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In Home Care Options in Dallas Fort Worth
Understanding the options available to stay at home can help you make the best housing choice. There are many services available, from meals on wheels to home care aides. To learn more, ask one of our Advisors.
What is home health care? Home
health care is a wide range of health care services that can be given in
your home. Home health care is usually less expensive, more convenient, and
just as effective as care you get in a hospital or skilled nursing facility.
The goal of home health care is to treat an illness or injury. Home health
care helps you get better, regain your independence, and become as
self-sufficient as possible.
In general, home health care includes part-time or intermittent
skilled nursing care, and other skilled care services like physical therapy,
occupational therapy, and speech therapy. Services may also include medical
social services or assistance from a home health aide. Usually, a home
health care agency coordinates the services your doctor orders for you.
Examples of skilled home health services include:
Wound care for pressure sores or a surgical wound
Physical and occupational therapy
Speech Therapy
Patient and caregiver education
Intravenous or
nutrition therapy
Injections
Monitoring serious illness and unstable health status
Examples of
home health aide services include:
Help with basic
daily activities like getting in and out of bed, dressing, bathing, eating,
and using the bathroom
Help with light housekeeping,
laundry, shopping, and cooking for the patient
NOTE:
In order to cover home health care, Medicare and other health insurance
plans have certain requirements. For example, Medicare requires you to be
“ homebound.”
Read more about how Medicare covers home health care
Home Health Care Services for Seniors
Once your doctor refers you for home health services, a local home
health agency will schedule an appointment and come to your home to talk
to you about your needs and ask you some questions about your health.
The home health agency staff will also talk to your doctor about your
care and keep your doctor updated about your progress. It is important
that home health staff see you as often as the doctor ordered.
Here are some examples of what the home health staff should do:
Check what you are eating and drinking.
Check your blood
pressure, temperature, heart rate, and breathing.
Check that you are
taking your prescription and other drugs and any treatments correctly.
Ask if you’re having pain.
Check your safety in the home.
Teach
you about your care so you can take care of yourself.
Your home
health agency staff member will work with you and your doctor to develop
your plan of care. The plan of care consists of written doctors' orders
for home health services and treatments based on your condition.
The home health team keeps the doctor up-to-date on your condition and
updates the plan of care as needed. You have the right to be involved in
any decisions about your plan of care and your treatment. It is the
doctor, and not the home health team, that authorizes what services are
needed and for how long.
Your plan of care includes the
following:
What services you need
What health care
professionals should give these services
How often you will need the
services
The medical equipment you need
What results your doctor
expects from your treatment
Your home health agency should
provide you with the home care listed in your plan of care, including
services and medical supplies. The agency may do this through its own
staff or through an arrangement with another agency to hire nurses,
therapists, home health aides, and medical social service counselors to
meet your needs.
Your doctor and home health agency staff review
your plan of care as often as necessary, but at least once every 60
days. If your health changes, the home health staff should tell your
doctor right away. Your plan of care will be reviewed and may change.
Your home health agency should only change your plan of care with your
doctor’s approval. Your home health agency should always tell you about
any changes in your plan of care. If you have a question about your
care, or if you feel your needs aren’t being met, talk to both your
doctor and the home health agency.
The home health agency staff
will teach you (and your family or friends who are helping you) to
continue any care you may need, including wound care, therapy, and how
to manage your condition. You should learn to recognize problems like
infection or shortness of breath, and what to do or who to contact if
they happen.
As a patient of a home health agency, you
have several rights and the home health agency must provide you with a
written copy of them.
They include rights such as the following:
The right to choose your home health agency
The right to have
your property treated with respect
The right to be given a copy of
your plan of care, and participate in decisions about your care
The
right to have your family or guardian act for you if you are unable
The right to make complaints to the agency or the State Survey Agency
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