How to Select a Home Health Care Agency
By Matt O’Bryan
In honor of National Home Care and Hospice Month, I would like to share my best advice on how to select a home care agency. I have spent the past 14 years in the home health care management business, working my way up from front-line positions to Administrator of Health Services of Northern New York (HSNNY). I have also been a home care customer: when my father became seriously ill I had to hire a team to care for him. During this time I gained great insights into what makes a good home care business. Here is what you should look for in a home health care provider:
1. Immediate Care. It is important to find an agency that will implement the required range of care immediately and consistently. You don’t want people who will put you on a waiting list. A good home care agency will send an RN to do a complete assessment within 24 hours of your first phone call. Care should begin immediately after the assessment is completed.
2. Caregiver background checks. Many states, including New York State, require a background check for home health care personnel. Find out if this is a requirement in your state. If it is, then you don’t have to worry. If it isn’t, then ask whether the agency does them.
3. Insurance. In order to keep your costs as low as possible, make sure that they are a participating provider for your insurance.
4. How many people will be coming to your home? You don’t want a parade of caregivers. Depending upon the services required you should expect at least 2 different caregivers. If you need just one type of service, HSNNY trains a minimum of 3 people to provide your care. A good agency will try not to change these 3 individuals or bring additional people into your home. If you need more than one type of care (for example, nursing, therapy, and personal care), then you should expect 5-6 people total.
5. Ask how long you will require home care services. An experienced and dependable agency should be able to give you a ballpark figure so that you can estimate the total cost. For example, an elderly person should take about 6 to 8 weeks to recover from a total hip replacement.
6. The agency should define the goals of care and the means by which it will attempt to achieve them. Does the agency promote client independence? Will they challenge you to get better or just prolong your dependence and the duration of care? Continuing with the hip replacement example, the goal should be a return to the state of health you had before surgery. They should also be able to tell you exactly what services they will provide and what types of caregivers you will require. For a hip replacement this would be:
- Aid in the recovery from the trauma of surgery, provided by a nurse.
- Help with the activities of daily living by a home health aide.
- Physical rehabilitation with the goal of returning to daily activities. This will require a physical therapist.
7. Be sure that the agency you choose understands how they will affect your family. When a neighbor of mine suffered an accident and eventually hired my agency for lifetime 24/7 care, I gained a greater understanding of how home caregivers become part of a household and have an effect on entire families, not just their patients. Caregivers that don’t do their job well affect spouses, children, parents, and even extended family. Good caregivers, on the other hand, enable families to carry on functioning like any other. Try to find a health care team that understands this.
8. Require 24/7 Telephone Contact with a Live Person. How and when can you get a hold of your agency? Are there certain times that they aren’t available? Do you have to make arrangements between the agency and your doctor? A good agency is available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, no exceptions. They will make arrangements with your doctor as soon as you call them. And the phones should be answered by human beings! Technology is a great thing, but it shouldn’t be used to answer the telephones of a home health care agency. No matter what your age or medical situation, you should be able to speak with a live representative of your agency anytime you need to.
9. Be pro-active. Not all of us know ahead of time that we are going to require home care, but we can anticipate this need in some cases. Start checking out home health care agencies as soon as you realize that you or one of your loved ones might need home care, even if that time is months away. You’ll have more peace of mind when the crucial moment comes if you have already selected the best agency in your area.
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