How Home Health Care Helped My Mom

What Are Your Options For At-Home Health Care For The Elderly?

by Stanley Pierce

It is never easy to hire someone to provide in-home health care. Whenever you are dealing with an elderly or sick relative, it is important to make sure you hire someone competent. In order to help streamline that process, the following article will go over some important things to understand. The first section will go over where you can locate home health care services. The second section will go over what type of home health care professionals you might want to hire.

Where To Locate Home Care Professionals

There are two main methods of finding home health care aides. The first involves placing advertisements online. This allows you to personally screen the people and look at their resumes. You can sponsor job ads on most of the large job sites. The downside to this process is that you will have to sift through resumes of people who might not really be qualified for the job. Also, it will place the burden of doing due diligence all in your lap. You will have to verify that they have real medical licenses, do reference checks, and then ask them to supply you with recent medical clearances. 

The other option is that you can use a professional staffing agency. Make sure to use an agency that specializes in-home health care. There are several upsides to using an agency. First, you can outsource all payroll concerns to the agency. You will not have to issue a W-2 or check IDs and fill out I-9s. The agency will send their staff to your home, and you only have to pay the agency. Additionally, the agency will be responsible for checking that the medical professionals all have their current drug tests, vaccinations, and other regulations.

What Type Of Home Health Care Professional Can You Hire?

The next question is, "What type of health care professional can you hire?" That's a big question, and if you have no idea about what type of person to look for, you will be overwhelmed.

The first type of person is called a home health aide. They are usually referred to as HHAs by home health care agencies. These professionals are adept at helping with day-to-day chores such as bathing, doing laundry, and going to the store.

If more advanced treatment is necessary, such as administrating intravenous medications, you will want to ask the home health care agency about nurses. There are both LPNs and RNs. 

Contact an in-home care provider to learn more.

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