Optimi Homecare Inc - West Chicago, IL West Chicago, IL

While OPTIMI Home Care is based in West Chicago, our care-givers/CNA’s live and work all over the six-county Chicagoland area. The vast majority of these are English-speaking Filipino men and woman, since we’ve found that they are very compassionate and sincere caregivers given certain cultural characteristics that they seem to share (eg.,growing up in multi-generational households where caring for their elders is considered an honored responsibility)… hence, they treat their work as a “calling”, rather than just a job, and tend to “become part of the family” for those they are assisting. In fact, our Manager of Client Care is also Filipino, and in his 25+ years in the care-giving industry, he’s established extensive networks within the Filipino community from which we draw. All of our care-givers are experienced, legally allowed to work in the U.S. and of course have also been subjected to finger-print based background checks and are insured and bonded. Since we pay them via W-2, rather than 1099, we cover all of their payroll taxes and other related expenses. We have caregivers available to provide either hourly (4 hour minimum) or live-in assistance throughout the greater Chicagoland area. When we started this business we purposely decided we did not want to go the franchise route, preferring instead to develop a company that would be unique and operate according to the way we thought it should be done (in our prior experience, we encountered what we consider mistakes made by other agencies who are answering to a corporate parent, which we try to avoid)…..and as a side-benefit of this, we are not restricted to work only in a specific “territory”, but have the freedom to operate in all of the counties of the greater Chicagoland area. To mention just a few of our “points of difference”….the office is open seven days a week, and our Manager of Client Care is available 24/7 by cell phone, just in case a current client or care-giver needs his input. We also attempt to have each client meet our prospective care-giver prior to placement, to make sure they get along and are comfortable with one another…and then once our placement ha s been made, we like to stick with the same care-giver throughout that assignment to the extent permitted by labor laws, allowing the client to get comfortable with their care-giver and not have to deal with the “care-giver of the day” syndrome. We also provide for a “warm hand off” between the client and caregiver…….on the first day of the assignment we are there to greet the caregiver and walk them through the care-plan in the presence of the client, to assist everyone in getting acclimated and make sure all of the bases are covered; and should the situation call for multiple care-givers on shift, the first will not leave until he/she has had the opportunity to brief the second on what has transpired on their shift.

We believe that the key to providing excellent care is to work as a team…..the family, the agency and the care-giver, all focused on providing the client the care that they need. To effectively handle this requires excellent communications between all of the team participants, which we strongly encourage. So try the “OPTIMI Difference” and see if you don’t agree that we are a cut above in our approach and performance!