There has been such an increase in home health care companies over the last two years, that there must be some confusion in what each company does in providing care to their clients. There are franchised companies that are non-medical, Medicare Companies and there are Private Duty companies.
Non-medical home health companies provide homemaker duties. That includes: cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping stand by assistance with bathing and medication reminders. Caregivers are not to fill medi-sets. Caregivers are not to take medications from pill bottles and hand to patients. They are not to give insulin, they are not to do blood testing for blood sugars, they can guide the client into sticking himself and then go on to test the blood sample in a glucometer. Caregivers are to only maintain the household duties.
Medicare agencies are to provide professional care for their clients. That includes RN, PT, OT, Speech Therapists and Social Workers. These are disciplines paid for by Medicare and the client must be home-bound in order to receive these benefits. These professionals are ordered by the physician to assist the client in the rehab process. As the client gets better or does not proceed to gain strength or improve his condition then the disciplines will be discharged from the client. In order for the Medicare agency to be present in the home, they must abide by the rules set forth by Medicare. The agency cannot be present forever.
Private duty agencies, such as ours are licensed by the state of California through Public Health. We can provide Skilled Nursing as well as caregivers. Our skilled nurses can provide the nursing care that Medicare agencies can not provide because of their restraints, by Medicare. These include long term wound healing, Filling of medi-sets and overseeing medications taken by the patient.
Medication compliance is a very important factor in caring for an older person. Taking the medication as ordered by the physician at the proper time, exact dosage is paramount in the care of such patients. Watching for side effects can only be done by someone who has worked with medications. Such as a seasoned RN. In the case of multiple physicians , someone needs to know what physician ordered medication and to make certain each physician is aware of what the other physician has ordered. Taking similar medications can cause an overdose. Having an RN overseeing a client’s medical condition can assist with questions, treatments that have been left for the family to provide, and maintain and training caregivers that can provide improved care to their patients.
We at Home Health Care write a specific plan of care for each client. Home Health Care is always in the field, trying to improve the care of our patients. Our care givers are selected for a case because of their knowledge of the medical condition, the caregiver is then orientated to the case by the RN and then checked on a regular basis by the RN for compliance of the plan of care. Our scheduler then goes out into the field to get a feeling for how each caregiver is able to maintain and how the client is reacting to the caregiver.
We at Home Health Want to keep our clients safe and satisfied with our care. We have been in the business for 30 years and have maintained clients with honesty and caring for the individual.