SYNERGY Home Care of Baltimore in Cockeysville, MD

Pros

• Synergy is described as professional and excels at hiring qualified nurses.
• Mike Diamond consistently checks in and is supportive of clients' needs.
• The management team's communication has been great, and the staff are friendly.
• The caregivers are attentive, patient, and engaging, enabling family members to go about their day.
• Synergy provides wonderful care for loved ones and responds promptly when care is needed.
• The company is great and reliable, with caregivers who are on time and caring.
• The services offer a wonderful therapeutic experience for loved ones and are highly recommended.
• The family-owned business is reliable and truly cares about its clients.
• The staff goes above and beyond to help care for loved ones and are knowledgeable and professional.

Cons

• The first caretaker was nasty, shouting at the father and failing to introduce herself.
• The coordinator was dismissive of concerns, saying the father needed more care than two hours.
• The agency proved unreliable, with workers who were not on time and sometimes left before finishing their shifts.
• Weekend calls to the office were unanswerable, and the voicemail promised callbacks but delivered none.
• The care plan led to a dangerous lapse in medication, as the aide did not prompt the father to take his meds.
• There were days when no one came, leaving the father home alone without food or medications.
• The service was not timely or well organized, causing ongoing frustration and disappointment.
• Some caregivers could not perform basic tasks like cooking, reducing the quality of care.

Review

SYNERGY Home Care of Baltimore in Cockeysville is best suited for families seeking a warm, person-centered in-home care option, especially when dementia or activities of daily living are the core needs and a responsive leadership presence matters. The agency earns praise for caregivers who are engaging, a culture of compassion, and managers who step in to support care plans. Families frequently report real-time responsiveness and a sense that caregivers are genuinely invested in activities, safety, and daily routines. Still, the overall experience is not uniformly flawless; several accounts describe scheduling inconsistencies, lapses in prompting or administering medications, and difficulty reaching the office, particularly on weekends. For households prioritizing relational quality and hands-on oversight, SYNERGY is often a strong match, but there is a meaningful caveat about reliability that must be planned for.

Those who should consider alternatives include families with strict medication-management requirements or those needing predictable, uninterrupted coverage every day, including weekends. A recurring theme in the reviews is caregivers who do not prompt medications, arrive late, or leave shifts early, which can undermine safety and treatment goals. Office communication gaps - voicemail backlogs, slow return calls, and limited weekend access - amplify the risk when urgent schedule changes or care adjustments are needed. For clients with complex medical needs or little tolerance for care gaps, shopping for another agency or insisting on a more formalized staffing model with guaranteed back-ups and clearer accountability is a prudent move.

The agency's strongest assets lie in its proactive leadership and the quality of many caregivers. Owners and managers are described as accessible, engaged, and willing to check in and intervene when a plan stalls. A number of caregivers are noted for professionalism, patience, and the ability to engage a loved one in meaningful activities, which can translate into meaningful, day-to-day improvements in safety and mood. The capacity to mobilize help quickly - some families report a caregiver being in place within hours of contact - also stands out as a significant advantage. These positives do not erase the shortcomings, but they do create a counterbalance: when the care team is aligned and the care manager stays closely involved, the overall experience can be very favorable.

Yet the most consequential downsides are reliability and oversight issues. Missed medications and insufficient prompting have led to hospital visits and emergency concerns, not just frustration. Some caregivers have been described as not fully finishing shifts, or as being unavailable during critical times, with weekend communication particularly strained. Instances of caregivers sleeping on the job and limited cooking ability leave families supplementing meals and monitoring more closely than desired. The organizational side - scheduling consistency, follow-through, and timely updates - has lagged in enough cases to trigger real worry about continuity of care during transitional periods, such as caregiver turnover or patient acuity changes.

