Earlier this week, the Care.com founder resigned, “five months after a Wall Street Journal investigation showed that the online marketplace provided limited vetting of its caregivers, sometimes with tragic results.”*
While these issues occurred in one of the largest home care agencies in the world, these results exist in many agencies throughout the US. Sadly, almost all agencies know they have accountability issues with caregiver performance. (These are low paid hourly workers with virtually no direct supervision.) Unfortunately, caregiver performance is not their main concern for home care businesses. Their main concern is to keep enough marginally acceptable caregivers to fulfill the hourly commitments they have already sold. The national caregiver turnover rate is around 50%.
Bottom Line – Caregiver performance varies widely. Given the aging population in the US, that problem will only get bigger. Care managers must be “on guard” for caregiver performance issues. They should seriously consider using an independent method to monitor the care that is provided to their loved ones.
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* Zuckerman, Gregory, and Allison Prang. “Care.com Founder to Step Down as CEO Months After WSJ Report.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 6 Aug. 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/care-com-founder-to-step-down-as-ceo-months-after-wsj-report-11565089901
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