personal care aide

home health aide

registered nurse - home health

licensed practical nurse

registered nurse

Elara-Caring

Doing what's right is just a slogan. In the end, it's about what it's always about—money and protecting the mediocrity that waste it. There's no accountability (on the IT side)—except for those who have the nerve to object to the absence of accountability. Naturally, it's all about my manner in making those objections—never mind the multiple attempts that they flagrantly ignored before it boiled over. Nothing but excuses and absolving themselves as they defend the indefensible.

Your “management” style is completely in line with the times (sanctioned as if time-honored traditions of leadership did not exist for reference).

Are you really gonna read THAT and reply with something like THIS: "Thank you for your feedback. Elara Caring prioritizes creating a fair, supportive workplace for our team members, and this experience does not align with our core values."

You had your chance to show that your "core values" were for real—and you blew it. My manager was the worst leader I've ever had in over 23 years in IT, and Elara made it IMPOSSIBLE to deal with that problem. Very few people can handle being a full-blown developer and manager at the same time. One or the other roles suffers and it’s almost invariably both. But that problem is compounded many times over when you refuse to fully recognize your shortcomings.

Just to name a few of his faults: 

-	deflects failure at all costs
-	turbocharged hypersensitivity
-	hermetically sealed mind
-	poor leadership
-	sloppy work
-	off-the-rails ego
-	utterly blameless attitude
-	repeatedly failed to meet deadlines
-       repeatedly failed to follow through on even the simplest of requests (all of which is documented and well-known by those on our project)

What part of your “core values” do those fit into? 

I asked his manager for help by requesting the opportunity to share my concerns—and he ignored that request (twice). His manager put a band-aid on the problem (leaving the door wide open for my manager to manufacture a new reality). Instead of taking stock of the situation and learning from his failures, he did what he always does—evade accountability. 

The business will continue to pay the price for his ways—and I paid for it with my job. You can tap dance around the truth all day long—but it won’t change what happened here. I needed help—and none of your “core values” lifted a finger. I bent over backwards in my tireless service for Elara—and I put my neck on the line for my customers. Railroaded is what I got for it.

From all the folly and fraud I have faced over the years—you're all bonded by a belief system that boils down to this quote: “You’re not required to be ethical—as long as you’re legal.”

Your kind doesn't fault the elephant in the room—you fault the one who calls it out. Your kind can butcher every "core value" you claim, and hold no one accountable for one breach after another. But the second someone loses their cool over this chaos, it's "Oh my God, we must act swiftly to rid ourselves of this person doesn't meet our standards” (as if you were a bastion of virtue all along). 

Your egregious failure to deal with this problem head-on—created the conditions for what happened, and you take absolutely no responsibility for it. And lo and behold—not taking responsibility for failures is central to this story.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The supervisor takes u were u going to work at abd the good part is they let u work the same day 😊. And they are super nice if Clint has a doctor's appointment and u tell your boss to make up that day u miss she will let u 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The hardest part is the clients. Because if u are a fast worker and u see what u have to do in the Clint's home. The time you're shift starts and if u have things to do like 6 or 10 things and u get it done quickly . And u go tell your Clint what things u have done and if u can't thank of anything else to do? Well u go ask the client is there any more things u want me to do. And they say no not right now if u want take u a break . And once u take a break and u tell them okay im done taking My break and you keep asking the question well did you thought of anything for me to do in the client was in no just have a seat we can talk if you want keep keep us company or keep me company and then and we do and the hardest part is when the client tell you to do something for me and I'll have my wife or my husband do the rest of it and then the next day the client got mad or is mad because you didn't do one thing fully completely even though the client asked you just do what you need to do in my wife or my husband can do the rest that's the hardest part in the hardest part is there's a lot of things but you can do so much but there's a lot of stuff but sometimes clients don't want you to do all of that stuff in the hardest part is that they don't be straight up with you for anything and they make the job hard on you and make us hard on ourself cuz we're helping the clients what they need and make them feel happy and secure because you're helping them out sometimes they appreciate it sometimes they don't that is the hardest part about working in the company because you never know what clients you going to run into but I do enjoy working with the company

