Great Lakes Home Health and Hospice East Lansing, MI

Please listen...if you ever have to put a loved one into hospice DO NOT ever use the company elara formerly great lakes caring. This company is absolutely horrible from social workers, to supervisors, to nurses, to the Dr they use, nurse practioner and staff answering phone. Sadly the only competent person I have dealt with there is an aide....pretty sad low person on the totem pole is the best person. They are rude, they don't get you meds and supplies in a timely manner, can't write scripts correctly and the list goes on. Oh and let me add they dispense at a time they shouldn't of and wrong AMT and never tell you they gave patient access to med 12 hours early. It made me give a rating so had to give them a 1, a 1 is even to good of a rating. They deserve a negative

If you want a loved one to die without care, compassion, and unreliable services then this is the place to go to. They did not return phone calls. On the day that my loved one passed, it took 9 hrs for someone to come out! Medication was not explained on when and why to use it.

We had mom evaluated twice when she was declining due to dementia. 1st time she was not severe enough but 1 year later she qualified for care with Great Lakes Caring. It is NOT 24 hour care. It is support for caregivers with aide provided by a weekly rn visit and twice weekly aide visits. Equipment and supplies were quickly delivered as well as ongoing weekly deliveries of personal care supplies. Thry were always available for our phone calls and were a huge help navigating things we had never gone though before. After the end, they were called to certify mom had passed and complete documentation.

Unlike Great Lakes web ad that as the patient declines their presence increases. This certainly was not the case for my Mom. The evening before my Mom passed we attempted to reach Great Lakes for 5hrs only to be told they were busy and someone would be out as soon as possible. After 5hrs someone finally arrived and told us that it would be 72 hrs before she was expected to pass. He advised he would recommend their presence would increase accordingly. They left my Mom and shortly there after (8hrs) my Mom passed...with only myself present. No one from Great Lakes present....even after my repeated phone calls to a clerk that read from a script that someone would be there, they are busy and nothing more they could do. Our experience was very disappointing and at the time we needed them the most....no one could be reached and handled very unprofessionally. My only comment to those reading this is: tell your loved one not to pass on a weekend, and don’t believe their web ad that their presence increases as the time draws nearer. When we needed them the most....they abandoned us. Since my Moms passing (Feb 3rd)....no one from Great Lakes have reached out to us to learn from these systemic mistakes and mishandling. Dave C.

My Mom was needing help with caring for my Dad so she called Great Lakes Caring. Rarely did they keep their appointments so my Mom would just do it herself which was very hard on her. We finally went somewhere else. They are no help.

My husband is currently in the hospice program. Our first week we were basically left to our own devices, No medications or supplies were ordered until our 2nd week when the nurse came in, I feel like we are some kind of inconvenience to them, I have been trying to get a hold of the the so called social worker for almost two weeks, When I call they say "I'll send and e-mail- " of course no results. I feel like I'm the only person who even cares, What's the point of even having hospice if they supply you with a bed and gloves and basically tell you they'll be in once a week to check on you, Our third week we actually finally had a bath aid twice a week, Of course they are pleasant but dismissive, You may as well keep your concerns to yourself,

My mother was receiving hospice through Great Lakes Valley. My brother and I both live about 2 hours away from our mother and met with hospice once to determine my mother's care. My mother's nurses had to continually call hospice to come out and make her more comfortable. They did not come out on a regular basis as they told us they would. When my mother was actively dying, hospice had not called any family to tell us this. Her nurses were told they would but when no family were present, one nurse took the time to call us (again, we never got a call from hospice). Had this nurse not called, I would not have been there for her final moments. As it turned out, my brother got caught in traffic and he missed his final moments with his mother. Hospice at Great Lakes NEVER called. They never called to ask family how we were coping with a dying mother, never called to say she was actively dying, never called to provide updates, never called after she died. I had called several times to social work, case manager but they never connected me with a care provider who actually knew my mother. As a healthcare provider working for several hospital systems in Indianapolis, I have strongly encouraged our social workers, case managers, nursing staff to consider using other hospice providers as it seems Great Lakes truly is a business and less of a nurturing provider of end of life care as they claim. Research and reconsider alternative companies.

Great Lakes' provided services for my father for only a few days before he passed but I was impressed with how quickly they provided caregivers and additional support. Like every organization, it's the individual people who ultimately make a difference. While the first two caregivers that arrived were adequate, it was the overnight caregiver that made it a 5 star experience. Kershima immediately assessed my father's condition (which was declining quickly), and started to take action. She hunted down the facility nurse on staff, made calls to her supervisor for approval to increase his pain medication, changed his position to help with breathing, and trying to cool him down and make him more comfortable. She was professional, gentle, soft spoken and explained to us what was happening at every level. Even when we needed a few minutes alone with dad, She stayed right outside of his door and would quietly step back in to observe him and (I think count his breathes ?). The only reason I felt comfortable leaving dad's side to get some sleep was because I knew he was in the caring hands of Kershima. As she promised, she called in the middle of the night when his condition declined and we were able to say our last goodbyes. I felt that Kershima was one of God's Angels sent to us that night.