How To Choose A Home Care
Provider
How Do I Select the Right Home Care Provider?
Once you acquire the names of several providers, you will want
to learn more about their services and reputations. Following
is a checklist
of questions to ask providers and other individuals who may know
about the provider’s track record. Their insight will help
you determine which provider is best for you or your loved one.
- How long
has this provider been serving the community?
- Does this
provider supply literature explaining its services, eligibility
requirements, fees, and funding sources? Many providers furnish
patients with a detailed “Patient Bill of Rights” that
outlines the rights and responsibilities of the providers, patients,
and caregivers alike. An annual report and other educational materials
also can provide helpful information about the provider.
- How does
the provider select and train its employees? Does it protect its
workers with written personnel policies, benefits packages, and
malpractice insurance?
- Are nurses
or therapists required to evaluate the patient’s home care
needs? If so, what does this entail? Do they consult the patient’s
physicians and family members?
- Does this
provider include the patient and his or her family members in developing
the plan of care? Are they involved in making care plan changes?
- Is the patient’s
course of treatment documented, detailing the specific tasks to
be carried out by each professional caregiver? Does the patient
and his or her family receive a copy of this plan, and do the caregivers
update it as changes occur? Does this provider take time to educate
family members on the care being administered to the patient?
- Does the
provider assign supervisors to oversee the quality of care patients
are receiving in their homes? If so, how often do these individuals
make visits? Who can the patient and his or her family members
call with questions or complaints? How does the agency follow up
on and resolve problems?
- What are
the financial procedures of this provider? Does the provider furnish
written statements explaining all of the costs and payment plan
options associated with home care?
- What procedures
does this provider have in place to handle emergencies? Are its
caregivers available 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
- How does
this provider ensure patient confidentiality?
- In addition,
ask the home care provider to supply you with a list of references,
such as doctors, discharge planners, patients or their family members,
and community leaders who are familiar with the provider’s
quality of service.
Contact each reference and ask:
- Do you frequently
refer clients to this provider?
- Do you have
a contractual relationship with this provider? If so, do you require
the provider to meet special standards for quality care?
- What sort
of feedback have you gotten from patients receiving care from this
provider, either on an informal basis or through a formal satisfaction
survey?
- Do you know
of any clients this provider has treated whose cases are similar
to mine or my loved one’s? If so, can you put me in touch
with these individuals?
This is a service
of:
National Association for Home Care
228 Seventh Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 547-7424
(202) 547-3540 Fax
Copyright © 1996 National
Association for Home Care
All rights reserved.
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