Not everyone needs home health care – but when you do, it’s because you will benefit from it in many ways.
An important part of the healthcare continuum, home health advantages are numerous, focused on patient care and recovery, but also on the entire family, financial situation, and more. In fact, home health care is important for many populations, including the elderly, the homebound, and the very young.
What Is Home Health Care?
Home health care is a service in which trained caregivers, including registered nurses, provide help to patients who are recovering from or managing medical conditions outside of the hospital setting.
Home health care can include physical and occupational therapy, medication management, medical social work resources, speech therapy, and more
Who Needs Home Health Care?
To reap the benefits of home health care, you or your loved one must meet at least one of two criteria and receive a prescription from a physician.
- You or your loved one must require intermittent skilled health care services from a physical, speech, or occupational therapist, or from a nurse.
- You or your loved one must be homebound – the inability to leave home without assistance due to an illness, injury, or medical condition. Assistance can include the help of another person, supportive devices, or specialized transportation. You also may be considered homebound if leaving your home is contraindicated.
What Are the Patient-Centered Home Health Care Advantages?
Receiving skilled nursing and other home health care services comes with distinct benefits that help people like you or your loved ones live more fulfilled and healthful lives, particularly after a major medical diagnosis or during recovery from surgery.
Why is home health care important? Because it provides numerous patient-centered advantages, such as:
- Improved safety at home. Occupational therapists can evaluate the layout of a living space and make suggestions for navigating it safely, including how to properly stand from sitting, how to enter and exit the shower, and whether a patient needs mobility aids, such as a rollator walker or grab bars in the bathroom. Even a visiting home health nurse adds an element of safety; someone comes to the home regularly to check on you or your loved one.
- Maintained independence. The ability to continue to live at home, rather than in a hospital or skilled nursing facility means maintaining a sense of independence, which can help support mental health in some patients.
- Maintained dignity. Dignity is a basic human need, and a major home health care advantage is helping patients maintain their dignity through care that allows them to remain in control of their decision-making.
- Comfort. Many people find they feel more comfortable – physically and mentally – at home, rather than in a hospital, nursing home, or rehabilitation facility. They are able to sleep in their own beds, relax on their own sofas, and live privately as they are accustomed.
- Personalized care by professionally trained help. Regardless of illness, injury, or age, home health care is completely personalized to the patient’s needs. There is no cookie-cutter solution or service when it comes to caring for each patient as an individual.
- Companionship. Home-bound patients are less often alone when they receive home health care services from providers like Phoenix in Kansas City. Home health aides also can help perform light housekeeping or meal preparation tasks during their visit.
Other Advantages of Home Care
Kansas City-area home health agency services also provide benefits that extend beyond the individual patient. This continuum of care provides advantages like:
- Respite for family members. Family caregivers who spend their free time with ill or recovering loved ones need a break. Home health care can provide respite to them so they can feel rested and refreshed.
- Quick help in emergencies. Every patient can contact their home health care case manager when they have medical questions or are concerned that they may have found themselves in an emergency situation. Expert nurses are ready to help and contact the patient’s physician or advise an emergency room visit when needed.
- Financial savings. The cost of home health care is significantly more affordable than hospitalization or living in a skilled nursing facility. Best of all, many private health insurances as well as Medicare and Medicaid will cover all or most all of the costs associated with it.
To Get the Benefits of Home Health Care, Culture Matters
Home health care agencies are committed to improve the quality of life of the people they serve – both patients and their families. To the untrained eye, every home health agency may seem about the same, but the culture of the organization sets it apart.
Phoenix Home Health Care distinguishes ourselves through our carefully selected team members, the level of training we provide our skilled caregivers, and the values-based leadership practices our management espouses.
If you expect to experience all the advantages of home care, it’s best that you contact us at Phoenix for more information or request us by name when your physician orders home health care.
