Complaint Review: Home Helpers - Rogers Arkansas

 I am the head of Home Helpers HR Dept in Texarkana, TX and we do a background check on every employee we hire before they are ever allowed in a clients home.  If you know of someone working for Home Helpers that did not have a background check done on them, then you needs to contact the corporate office and let them know.  That is not cool, and the state requires that so I don't know how they would have gotten away with it. 

I am the owner of the Home Helpers senior care office in Rogers, Arkansas, and I dont even know where to start to respond to the anonymous post of September 4.  As far as I can tell after investigating the unsubstantiated allegations reported in the post, there is nothing even remotely accurate or truthful in it.  Im wondering if the person legitimately got the name of the agency he or she dealt with wrong, or if the complainer is just a competitor or disgruntled former employee taking an anonymous, cowardly stab at us.
 
I offer the following honest, verifiable FACTS for your consideration:
 
1.           As a personal care agency, we are regulated by the Arkansas Department of Human Services under Arkansas Code 20-10-2301 to 20-10-2304 and the Departments regulations.  The person who posted the anonymous complaint could have filed a complaint with the Dept. of Human Services instead of on this website.  The Dept. of Human Services has the power to investigate consumer complaints and, ultimately, revoke our personal care agency license.  As outraged as the complainer seemed to be, wouldnt it have made more sense for them to file their complaint with an agency that could actually do something about it?  And why wouldnt the complainer sign his or her name?  Why do they need to hide behind this websites anonymity?
 
Unless, of course, their allegations are false.  If thats the case, an anonymous website like this is just what they need to smear someones reputation.
 
2.           As a licensed personal care agency, we are required by Arkansas law to obtain a lifetime criminal history records check on all of our employees from either the Arkansas State Police (if the employee has always lived in Arkansas) or the FBI (if the employee has lived outside of Arkansas).  We are also required by law to keep a record of those criminal history records checks.  We have obtained a criminal history records check on every one of our employees, none of which have shown any prior arrests or convictions.
 
3.           We do have an employee whose duties are devoted exclusively to networking and generating new clients.  However, that employees criminal history records check shows no prior arrests or convictions (as is the case with ALL of our employees).  Moreover, not only is that employee NOT a caregiver, but she has very little contact with clients whatsoever.  Her job is to call on hospital discharge administrators, physicians offices, area agencies on aging, senior case managers, and other agencies and professionals involved with senior health care.  She rarely answers our phones, sees or speaks with any of our clients or prospective clients. She does not have any access to their personal, financial, or care information.
 
4.           According to the complainers allegations, the employee voluntarily disclosed her sordid past before the complainer signed any papers or shared too much information, the implication being that the complainer (or his/her senior relative) was a prospective client of our agency.  Does this sound suspicious to anyone else?  Why would an employee confess a criminal historywhich she would have lied about to her employerto a complete stranger?  Much less a stranger who is calling to inquire about hiring our agency to provide personal care services to their loved one.  And knowing she would be fired if the information got back to me.  How many people have you encountered who brag to strangers about their jail experiences?  It just doesnt make sense.
 
I will stand behind each and every one of our employees, both caregivers and office staff.  None of them has any arrests or convictions on their record, and we have the background checks to show it.  Home Helpers strives to be the extended family when the family cannot be there.  Our goal is to deliver the same quality care that we would expect for ourselves and our families.
 
There is one thing the complainer said that is true:  You must be your own advocate when choosing a caregiver or in-home care agency for your loved one.  Ask plenty of questions about the agency, their employees and how they conduct their business.  It is a very personal service we are providing, and trust is paramount.  You are entrusting the care of your loved one to us, and we take that very seriously at Home Helpers.
 
Too often this website just serves as a forum for competitors, disgruntled former employees, and others to anonymously ambush and slander innocent businesses, which Google then obligingly spreads across cyberspace, with no effective means of rebuttal (unless of course you want to pay this websites fees for their arbitration servicewhat a racquet!!).  It, like spammers and hackers, is just an unfortunate, frustrating side-effect of the Internet age.
 
I invite anyone with any questions to contact me directly.  In fact, I invite the individual who posted the complaint to call me directly, although Im pretty confident that wont happen.