told his room would be completely "set up." He had to ask an aide 3 times for a roll of toilet paper, as he was not provided any, nor did he have soap. Both of these are DHEC violations. My husband was diabetic and no one ever made sure he took his medications. In fact, the one night he spent in the ALC facility, he developed a staph infection and had to be readmitted to the hospital. I specifically and without any doubt told the director that he would not return to the facility and that I wanted a refund of my money, which she refused. I cancelled my check. I have been dunned by the company for a year for the balance due. Yes, I signed a contract under pressure, but a contract is a two-way agreement. ALC did not provide the services for which I contracted. I have given ALC $100 for the one night and the "meals" he received. That is more than most nice hotels and hotels provide soap and toilet paper. I told ALC that I am paid in full, they cashed my $100 check. I am still getting bills for the remainder. Any suggestions?
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1Buddy
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Jan 2, 2012
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Care given to senior residents
I am so in agreement with all these complaints. My mom is in one of the Georgia facilities. When we spoke to the sales person is was all a bed of roses. The bed of roses truned into a bed of thorns. We were given a rate and was told that the rated would be good for a year. I should have read the lease more closely, because it only lasted for 60 days. That was one lie. My mother was supposed to checked on every 2 hours at night. What a joke! She can't even get help when she mashes her emergency button. She has fallen several times and not been able to get help. Ther are some residents that will call 911 because the staff will not help. The food is terrible. I will sometimes ask my mom what she ate, and she will say I eat some kind of meat, but don't know what kind. This is the real joke. How many assisted living facilities would ever ask resident's or their family to sign a one year lease agreement. If the fesident or the family didn't sign it, their rate would go up to a much larger rate. This is unheard of. All assisted living facilities are a month to month basis. If something happened to my parent tduring the year and had to go to a nursing facility, it is wrong to make the family to have to continue paying until the year is up. This facility already had a bad name, but now they have hit rock bottom with such a lease. One day the sales manager, who has no experience in sales or working in an assisted living was telling a couple of women what a wonderful facility the place was, and also told them that the price they were quoted would be good for a year. That sounded very familiar. I went outside and waited for the women. When they come out, I told the the true story about the facility, and the care their parent needs will be ignored, and they will be hit with a year contract to sign once they got settled in. My parent's room is supposed to be cleaned, but that is a joke. They come and empty the garbage about once every two weeks. They make the bed from time to time and a two year old could do better. Me and a hired lady gives my mom her showers. I wash her clothes, and brings her meals from time to time so that she doesn't have to eat food that she can't recognized. One night me or my helper could give my parent a show because a viral epidemic had broken out. The sickness went all through the facility, and family members ended up getting it and passes it own to their family members. It was during Christmas, so families had to put Christmas off until they got over the illness. They would bring people that was sick into the dining room. My parent told the worker to please leave her in her room because she was too sick to eat, but the worker took her anyway. That is probably one way the people got sick, because they were taken to the dining room with other sick people. The administrator is a joke! At night nobody is in charge, and the workers are out front smoking, on the phone. They are doing anything but helping residents. It would be in any person's interest to stay away from any facility owned by Assisted Living Concepts, Inc.
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PSA@alcco
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Jan 9, 2012
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Care given to senior residents
Hello to you 1Buddy. I hate too hear how rough things have been for you. To be honest the ALC facility in Georgia sounds much like the one I was previously employed at in Georgia. I would not be a bit surprised if it were one and the same.
There are a few caregivers employed with the one I was at who truly do care for the residents at the home but they are as I said few and far between. I pride myself in the knowledge that the nearly 3 years I was there that I made an effort to make a difference and to be unlike most of my co-workers but in the end I too got out due to upper management and their underhanded lies and tactics.
I am not at liberty to go into the facts upon my reason for no longer being employed at this Georgia ALC due to legal ramifications that would arise from breach of a settlement I agreed to upon my resignation.
