UPMC HOME HEALTHCARE OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

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Kate Ziolkowski

The one star is only because I had to select one to post. My grandmother lived in a local Assisted Living Facility where she was admitted to UMPC Altoona's hospice services (Family Hospice) in June 2024. Her physical condition slowly declined, as it does when someone is on hospice, until it very quickly became evident that she was nearing her final days in February 2025. I have worked in long term care for 19 years & have countless experiences with dying & the hospice process. My parents arrived from out of state to find my grandmother very obviously nearing the end. The Assisted Living facility made no effort to reach back out to the hospice agency as the hospice nurse had evidently just been there the day prior & reported 'her vitals were good'. (Vital stats aren't the only indicator of the dying process!). My aunt & my parents had to reach out to hospice on their own, something no grieving family member should be responsible for when their loved one lives in a facility. When the weekend on call hospice nurse finally arrived she admitted she had never been in the facility before & didn't know how to go about getting the needed medications for the end-of-life process. Despite having hospice orders for all the usual end-of-life medications (Ativan, morphine, Hyoscyamine, etc) those medications were not actually on site and no one could find an initial comfort care kit either. The Assisted Living facility nurse tried to give my grandmother, who was unresponsive & was not eating/drinking in those final hours, crushed up Tylenol in applesauce just to try to get something in her system (another poor judgment call). The hospice nurse left around 11:00 pm with the promise that she 'didn't know how or when, but that medications would be arriving from a pharmacy soon.' Those medications never came & my grandmother died not less than two hours later suffocating on her own secretions, restless & struggling for air. It was the most horrific, painful way to pass away all at the hands of negligent hospice/Assisted Living facility oversight as well as an incompetent on call nurse who had no awareness of policies/procedures for her company or that specific community & also had poor bedside manner. The state was notified and the agency was found non-compliant in several areas regarding the lack of care of my grandmother. I would encourage anyone interested in using this company to do their due diligence and look at survey results (Pennsylvania Dept. of Health: Family Hospice). In fact, the agency was also found to be in non-compliance with their corrective plan of action regarding my grandmother's death in another survey more than four months later. This complaint does not even address the fact that her primary nurse failed to acknowledge or recognize the other changes that occur during a decline towards the end (changes in eating, skin, overall alertness, etc.) and also how that nurse failed to inform the family of any of those changes (which WERE being reported by facility staff to visiting family members). The primary reason to have your loved one receive hospice services is so that the person may die with dignity, peace and pain-free....a way of dying that was robbed from my grandmother due to the negligence of multiple people we entrusted with her care at the end of her life. Choose another agency.

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Cynthia Reeder

The services are poorly managed and poorly organized. Apparently a case manager was assigned to my mother but we never met or talked to that person. Appointments for nursing services were not made in advance so it was difficult to organize personal schedules. PT did nothing on visits with my mother when I was not present … and the therapist was always late … one hour on one occasion. My overall assessment of the management of the home health services is that it is chaotic and disorganized. There don’t seem to be any solid management, planning or scheduling practices in place. I would not recommend using this agency if you have an alternative.

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Lisa Mazzocco

We initially had a great experience with the RN and aide. The evening my father passed was horrible. He was choking on his secretions and became very anxious. Hospice was as called. They never came or called. His caregivers called 911 when they came and started chest compressions and he was a DNR. He passed away on the living room floor. No one to pronounce him. The funeral home finally came and picked him up. We never heard from Hospice

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Sharon Coy

Their home physical therapy and occupational were excellent; most if the time; however their home RN service was below average moat of the time... The nurse assigned to us for the last year and half of his life was below average bc she didn't know hiw to properly change a catheter and had no empathy for my husband who was basically declining quickly.... She lacked nit only nursing skills but also bedside manners... She laughed when she told us she could no longer provide nursing services after 9:30 pm.and we would have to go to the ER.. no empathy was shown or given. Also utilized your hospice service, which provided us with excellent case manager and some nurse aides; however some of the social workers and RN'S were rude and flippant... Staff needs more training in hospice and palliative care. Would have given a higher score if it weren't for some bad apples in your staff. Tried to talk with supervisor and other key staff about dissatisfied service, but they didn’t return my calls.

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pgarden photolearner

I cannot say enough good things. The staff, to a person, are amazing. They are well, trained, highly competent, compassionate and very loving. They have made an amazing difference for my family, as well as for my father in his 101st year. There should be more groups like this. This is how the end of life should be handled, buy a competent wonderful team like this.