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Home Care
What Is Home Care?
Home health care, or home care for short, covers a wide range of medical and non-medical support services that are provided in your or your loved one's home. Home care services can be generally grouped into the following five categories:
Household Services
Professional home care workers may provide or arrange for companionship, shopping or errand assistance, transportation, meal preparation, laundry and basic housekeeping to relive the burden on the patient and family members.
Personal Care Services
Home care workers may provide patient assistance with ambulation, bathing, grooming and hair care, dressing, toileting and transfers. These services are often the key to reestablishing patient dignity and safety.
Medical Assistance
Medical home care workers may provide a variety of nursing and medical services. Services may include wound care following surgery, treatment and prevention of bed sores, IV therapy, managing medications, medical observation and assessment, medical ( diabetes) education, assistance with health care equipment, oxygen therapy, catheter monitoring, infection control and pain reduction.
Rehabilitation Services
Home therapists may provide a variety of rehabilitation services. Physical therapy can provide improvements in walking, transfer skills, muscle strength, and speed recovery from joint replacement surgery. Occupational therapy can help with home safety, household skills, disability management and energy conservation. Speech therapy can help with swallowing, eating and communication skills following stroke or other neurological disturbance.
Medical Social Services
Medical social workers can help locate additional medical resources, acquire necessary medical equipment, evaluate depression and mental health needs, provide for counseling and identify additional forms of payment, so that you and your loved one get the help that you need! Medical social work is often the key to total patient care which can meet all of the needs of both patient and family.
Is Home Care Right for Me or My Loved One?
On one hand, institutional health care can be costly, depressing, debilitating, and even detrimental the well-being and recovery of the patient! On the other, at home care provided solely by family and friends can be uncomfortable, burdensome and medically insufficient! Home health care can bridge this gap!
Professional health care delivered in the comfort and security of the home provides you and your loved ones with a sense of control and peace of mind. Home care can also reduce the financial strain of hospital or nursing home bills during an illness or disability. In many instances, Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance will pay 100% of an individual's home care needs. Further, remaining at home often enables the patient to maintain social ties and facilitate on-going involvement with community, friends, and family. Finally, many studies have shown that patients often recover faster in the home while maintaining their overall quality of life.
How Do I (or My Loved One) Qualify for Home Care?
First of all, to qualify the patient (you or your loved one) must be homebound. That means you or your loved one should only be leaving the home for doctor appointments or emergency medical care. Further, under most insurance plans the patient is also required to have a skilled medical need to qualify. That means that you or your loved one needs assistance from either a skilled nurse or a therapist - such as a physical, occupational or speech therapist. This need may initially be established by a doctor, but can also be determined by our staff during a home consultation.
Once you or your loved one has been certified (qualified) for home care, we can continue to provide that care - along with other needed home care services - for as long as a skilled medical need remains. This need for skilled services will be reevaluated periodically during the course of treatment. When the patient's medical condition improves, our staff will work with you prior to discharge to insure that you and your loved one continue to receive necessary care giver services even when nursing or therapy is no longer required. In every case, we will work with your doctor and make all the necessary calls in order to care for your needs in a timely manner.
To learn more about how home care can help, contact us today for a free, no-obligation, in-home nursing assessment. In Utah dial 1-800-HOMECARE (1-800-466-3227), anywhere else dial 801-254-3200 or use our on-line contact form.
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