But I can tell you this, if you haven't already done so it is in my opinion that you get your parent(s) out of the facility as quick as you can. I know when I was there all you needed to do was give 30 days notice of the move out date and that was legaly acceptable. But I urge you to at least read the lease before making the move so as to keep them from suing. And they will sue if you up and leave without that 30 day notice. I have seen them do that. And I was only told that no matter what the final 30 days had to be paid even if you don't stay the last 30 days.
Good luck to you 1Buddy. I pray that your parent(s) final days are in a better place, cause after all don't they deserve to be in a more caring facility?
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Past Employee in OR
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Feb 2, 2012
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Care given to senior residents
I worked for this company as a Sales Manager for over a year and although our community needs this facility we certainly do not need the parent company Assisted Living Concepts. Clearly this Corporation hides itself behind the dba names of each of their properties. If most people did their research on ALC they would see that this publicly traded company does nothing more than prey on the needs of one of societies most vulnerable groups, our seniors.
The average age of the residents are 89 years old. Most of them have great physical and mental challenges and ALC is willing to jeopardise the health and well being of their residents for financial gains. They send professionals into the community making promises that we are soon to find that the company is not willing to fulfill. Right down to the meals. In the final quarter of 2010 the corporation took red meat, prune and cranberry juice off the menu as a "cost saving measure". These are vital nutrients in the lives of the residents. And although the company saved money they certainly did not pass the savings on to the residents or the staff. I am guessing the Executive Management pocketed these monies in their bonus plan.
They are also famous for demanding a weekly if not daily increase in "census" per property, but will refuse to add appropriate staffing as required. In our case we went from 10 residents to 20 and continued to attempt to support the residents with only 1 Attendant per shift. That is one person trying to care for 20 (89 year olds). Impossible without tremendous error. In fact we had several medication errors, including one that led to stoke. If there was a major catastrophic event, life the fire outlined in earlier correspondence surely someone would perish. The company knows this and either does not care, or is gambling with the lives of their residents for financial gain.
They are also purposefully charging residents and demanding residents pay through Electronic Funds Transfers. It is common practice that residents are charged a $50 late fee per month. In a Regional Sales Training in the Pacific Region when this was brought up it was explained that the Corporation sees a $1.5Million increase to the bottom line annually from "non-disputed" charges. Is this even legal...clearly immoral and should not be common accounting practices.
I would never recommend ALC to anyone. And until the United States Federal Government and the State Governments are willing to start regulating these homes I cannot in good conscience recommend Assisted Living to any family. If you choose this avenue for your loved one...stay on top of the management of these facilities. Try to find a house that is owned by a small company that is willing to be accountable for the operations and care of the residents. Just stay away from Assisted Living Concepts!!!
You can also speak to your local Home Health Agency and keep your loved ones at home. Usually they receive better care and thrive remaining in their homes.
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DMF, RN
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Mar 17, 2012
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Care given to senior residents
I worked for an ALCCO community in southeast Texas for about 15 months. I had been going to the community as a home health nurse for several residents when the RD asked me if I would interested in the Wellness Director (nurse) job when I earned my RN degree. I took the job and began the day my license was listed on the Texas State Board of Nursing website. The RD had been the WD and had conveniently been promoted again to Regional Nurse less than two weeks after I began working. I, new to the business and as a supervisor and the ONLY nurse in the facility, was left to run the duties of the RD and the WD for two months when a new RD was hired. The air conditioning malfunctioned until it no longer worked for about a year. Finally, last summer, the company ok'd it to be replaced. In Texas, in these HOT summers with no air conditioning. Each resident room has a PTAC unit, so they found relief in their rooms, but for the visitors, volunteers and employees--90+ degree heat=inhumane. They did not care.
The comment made about the only concern being sales...you hit the nail on the head. The sales manager is required to perform 20-25 sales call weekly, the RD is required to do 10 (1/2 that of the sales manager, but also responsible for all of the micromanaged tasks of the building/operations/staffing/ etc. I was required to perform 2 calls weekly which was not bad, but I am not a sales-person. Nurses/WDs with under 40 residents are paid a salary based on the following formula: 1 hour per patient per week. So, we had 32 residents=I got paid for 32 hours. Do not be confused, you will work much more than 32 hours per week and that is Laurie Bebo's expectation as she makes the comment that 12-hour shifts are a standard by most "tri-fecta" staff. Now, if your facility has 40+ residents, you are paid for 40 hours per week.