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Well what will help the environment is that when they hire people to work or to clean in the client's home or take care of them in need sometimes the environment is clean and sometimes is not and the cutter I don't even know what that is

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Topical day some days I have stressful days because my clients they're getting attitudes they're not being straight up with me it's making it hard on all of us when we take care of these people it's like they feel like I'm not doing more than I should do for them even though I'm a fast worker it don't take me long to do what I have to do for my clients if we have more things to do in the client's house but have a break time between so we can sit down drink our drink or eat our snack so we want pass out and I feel that we need to have at least our lunch. Like I said at least we have more task to do even though there's so much to do

This place has a ton of potential, but they have a lot of kinks to work out.

I requested a large salary since we were salaried employees (sort of) and they granted it even though on paper I should not have been allowed to make that much. However, the kicker is that they had questionable salary practices. If I worked in excess of 40 hours a week, which was just about every week, I was a salaried employee. However, if I didn’t have assignments or didn’t make my 40 hours a week then I was an hourly employee. As an exempt employee making a salary you are supposed to be paid that salary regardless of if you work 30 or 60 hours a week.

The biggest offense for me, though, is that you have terrible work-life balance. I worked in the field seeing patients for about 40 hours a week and then I had to go home and chart, make phone calls to set up appointments, map my routes, call docs, etc. Which added an extra 20 hours or so per week.

I was supposed to have a designated service area but they sent me all over the Chicagoland area. I could be practically in Indiana or Wisconsin or I could go to the far north side of Chicago and then the far south side.

On top of the all over Chicagoland service area, we often got last minute additions to our tablets and more often than not they were nowhere near you. On top of that, they were almost always start of cares (SoC), or admissions for home health, which were about a 2-4 hour process which they would often throw on your schedule close to the daily cut off (around 2pm).

Finally, I applied to be a psych nurse with them since I had a partial background as a psych RN and figured it’d be easier money then working med-surg in the hospital. My preceptor told me they advertise as they want you for psych nursing, but they have no intention of only giving you psych cases and so you still end up doing all the crazy wound care (vacs, drains, etc), med reconciliations (med recs), and med-surg duties.

If these guys could get it together with the non-existent service areas, improve the work-life balance, and stop with their questionable salary practices then this place would have real potential. Until then, though, I’d say stay very far away from them. If you do still want to roll the dice with them then make sure you ask about the things I mentioned above.


First of all the only reason I gave them one star is because zero wasn’t an option... 
This was a great place to work... then the merge, the buy out, whatever they want to call it this week happened. The managers tell you what you want to hear if you bring something to their attention. Then lie to your face. They have no clue what confidentiality is. If you tell them something in confidence it’s only a matter of time till your coworkers know your business. Staff are leaving in droves!! But instead of management asking why they tell the ones that are still there” they left because they don’t want to be on a good team”. No they left because they are embarrassed to work for a company that has the word caring in their name and on their cars but have no idea what caring means!! They have lower level employees telling nursing staff how to do their job, they have a non nurse staff member making nursing decisions. Patients are leaving the company to go to other agencies and they don’t even care. The families that leave are labeled “ trouble makers” or as “ too needy anyway” and they say “ good riddance” “ now they can be someone else’s problem”.  Staff go into a home to see a patient and spend the first half of their visit doing damage control and apologizing for things not getting carried through. And it’s not most of the nurses faults. It’s because the nurses relay messages that never get followed through on by scheduling or management. It’s because on the nurses days off they expect the care their lived ones should be getting to continue. But they are so short staffed due to poor management and this merge there is nobody there to do it. They have one nurse working most nights by herself covering a radius of about a 4 hour drive. That’s insane! They have lost all their good nurses and cnas. And the only ones to blame are the management and the higher ups that turn a blind eye to the disaster happening to this company because as long as the dollars are coming in who cares right?? 
Trust me. You do not want to work here!!!

