what should a home care provider really be doing?
Choosing The Right Home Health Care Provider For Your Elderly Loved One
Adrian Cano
When you have a loved one who is elderly and who requires home health care, you may find yourself wondering what you can do to provide them with the assistance they need. While you may want to provide their care yourself, there will come a point when they need more specialized medical attention than you can provide or a time will come where they need 24-hour care to remain safe in their home. At this point in time, you will need to find a professional to help your loved one. Get to know some of the factors that you will need to consider when choosing a home health care provider so you can be sure you make the right choice for you and your loved one.
Be Sure They Take Medicare
Not all in home health care services take medicare insurance as a form of payment. Medicare is the most common form of insurance for anyone who is elderly. However, your loved one may have insurance from a former employer, a private medicare plan, or a combination of these options. Ask them about their insurance status and get their policy cards.
Then, research the home health care providers in your area to determine whether or not they take medicare and/or your loved one's other insurance plans. Paying for services out of pocket can be extremely expensive and you want to avoid this cost if you can.
Find Out The Types Of Technology They Use
Home health care is not particularly known for being cutting edge in the technology they use. However, as the times change, so have many care providers. Home health care providers can use internet based communication tools to help better keep records of the care they provide to your loved one as well as to stay in contact with you and their other health care providers.
Digital care logs, for example, could be loaded onto a system that can be accessed by your loved one, you, and the home care company (as well as other physicians) so that there is transparency. You could check the logs to see how your loved one's day has gone if you cannot be there or look for any anomalies or changes if you have concerns about your their health. Home care services already keep detailed logs of client behaviors and activities, using technology will just make it easier for you and other health care providers to access those records.
Remote monitoring of medical devices such as insulin pumps, pacemakers, and other devices can also be helpful. The service can send signals to your loved one's other physicians and care providers if there is an issue to be aware of.
Now that you know a few of the factors that you should consider when selecting an in home health care provider for your elderly loved one, you can begin the decision making process with all of the important factors in mind.
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If you have a home health care worker in your home, you know very well how helpful he or she can be. What you may not know is what all that worker is supposed to be doing while in your home. Does the service provide general housecleaning services? Should he or she be doing laundry for the one that they are caring for? My blog will show you what services may or may not be offered by home health care services so that you can look further into what the service you have hired is supposed to be doing in your home.