Upon hire, you are promised (or at least I was) that you will receive adequate training for your job. Negative. Count yourself lucky that you will meet with your regional nurse to complete your "check-off
list"...consider that your formal training. I was luckier than most because my regional nurse (the former WD/RD of my facility) liked me and would tell everyone she "hand-picked", but I can tell you that most other WDs were not.When I would vocally disagree with my regional nurse, I received a "1" on my "quarterly" evaluation, but the hilarious thing about it...that "1" was based partially on the time-frame that was used for my annual raise that I did receive. Again, I was lucky because my RD, sales manager, and most of the direct care staff (who make minimum wage) did not receive annual raises. Per company policy, the rating system is 5, 3, 1. Only one direct care staff member could receive a rating of 5 which resulted in a 5% raise. Out of about 10-12 employees, maybe 3-4 received 3% raises, yet every year, the daily rates for residents to live in the community increase at least $3/day "to cover raises". Sure they do.
For 15 months, I asked (almost weekly) what the process was to implement the hourly pay of the direct care staff at our facility. It was virtually impossible (once I actually got an answer) because there was an analysis that had to completed based on three other assisted living facilities that had the number of patients we did and did not require any certification AT ALL within a 30 mile radius (I believe). Impossible in the Golden Triangle. Also, the PSAs (personal service attendants) and the Medication Aides do not require certification and do not receive any extra money for being certified because that would require ALCCO to pay them more. Want to know who is responsible for training them, monitoring them, and any mistakes they make (as un-certified personnel)...the one nurse in the community...the WELLNESS DIRECTOR. You know, the WD (like me) who was scheduled to work 4-8 hour shifts to comprise her 32-hour workweek). Yep...nice, huh?
When the president of the company that you work for is listed on Forbes and makes a base salary equal to what I earned a month refuses to shake her employees hands and goes as far as to tell them that this may not be the job for them (after they have busted their buttocks to make things work as best they could)...there is a problem. When she makes almost twice as much in bonuses as her annual base salary, but when the majority of her employees are not receiving duly-earned raises, let alone bonuses...there is a problem. I agree that if you are working at any job, it is your/my responsibility as a nurse/employee/human being to stand up to the wrongs and for what is right, but I can honestly and sincerely tell you that Assisted Living Concepts based out of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin and run by President/CEO Laurie Bebo is not going to change anything about the current situation because she is making off like a bandit. How is the president/CEO of a company meeting her criteria for bonuses when most of her employees are not?
I will say that at our facility, the majority of staff loves their jobs and that love for their job and the residents they care for is the only thing that keeps them there. Yes, there are some that do not care but they were/are the minority. If not for the restraints/constraints put on the local facilities by the corporate office, they would be much more efficient, effective and "properly" staffed. I might consider placing my loved one there with the current staff that is in place because they have proven their loyalty to the residents and I know they care because I worked with most of them. That being said, I would never allow my money or their money to line the pockets of those who are in charge at the regional and corporate level.
As far as working for ALCCO, I can handle almost any adversity or difficult situation, but that was a very educational experience for me. I will find it impossible to every secure employment with a company more poorly operated, but at the same time...I learned how I did not want to be. As a nurse, being on call 24/7 is draining especially when you are not properly compensated for it. In my area, the going rate for a WD is $25/hour. You can go to work at home health, a school, hospice, or hospital and make more without the headaches of having to deal with the thoughtless doings of a severely micro-managed company whose priority is not patient care, but sales or B-I-B (butts-in-beds).
I sincerely hope that change comes to ALCCO, but I do not see it happening. If you offered any job at any level...RUN! You can do much better and have much better luck making changes that desperately need to take place. Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
At-a-job-that-truly-makes-me-appreciate-being-a-nurse (DMF)
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