Seniors living at home experience a variety of complications that can make daily life difficult. Learn tips and tricks to help your loved one live independently with ease.
What is Senior Home Health Care?
Senior Home Health Care or homecare as it is sometimes spelled, home health care agencies, and geriatric care management services are a popular and viable way to help seniors maintain their independence by staying in their own home. Home caregivers assist adult caregiver children when they cannot be there or to balance their lives. Finding a senior home care caregiver agency or senior home healthcare provider can be a bit of a tricky thing, especially if you are far away.
The first step to finding a reliable home health care provider is to work with your senior parent to determine what types of services are needed and how many hours a day or week they will be required. Home care can include home management support, general health care support, skilled nursing care, and/or hospice care. Due to the way health care insurance is structured it may be important to find a Medicare/Medicaid certified healthcare provider with a private pay division. The private pay division allows patients to continue receiving paid services from the same provider after M/M limits are reached.
Questions to Ask a Homecare Provider
It is good to develop a list of written questions to ask a senior home health care provider when you meet.
Do they have references from previous clients?
Is the provider associated with a larger health care group or hospital?
Will the agency actually take the time to find the best senior home health care options for you? One sure sign of a quality agency is that they will take the time to discuss your needs and plan for future home health care long before the care is needed. Long-term health insurance dramatically increases a senior’s home health options.
Patient’s Rights
The best home health providers will have a written policy describing the patient’s rights and a list of their services. They will require nurses and therapists to evaluate the patient’s home health care needs and will write up a treatment plan that is formally approved by the patient or family. This would include a statement of how they commence and discontinue services to clients.
The most successful companies develop a reward for patients and employees who accomplish treatment plan goals. It is also often important to have a nursing supervisor on call 24 hours a day in case of emergencies.
Long-term care often involves an emotional and psychological adjustment to the loss of the support of aging family members. A clear written internal complaint procedure may be of great value to the patient, the family, and the home health care agency.
In Conclusion
Introducing a home health care provider into your home or the home of your loved one can be traumatic on one hand, but a dramatic relief on the other.
Senior Home Health Care is growing rapidly. With the advent of new portable medical equipment, a provider may help families negotiate the challenges to allow a senior to remain in their own home.