Way to many "last minute policy changes", no support from management unless you are able to catch them by text/email because they are not available in the office. As soon as they see you are a hard worker expect 2xs as much work to be added. Expect to be short staffed and wore out from working all day/week plus taking on call. Cover large areas. Also expect retaliation. No support except from your field staff coworkers. Office manager is absolutely amazing!! The biggest picture is numbers not patient care. It's hard to take care of more than you are staffed for. I loved and adored my patients but always felt rushed from 1 to the next and rarely ever felt like I had enough time to actually take my time with them and visit. I loved the whole hospice job this was the best job I had ever had in the beginning but went down quickly the last year. Best team I've ever worked with in the beginning. Expect to be lied to on advancement opportunities. If you ever disagree even just 1 time you will have repercussions by either being cold shouldered, work load increased, or them sudden "policy changes." They like everyone to follow in line without disagreeing even if it's wrong. You will advocate a lot for your patients as well. You will cry at least 1x a week. There is poor communication from office to the actual field staff who's out working so expect to have full schedules with 10 other things to do and getting them last minute calls when your not on call to go do an admit at 4pm or 430pm which is impossible to finish by 5 if you're not the nurse on call that night. The charting system has room for major improvements, there is a lot of repetitive charting that does not need to be charted multiple times weekly. If this was 1.5-2 years ago I would give 5 stars to every single part of this place except the charting system bc again it could be improved big time. I will always love hospice and will cherish all the amazing memories I made with my patients and their families. Supposed to be the 4rth largest home care company but there are no raises or even cost of living raises.

Company run by board of directors in NY.  They acquire small successful companies with a great work environment  that benefits the patient and offer good pay but then eliminate positions and ruin the culture of the company via s heirarchy and having the goal of "having legislative power as a big company" as stated by the ceo upon initial employee meeting.   They want a monopoly to dictate how medicare should work to line the pockets of investors. They took everything that was good and positive for patients and employees and ran it into the ground making pts the 2ndary focus of care, focusing more on the almighty dollar and their profits. This is a nursing promotion company and if your a nurse, it may be a great way to advance your career. If not, better plan on finding other employment because they dont care about any other employees. 
The office went from smiling faces to unhappiness in 9 mos with no smiles anymore. .  Patient care supposedly the priority, but they fall short due to lag time in getting orders approved and visits  authorized as they dont place enough staff to do the job in an efficient and timely manner.  Those who are there are overburdened by too much work in the office. Always asked to see pts on paper, then when and IF you finally get the forms electronically, you have hours of work to complete on your own time while being nagged to get it done asap. VERY STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENT that is unhealthy in every aspect. They dont accept any input from field staff as to making suggestions or improvements to better patient care. If you are acquired, better plan to find another employer or risk being  stressed out and disappointed and or let go without much notice .

A typical day was listening to managers getting all cozy with each other about how great things are but they're not. Then it was out to do visits which wasn't bad except for the lies we had to tell patients about supplies and equipment they should have gotten but didn't. Then we had to tell them they couldn't have medications they were promised on admission. We were always getting sent to places not agreed on when we were hired too and they don't care a bit. They told us it was part of being a good employee even though they threatened you to quit if you didn't like it. We started seeing a lot of patients a day more than at other places and by the time we finished charting it was midnight. The place has gone downhill and there's no end in sight. They also lied about who qualifies for care and never listened when we tried to tell them the truth. There have been patients at that place for years even though many didn't meet criteria. They are going to get busted one day by medicare and medicaid and they ain't going to like it. I always charted defensively to cover myself. I found there were missing parts of the chart for things they wanted to hide so they wouldn't get in trouble. I say to anybody who has good morals don't go to this place because you won't like yourself if you do. These people are good and will smile in your face while planning to get rid of you. They talk about God but its just a word to them. I've seen them do some nasty things to a lot of good people. They are losing more and more patients every day and word is getting out about them and there's a lot of competition. It will be justice to watch them continue to fail.