To mitigate risk, families should pursue concrete, upfront guarantees before enrollment. Require a dedicated care manager as a single point of contact and a written, replicable schedule with explicit back-up coverage for all shifts. Insist on a medication-management protocol that includes prompts, documentation, and double-checks, plus routine non-negotiable check-ins with the supervising clinician. Demand a trial period with clear performance metrics, weekly progress notes, and guaranteed on-call accessibility, including a live contact option after hours. Ask for multi-caregiver coverage on critical days to avoid dependency on a single person, and request proactive communication about any schedule disruptions or staff changes.

The bottom line is clear: SYNERGY delivers a compelling value for families who prize compassion, caregiver engagement, and responsive leadership, especially for dementia-related in-home support. When the care team and the office operate in sync, the experience can be deeply reassuring and highly effective. However, reliability gaps - missed medications, late or unfinished shifts, and weekend communication bottlenecks - are real risks that can offset the positives if not actively managed. For families with stringent med-management needs or limited tolerance for scheduling variability, exploring alternatives or demanding stronger guarantees is wise. With careful contract terms, clear expectations, and vigilant oversight, SYNERGY can be a durable, high-quality home-care solution; without those safeguards, the potential for disruptive gaps remains a meaningful consideration.

This area of Cockeysville, Maryland offers a convenient and diverse range of amenities for seniors considering living in the area. With several reputable physicians and pharmacies located within a short distance, residents have easy access to healthcare services and medications. There are also various dining options available, including familiar chains like McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A, as well as more upscale choices such as The Cheesecake Factory. For leisure and recreation, there are nearby parks like Cromwell Valley Park for outdoor activities. Additionally, transportation options like the Lutherville Light Rail Station provide easy access to other parts of the city for those looking to explore beyond the immediate vicinity.

Physicians

• Pediatric Partners (0.1 miles)
• Clinical Associates (1.2 miles)
• O'Dea Building- St Josephs Hospital (2 miles)
• Greater Baltimore Medical Center (2.6 miles)
• Advanced Allergy & Asthma Center (2.7 miles)
• Overlea Personal Physicians (3.6 miles)
• Dr Richard A. Adler, Belcara Health Ophthalmology (4.3 miles)

Pharmacies

• CVS Pharmacy (0.6 miles)
• Walgreens (0.6 miles)
• Walgreens (2 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (2.1 miles)
• Walgreens (2.4 miles)
• Rite Aid (2.5 miles)
• Northern Pharmacy and Med Equipment (2.5 miles)

Restaurants

• McDonald's (0.7 miles)
• Burger King (0.7 miles)
• Checkers (1.5 miles)
• The Cheesecake Factory (1.6 miles)
• THB - Towson (1.6 miles)
• Chick-Fil-A (1.7 miles)
• Remo's of NY (1.9 miles)

Theaters

• Cinemark Towson And Xd (1.4 miles)
• AMC White Marsh 16 (6.2 miles)

Parks

• Cromwell Valley Park (1.5 miles)
• Rodgers Forge Tot Lot (2.6 miles)
• Lake Roland (4.2 miles)
• Meadowood Regional Park (5.2 miles)

Places of Worship

• Church of the Immaculate Conception (1.8 miles)
• Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church (3 miles)
• St Demetrios Greek Ort (3.2 miles)
• Church of the Nativity (3.5 miles)

Hospitals

• Sheppard Pratt Health System (2.4 miles)
• MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital (2.5 miles)
• GBMC (2.6 miles)
• MedStar Union Memorial Hospital (4.9 miles)
• Johns Hopkins Medicine at Green Spring Station (5.3 miles)
• Sinai Hospital Of Baltimore (5.4 miles)
• MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center (5.9 miles)

Cafes

• Starbucks (2.8 miles)
• Panera Bread (4.3 miles)
• Miss Shirley's Cafe, Roland Park (4.5 miles)
• Starbucks (5 miles)

Transportation

• Lutherville Light Rail Station (3.6 miles)
• Penn Station (6.4 miles)