How a home healthcare agency can help you or a loved one recover and regain independence.

If you or a loved one is managing a chronic condition or recovering from an illness, injury or surgery, care in the comfort and safety of home may be the best option. In fact, studies show that home health is usually less expensive, more convenient and just as effective as the care you get in a hospital or skilled nursing facility.1

Oftentimes patients begin home health services after being diagnosed with a serious or chronic medical condition. But many healthcare providers also refer patients to home health after a recent stay in a hospital, rehab center or skilled nursing facility.

Home health is medical care that skilled clinicians provide in your home.1 Services may include nursing care, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and medical social work. A team of clinicians will work with your healthcare provider to create a personalized care plan to help you meet your health goals. Home health clinicians keep your healthcare provider up to date on your condition and review any changes in your plan of care.2

Here are 10 common ways your home healthcare team can help you recover and regain independence at home. They can:

  1. Teach you and your family caregivers about your disease process, how to help with care needs and where you can find educational resources
  2. Review medications, address possible side effects and provide tips to help you take them as recommended by your healthcare provider
  3. Care for your wounds, including teaching you how to manage your wound
  4. Monitor your vital signs
  5. Administer feeding tubes or infusion therapy and help with set up
  6. Help you adapt to new mobility challenges, like if using a walker for the first time or recovering from a joint replacement
  7. Perform a home safety check to identify risks for falling and ways to make your home safer
  8. Provide an activity and exercise prescription to help you improve strength, balance, endurance and mobility
  9. Identify steps to help you safely and more easily perform activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing and preparing meals
  10. Help if you are having difficulty with chewing, swallowing, speech or breathlessness

Many home health agencies offer specialty programs to treat the following medical conditions:

  • Alzheimer's and dementia
  • Balance and mobility issues
  • Diabetes
  • Heart failure
  • Lung problems
  • Neurological disorders
  • Post-surgical recovery, including joint replacement
  • Stroke rehabilitation
  • Wound care

Home health is not the same as home care, which is sometimes called personal care, community care, companion care or custodial care. Home care is non-clinical help such as meal prep, companionship and transportation assistance.

 

Learn more

Home health can help you rehabilitate and recover in the safety of home so you can gain the confidence to manage your condition independently. Click here to connect with one of our nurses. They are available 24/7 to help you determine if home health is right for you.

 

Sources

  1. “What’s home health care?,” U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, last accessed Feb. 10, 2023, medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/whats-home-health-care.
  2. “Medicare and Home Health Care,” U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, accessed Feb. 10, 2023, cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/Downloads/HHQIHHBenefits.pdf.