When I started,  it was clan culture and easy going.   The culture made the stress of the job ok.   The transition to hierarchy culture doesn't motivate you to want to help out.  This seemed to start when the executives switched.  It is necessary for the company to do this because they keep expanding like McDonald's.  Our cars say "employees and patients are number 1."  The actual job says "employees are line cooks and patients are burgers. "  The mission statement,  name,  and slogan represent an idealistic standard that isn't real to what actually happens.   Such a vast footprint requires streamlined policy and competent managers.   I've watched this company chew up, light on fire,  and send branch managers packing on their own free will.   They fail to see we are working with people's lives,  not slinging value meals.  Being a nurse doesn't make you a manager,  yet every manager has been a nurse with no real skills that I have seen.   Meetings consist of money talk and patient planning.    It's essential to budget and provide services and make money and innovate.   I've never heard the word quality in a meeting.  Scheduling with this company REQUIRES patience and a personality that hates organization.   If you need to tell someone when you will be home,  look elsewhere.   Goals for productivity are not achievable.   Overall if I have worked at worse places and my personality plays to this type of work.   The company is going to keep growing and eliminating small start up home health company's and eventually learn they are too big for their own good.   But line cooks are readily available and the world is hungry.   When we burn out,  a new personal will fill our spot.

Working at Elara Hospice was, without a doubt, the most chaotic and poorly managed experience I’ve ever had in healthcare. The organization is severely understaffed, which leads to an unreasonable and unsustainable burden placed on On-Call nurses. Day nurses are often unavailable to complete routine visits, so these responsibilities routinely fall to the On-Call nurse—on top of actual emergency visits, which defeats the purpose of having an on-call structure in the first place.

There is absolutely no organization or support. Patients are not “tucked in” before the end of the day, which leads to a flood of calls and tasks during on-call hours. The triage system is outsourced to a third-party call service that is, frankly, incompetent. They frequently assign “visits” that aren’t actually visits, fail to triage appropriately, and call repeatedly for non-urgent matters—clearly untrained and overwhelmed.

Attempts to raise concerns are met with defensiveness and denial. Management, particularly the Executive Director, shows zero accountability or insight. Instead of problem-solving, they deflect and protect their egos, ignoring critical feedback from the field. There’s no maturity, no professionalism, and definitely no foresight.

Elara Hospice is not a place I would recommend—for employment or for patient care. The ongoing service failures, disrespect for clinical staff, and misaligned priorities are a disgrace to the mission of hospice.

Until leadership develops the humility and capacity to listen, reflect, and act on feedback, nothing will improve.


If you want a place to work with job security, advancement opportunities, good benefits, and honest and sincere management, this is NOT the place to work.  The benefits are severely lacking and there is no education reimbursement or other employee incentives or appreciation programs as there are with other companies.  There are definite cliques in the company and if you are not in with them, then you feel as though you are always on the chopping block.  Which leads me to the "at will" to work clause which I feel was highly abused as witnessed to several more than competent co-workers that were released from their positions in the almost three years that I had worked there.  There were no HR or disciplinary actions, just that they weren't needed for whatever reason even though they were way past their probation periods.  This particular location does not cross-train, and does not pay overtime, therefore, the work that is piled on has to be done in the time frame, which means you work through breaks, and/or lunch (which you don't get paid for) or it looks as though you cannot handle your work load.  They are highly understaffed, so you have to chase down people in order to get their work submitted in order for you to do your own work.  Upper management will appear to care about your concerns but then they are never addressed or they will blow smoke up your *** about how great an employee you are and how valuable you are to the company, but beware, that's when the big blow will come.
Also, no team building or programs to build morale.  Even holiday events are pot-luck with very little input from upper management.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Personal care aide 106 salaries reported	$13.74 per hour
Home health aide 80 salaries reported	$19.08 per hour
Registered nurse - home health 46 salaries reported	$92,804 per year
Licensed practical nurse 18 salaries reported	$32.22 per hour
Registered nurse 5 salaries reported	$88,300 per year

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