AltaMed PACE – East Los Angeles

I did the full tour, but almost from the first moment I wanted to run!
My guide introduced me to the receptionist, asking me if she wasn’t a beautiful young girl. I felt under a lot of pressure to say yes, of course. Maybe most men would find that sort of approach appealing, not me.
The entire place was crowded, every single room. The hallways were narrow, too narrow for people in wheel chairs, or using walkers. Two wheel chairs couldn’t pass each other.
A couple dozen seniors were making baskets! This was held up to me as the latest in therapy. They were making baskets in the dark ages! They were making baskets in a horror movie with Bella Lugosi!
My sister was born at this facility when it was called Bella Vista Hospital in the mid 1950s, so I know the building, it is definitely not suited for the current purpose.
My tour was so traumatic that I’ve tried to block it from my memory.
I was shaking uncontrollably as I left.

I just recently started at this center and want to transfer to a different site hoping that it will be a better fit for me. I think this place is over crowded and it seems as if no one listens to or cares what the clients have to say. The staff here does not communicate from one group to the other… I had told at least 5 different staff members that I would be on vacation for 2 weeks, but instead received calls at my home informing my daughter that I was a «No Show». They also called about appointments missed but I never made any appointments. Also they insisted I needed diabetic shoes when I have no problem with my feet and no one there has even examined my feet!!!
I find that they easily will inconvenience the client and not think anything of it. I also find that many of the staff are rude and are in violation of HIPAA. Just last week a staff person, during lunch proceeded to speak to a client at our table about some personal issues he was having and felt they were inappropriate and way to much info for the rest of us. I have also heard other staff discuss clients by first names in front of other clients. There seems to be no boundaries here.
On a personal note, I do not appreciate being called «mommy». I have a name, please use it !!! You are not my child and I find it presumptuous and rude for you to address me in that manner. It is pretty much done by everyone there. It bugs the hell out of me. Do not presume that just because I speak spanish I do not understand english.
You do not have to raise your voice or speak to me in a demeaning manner. I choose to ignore your idiocy!

This place is great up to a certain point. I’ve been employed here for over 3 years and still am. I can say many great things about this place and plenty of bad ones. With that being said:
The patients miss their appts because of the lack of drivers and bs coordination. The medical escort supervisor can’t manage her own job. She moves too slow and lacks leadership! She doesn’t speak up for her employees and I have noticed that when her medical escorts come to her for help she seems to get bothered by them!
Seriously? What kind of supervisor does that? Apparently an AltaMed one.
This supervisor lacks time management. She has been using a medical escort to cover all her meetings and at the same time has this medical escort performing data entry on ALL caregiver time sheets for ALL 6 PACE sites. I’m sure the medical escort isn’t getting paid to perform those «job duties»
The CENTER MANAGER is another story. This lady, Ms. Vergara, can sure put a show! She should’ve been an actress. She is one of the most fake people here at AltaMed.
Castulo should send her to an employee orientation all over again. She apparently forgot that company policy states no one is supposed to use pet names for other employees. This center manager is notorious for that!
I have gotten the opportunity to work closely with her and have observed her many ways of lying to people and trying to be «cute» with them.
Ms. Vergara will say anything to make you happy at the moment. She loves to «sugar coat» things.
While on the phone with someone from the STATE, she asked «oh how’s your baby?» The person on the other end of the line answered her, they both said their good byes. As soon as the center manager hung up she turned to me and said «See, you have to act like you care about them so they can be happy with you.»
REALLY???
What kind of person are you?
She is a two faced person and always gives her employees the run around.
Ms. Vergara needs to be replaced with someone who is honest and understanding, but at the same time has all the great qualities a center manager should.
She can sure make you believe she’s got them all.
The kitchen supervisor is unfair with her employees. She probably used her position as a supervisor to help hire her sister.
This supervisor can’t even work a computer.
Castulo De La Rocha should re evaluate all the supervisors at this Pomona site ASAP.
Who ever is in charge of running this place needs to hire supervisors who are computer literate and can speak both English and Spanish. Look at where this location is. Basically EAST LOS ANGELES!
Hopefully this review makes it to someone who can make a difference. Some of the employees here aren’t getting paid what they should for the jobs they are performing.
Overall this place is great to be employed by. I love coming here and seeing smiles on the participants faces. It’s sad that some of them miss their appts over lack of coordination and lack of medical escorts.

At Alta-​Med, a case manager nurse named Maria gave us a detailed tour of the facility and the programs. I was very delighted by several factors I observed at this facility and the PACE program.
First, I was impressed at their seamless holistic approach for providing care to the clients as a primary care provider. They had a very organized and efficient system to keep the manage each patient with appropriate care, which was coordinated and operated by the team including three primary care providers (one Chinese, one Spanish speaking, and one English speaking) and several nurses and other clinical staffs.
This location was currently serving clients that come from various minority background, including Hispanics and Latinos (60−70%), Chinese (20−25%), and African Americans (rest). Out of 315 patients enrolled, about 140 patients attended the facility’s program per day on average. Most of the patients had chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, COPD, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease.
The facility seemed to manage the patients that come from diverse background very well through culturally integrating all populations together for healthy services by providing choice of meals (Chinese or American), various exercises like Zumba and Taichi above and beyond regular exercise room and wellness programs.
This facility was capable of providing the following services primary, PT, OT, acupuncture, podiatrist, psychologist, oral and injectable meds, iv therapy, and referral services to hospitals and SNIFFs. So, it’s program name: PACE which stand for Program of All Inclusive Care for Elderly (55+), was a right fit for the services it provided. I also received an impression that the facility staffs and the nurses to be very kind, enjoying their work. I’d definitely recommend Alta-​med-​PACE programs to any elderly who’s looking for a primary care provider.

Ok so my mother is a Member of Altamed senior care, she has her likes and dislikes, since my mother is disabled she needs someone be escort her from the Door to door service, they do have that service from their door meaning the senior care place to anywhere in the property, other than that at pickup she tells me that know one escorts her from her door to the shuttle, again she needs assistance, I’ve have brought it to there attention and they claim that they don’t have the staff to provide the service, ok so I advised them if my mother falls during time of pickup your company is at fault, (no Comment) other than that the staff is very friendly, from the nurses to the Doctors, sometimes Parents get very impatient and don’t want to wait around, even for medication, if they arrive early in the morning they do provide breakfast and Lunch to the seniors which is nice, I’ve visit the center very frequent they know me and are very pleasant when I’m not, I could be the meanest person, and they never respond back in a rude way, always always very accommodating, with the family members and clients. Other than that it does have it’s up and downs, but your parents are alway in good hands, even when they push the envelope to the extreme measures, remember there is always a story of both sides.