Is Heavenly Care Home in Pleasant Hill, CA, a reputable place?

I don’t know but I know where you can find out! http://www.bbb.org/

I looked around a bit and didn’t find anything either way. No reviews, good or bad. It was incorporated in 2004. I have the owners name if it helps. I can PM you with it.
BBB would be a good idea.

The fact there are no negative reviews bodes well. Nothing, though, beats a personal visit to look around and, if possible, speak to residents privately. OR talk to any visiting relatives, and ask, “anything I should know?”

Check with your local health department. Someone there can tell you how to access the list they keep on all the care facilities in the county. With it is a list of health/care violations. And make sure they tell you how to interpret that list. Every nursing home will have violations if they’ve been in business very long so if a nursing home doesn’t have ANY, check to see how long they’ve been in business. Repeated violations for the same sort of problem is a red flag, and maybe the health department would be able to tell you more information to look for.

In addition, I got to chatting with a community health worker who rated nursing homes. They have a title, but I forget what it was. She was speaking off the cuff (saying she couldn’t tell me which ones were not safe) but that I should consider looking at the smaller ones run by a private individual, and find one with good marks. According to my source, the owner of a well run mom-and-pop place actually knows each patient and they get overall better care than one of the giant homes run by a corporation.

My father had a horrible experience in a corporate run re-hab facility. From what I could see, he was just another number on their list, and he was left to suffer with a roommate who screamed all night long. This went on for two weeks(!) before I finally realized what was going on, and MADE them fix the problem. What idiots.

You know who else might be able to help you? Nurses that work in the area. They often hear things from friends who are also in the medical field, as well as from family members and hospital visitors of those in the nursing homes.

@snowberry‘s suggestion is spot-on.

We had issues with a nursing facility that my grandmother spent a few years in. She was paying out of pocket for “sitters” to spend the day with her and keep her changed. At night the staff pretty much neglected the residents. It was a pretty decent looking place, in a great area and wasn’t cheap at all, but the staff was a bunch of lowlifes and management seemed to only care about the bottom line. I think it’s hard to find healthcare workers that are passionate about providing top-notch geriatric care. Without them, even the nicest looking facility can be a pretty bleak place.

In addition, make a point to eat there (you’ll have to pay). Watch what the residents are eating too. A good care facility should not force a resident to eat tough meat, but that sometimes happens. So notice how many residents don’t finish their meat. It should be a clue.

According to @Adirondackwannabe they haven’t registered their business with the BBB. I would be very careful. I don’t usually use a business that I can’t look up.

@gorillapaws It’s because the industry is low paying and attracts a lot of riff raffy types. I worked for 6 months in an assisted living facility years ago, and quit because everyone I worked with was a low life, drug/alcohol using, recovering, low intelligence, immature, petty, backstabbing degenerate!
I loved the 6 elderly women I worked for, delighted in making them great meals, ice cream parties on the porch, made them laugh, really liked being a ray of sunshine for them, but….my co-workers were so far beneath me in every way I couldn’t stand it!
Had to go.

Please beware of any positive, glowing, online reviews at specialized websites. Eldercare facilities pay to be listed at various websites, and they post wonderful comments about themselves. This is nothing more than paid advertising in the unconscionable guise of a helpful public service.

It’s much better to go to Angie’s List or Yelp, where real consumers get to contribute. Yes, the facilities sneak-in their own A+++ reviews – they usually get their employees to do this on their behalf – but at least the fake raves get balanced by valid comments.

You should also contact your city, county, and state licensing agencies and Adult Protection Service offices.

Most of us go through this agonizing process when our parents grow old and can no longer live independently. We each quickly learn that there’s no eldercare system in the U.S., just a loose collection of services that almost always come at steep prices.

Virtually every assisted living facility or skilled nursing facility (nursing home) is a private business with a profit motive. Its goal is to make money, not to provide quality services, so it’ll hire minimum-wage workers and skimp whenever possible. (There are a few places that are owned and run by exempt organizations, but such facilities are rare.) The #1 responsibility is to shareholders, not to residents.

@Coloma Well said. There was a woman who really seemed to care, but I think she left for the same reasons you did. It seems like a tough work environment and I would have a hard time being the only one there who gave a damn. It’s good to know that you touched at least those women’s lives.

@gorillapaws Yes, it was sad, and also, even had I not moved on, as @jSadieMartinPaul mentioned…the owner of the facility got rid of her good workers anyway once their wages increased beyond about $11—$12 an hour. Constant turnover of lowlifes. I was sad, had grown very fond of the ladies, but needed to be true to myself.

Yep, I had the same experience. In my situation, in their great wisdom the owners saw fit to hire an entire family of lowlifes. This included the entire kitchen crew and a few others. I left abrubtly one day when I was attacked at the entrance of the office. When I mentioned this to my boss, politely turned their backs, so I walked out.

And like @Coloma I felt sorry because the residents were so sweet. They didn’t deserve to be treated the way they were.