Columbia Cottage Wyomissing

Residents are treated with dignity, respect, and they are given choices. The staff love. And they love deeply for the residents.

Working for Columbia Cottage was quite an experience. While I am thankful that through them I learned some of the basic skills I apply today, I dont consider my time there to have been very fufilling. Misinformed, misguided, and unprofessional come to mind when I think back on that facility. Firstly, yes they do pay higher than most entry level PCA positions, but that is because they have no dining staff nor housekeeping, meaning that the Homemakers are responsible for fufilling those duties on top of taking care of 45-50 residents, a lot of which truly belong in skilled nursing. Which brings me to my next point - The levels of care are very varied, mostly one extreme to the other. No gait belts, little to no training on the plenty of non-ambulatory lifts and enablers. Medication administration was a mess, as they still use paper MARs and allow anyone to learn to med tech, even though they may not be qualified. Med tech training is very brief and all over the place. Management had their favorites and took measures and used careful wording to ensure any claims of favoritism towards them were dismissed or not able to be proven. Management enabled and supported mistreatment of staff by several coordinators, despite the large amount of times staff expressed their feelings about the mistreatment. They do not provide an open, welcoming, rewarding environment. Its hostile, tense, and anxiety inducing. Lots of bullying and drama as well, but thats almost to be expected at a mostly female employed facility with terrible management. I would not recommend anyone start their career path at a place that is not a true assisted living, but a glorified, polished skilled facility with little to no skills applied or taught. They really do a disservice to the residents by having people unprepared and miserable. There are some staff there who truly love and care for their residents, which is one of their very very few saving graces.

Management is fantastic with their brainwashing techniques. Were the best assisted living in Berks. Lie. They bring in skilled residents to be cared for by staff that are not properly trained. Several families complained to me over time about how they were talked down to by management, specifically the MD who is the true poison but I wont name her because Im sure shed try to sue me. They overcharge residents for bed pads, dollar store body wash and shampoo to make a buck and take advantage of the fact that sometimes families cant provide supplies in a timely manner. They use paper MARs as the reviewer said below and the training is absolutely terrible and no way state legal. They make you feel like you cant go anywhere else, yet offer no opportunity for advancement. Ask them about their violations too. They were only violation free for so long because they made sure to scrub out their mistakes before inspection. Management outright lie, play favorites, and threaten to keep people in line. Were all miserable with the exception of a few who play the kiss up game, constantly tense and anxious wondering if well have our jobs tomorrow. Wonderful place to work! You can make just as much working at McDonalds, FYI. WHICH brings me to...We pay more than any assisted living. False, again. Base pay? Sure. Thats pretty decent. But why do you think its high? Because you do everything. Cleaning, serving, taking care of bed bound/highly demented residents, the whole nine. They are the only assisted living too cheap to hire a single housekeeping staff member and just throw it on the Homemakers, who have way too much on their plates already. If you have any experience you can go anywhere and negotiate wages. Any of those men and women could leave and go somewhere theyre treated a whole lot better with competitive or even better pay, but they have this idea that CC is the best hammered so far into their brains they dont see that. Its almost cult like. People stab each other in the back just for managements approval. If I continue Im sure Id be eligible for a lawsuit so Ill end my review here. Just, dont work here. Anyone who says differently is misleading you and is part of the problem. Theres so many wonderful facilities in Berks that are great stepping stones into healthcare.