"cutting staffing levels even as the company took $15 million in state subsidies meant to hire more caregivers and boost wages" -- Sounds like Covenant Care needs to refund $15 million to the state, preferably with interest and penalty.

Shame on you! That's not a way to run a business. Should take their license away. I had a friend that went there and the food was terrible. The staff is overworked and underpaid. The quality of care is poor.

I was there last year until my family freed me.

The employees were very nice and helpful. The food was so bland I couldn't eat it until I worked the dietician . Even so my partner brought me dinner every night. The phys Ed people didn't have the right equipment to help me. The air conditioning was ineffective. The sheets were so thin I got heat rash from the plastic coated mattress.

Those people work really hard and they should be paid accordingly.

When you are released from the hospital the day after major surgery, you need this kind of help. And you want it to be great quality.

I am horrified to hear they aren't paid well.

The whole elder care and rehab institution are all fraught with abuse of funds, low wages, and excessive greed. Take for instance Palo Alto Commons which is on the high end, it charges one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year for a half room; cash only, no insurance, Medicare, nothing but cash in their focused cared wing. They are owned by a single family that racks in millions. My father died there, had lost all is teeth in his first six months of living there. You think things are being done, but they are not. The staff is virtually all Filipino, that are underpaid and the owner require employee Holiday bonuses yearly to be paid by the family of the clients. We were also nickel and dimed for everything from toiletries to Kleenex. And if you question procedure and stats of daily care they are very secretive, like they said he was bathed three time a week, yet his appearance with oily hair and skin, bed sores, rashes, etc. suggested otherwise. The baby boom generation is in for a real wake up call to the lack of quality care for their aging parents and the greed that permeates the industry. Just terrible.

Stuck there for rehab. I lasted 3 days ( over a weekend and doctor not available for an earlier release ).
The place is one of many " people warehouses " that most inmates have to deal with.

Many people are sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. I'm lucky I got sprung. My rehab was turned over to the REACH program at Cubberly High ( they moved again ).

Nope, I'll die at home.

I have visited there - seemed "basic" in appearances - didn't end up using it. I think their good fortune is CONVENIENT LOCATION near the El Camino Hospital - must bring in business easily. Doesn't mean it's a great place (I can't say conclusively one way or another myself).
It's tough when you or a family member suddenly needs nursing home care.
There is a known problem with high turnover and low wages to staff working at the various forms of elder care and facilities. This needs an active spotlight on it and ideas and then action on those ideas for major improvement. It's not just about one facility.

@dennis, while I can't dispute that quality elder care is outrageously expensive, my father spent his last years at Palo Alto Commons, They were caring, supportive and kind. The staff made his last years as comfortable as possible and he felt very much cared for.

Once you're old and dying and end up in a place like this your life becomes a living hell. In the future people will look back on how places like this were run and the lack of care provided to the elderly in our time with horror and disgust.

I have direct experience with the other two Covenant Care facilities. Staff was wonderful. I felt terrible for them knowing that they weren't paid fairly considering the type of work and workload, from the RNs to the nursing assitants and everyone else. I pity the "residents" as well. Try going there during flu season. It's a nightmare.

Before anyone says that they should find another job, think about who will care for the elderly that have no place else to go or no choice in where they end up. We should be thankful that there are people who are doing this work.

Mr. Noack, was Covenant Care even asked for their side of the story? There isn't even a "Spokesman declined to comment" line in the article, just the SEIU's side of the story. Also, there isn't any indication in the story whether the 6 year old California Watch investigation is still relevant to today's staffing levels. Did the company make any changes in 2011-2015? Thanks.

This isn't surprising in the least. Care/ healthcare is big business. All care facilities that work with any sort of insurance are basically assembly line, designed to maximize profits, keep beds filled and minimize labor and costs. Unfortunately, high living costs in this area exacerbate low wages.

I stayed with my mother while in a care facility, and would NEVER have her in one again. I have to qualify that she had been in several facilities, all thoroughly researched before being admitted. All fell short due to negligence to the point The system doesn't work for caregivers or for patients and is a disgrace to this country. Elder care is AMERICA's "dirty little secret" that no one wants to admit is in humane and unethical on many levels.

Unfortunately, most families don't know what other options they have other than these "care" facilities, they don't take the time to stay in the facilities, have to reinvent the wheel, because it's new to each family. Lack of information forces families to trust these facilities.

Ok, I admit, this isn't what this is about, but it goes towards the profiteering of the baby boomer class.

This is the new revolution of how to make America great again ...
start treating citizens like people with respect and justice.

And these Internet job seeking places are seeming to be more
like places that collect information and depress the costs to the
employers by finding the most desperate candidate who demand
the least pay, again giving the profits to the intermediaries who
sell out workers.

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?