BrightStar Care of Mid Missouri

Mom has 24-hour care, with BrightStar on site for overnights, weekends, and some mornings -- 127 hours per week -- and another, excellent company the rest of the time. Most of BrightStar's on-site caregivers range from fairly good to very good and client-centered, but there are a handful of poorly qualified exceptions. The Columbia office administration and support is completely unsatisfactory. They're friendly enough on the telephone, and seem to "talk a good game," but they're terrible about caregiver management, assignments, and, apparently, follow-up, and don't return calls from messages left on their answering machine. Mom has told them of a few caregivers she really liked, but the office stopped sending them, assigning new people instead. We've had two caregivers double-booked, and, on three other occasions, >no one< showed up, along with several other instances of "assignment confusion." In the first three months, we've had a parade of 27 different caregivers, with NONE of them introduced to my mom by the staff; with seven or eight having no idea about the assignment -- nothing about Mom or her needs or her condition or her house, resources, medical needs, or equipment; with several either leaving early or not staying long enough to do a detailed "hand-off" (describing Mom's condition or what went on during the previous shift); and with several of them regularly sleeping during most of their shift. They've been informed -- multiple times -- that Mom has severe vision difficulties, but some caregivers persist in leaving things in unfamiliar places, where Mom cannot find them -- a flashlight left on a table on the other side of the room from where Mom was expecting to find it, for instance. A few do a nice job of checking the house, bundling up the trash, light "straightening," running the washer and dryer and dishwasher, occasional meals, etc., but others do nothing but sit -- or sleep. One caregiver last week left bodily waste on the bathroom stool seat and commode, and raced out, without telling her successor that the stool was stopped up. Last night, one caregiver was so soundly asleep that she could not hear Mom's ringing a call bell for assistance. I was in another part of the house, so Mom used the telephone to call my cell phone. I went to the sleeping caregiver and had to loudly call her name three times, before she awakened, then groggily and unevenly walked to my mother's bedside. Then, she denied that she had been asleep! Even though we like some of the caregivers, I do not recommend BrightStar.

I have a caretaker, Merium, and I am happy that she is working very well with my mom. Merium is an awesome helping hand. She does a great job keeping the house clean, she ensures Mom is eating her meals, gives mom her medication and ensures Mom is drinking plenty of water. They have a good time looking at pictures and Merium helps fix and add pictures to my moms albums.

Our experience with Bright Star has been a good one, overall. The aides have always been on time and reliable, and they help my loved one with any tasks that she needs. We're satisfied with the service!

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