Consumer Ratings

The consumer ratings of health and elder care services determine whether or not a business is ultimately awarded the Senior Approved Certification.

Prior to issuing the controlled standardized survey to the health or elder care related clients of these businesses, each business must first meet our strict guidelines and pre-requisites. They are:

• The business is stable and has been in operation for a minimum of three years
• There are no civil law suits pending against the business
• There are no pending state violations against the business
• Each business must agree to our strict Code of Ethics

If the business meets these requirements, then the owner of the business applies by completing an application process. Within our application we are learning the following from each business:

• Proof of valid business license and/or credentials required to provide said service
• Proof of valid business and liability insurance policies
• Proof of safe hiring practices for all employees and sub-contractors

Once the health or elder care related business has provided the proof that it meets or exceeds these standards imposed by Senior Approved Services, we then issue a consumer based survey providing the consumer an easy method to articulate his or her rating of their perception of the services received by this business.

Consumer ratings must tally 90 percent approval (or higher) in order for the business to receive the Senior Approved Certification. Based on consumer ratings, 24 percent of the businesses applying for this sought after certification fail to reach this number.

The survey is issued via postal mail. The survey is mailed to a combination of both current and past clients of the business. Each survey is answered by the actual care recipient unless the senior has the inability to complete the survey due to cognitive impairment, severe arthritis, etc. In such a case, a family member, the power of attorney, the case manager, or some other viable representative of the senior may complete the survey on behalf of the senior.

The survey, once completed, is then mailed back to Senior Approved Services in the postage-paid envelope included in the packet. The answers of all the clients surveyed are then tallied. The business applying for certification then receives the final compiled consumer ratings report.

The confidential manner in which the survey is issued allows the consumer to feel comfortable answering questions with candor and honesty. The final score of the combined surveys must meet or exceed a 90% rating as we are not interested in endorsing ‘pretty good’ companies, only those deemed excellent.

Our standardized survey is tailored to each specific category of service. Though each survey has similarities, the questions asked are relevant to the type of service the client has or is currently using. We are concerned with verifying the claims the business is promising a potential client and so the questions on the survey include learning whether or not:

• The senior feels safe when alone with the assigned staff member of the business
• The senior and family are pleased with the attendance record of the assigned staff member (s)
• The senior and family feel that the fees and contract agreements are reasonable
• The senior and family feel that the administrative staff responds well to their individual needs
• The senior and the family feel that the assigned staff member’s skill level is well matched to their particular needs
• The senior and the family approve of the business and as approval readily recommends this service to others
• The senior and the family would use the service again if they had a need for it
• The senior enjoys the meal experience, the activities, and the accommodations (in the case of surveying a facility and/or an adult day service)
• Services promised were delivered as promised (financial planners, insurance agents, medical equipment and supplies and so forth)

The individual score of the Certified Senior Approved business is not posted on our site. There is no need to do this since each of these businesses has met or surpassed the industries highest level of consumer ratings possible. Any business that achieves a 90 percent approval rating (or higher) is in fact, an excellent service to contract with.

The health and elder care industry does not mandate this high level of scrutiny. None of the business within our network was forced to go through this process. Each business, in fact, pays a fee to Senior Approved Services for this survey process without any guarantees that it will receive from us anything more than the final compiled report.

This in and of itself states volumes of each business in our network. It is the survey results combined with the pre-screening and interview process that we can, without fear of liability, literally recommend and endorse each business in our network of health and elder care services.

Based on the overall consumer ratings along with each business meeting or surpassing the required pre-requisites, we can boast that Senior Approved Services is the only company nationwide that offers the consumer of health and elder care services, a logical method to choose from the growing list of choices. We virtually remove the guesswork!

Once you’ve elected to contract with a Certified Senior Approved service, we remain available as your advocate. Continue reading about our advocacy service here.

consumer ratings