What's home health care?

This means they must communicate regularly with you, home health care your doctor, and anyone else who gives you care.

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Home health care is a wide range of health care services that can be given in your home for an illness or injury. Home health care is usually less expensive, more convenient, and just as effective as care you get in a hospital or skilled nursing facility . BrightStar Care offers home health care to all age ranges, says Sun—including pediatrics. Some families, for example, might have a child on a ventilator and need assistance at home, she says. It’s also common for people who were injured on the job to need home health care services.

A doctor may visit a patient at home to diagnose and treat the illness. He or she may also periodically review the home health care needs. Once your doctor refers you for home health services, the 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. For this reason, Sun says it’s important for families to plan ahead for the resources they might need in the future. But to make it happen, additional care is often necessary, which is why some families turn to home health care services. Often called Meals-on-Wheels, many communities offer this service to patients at home who are unable to cook for themselves.

Care needs to be intermittent, which means fewer than seven days a week and for less than eight hours each day, for up to 21 days. Non-medical care, such as meal prep and bathing assistance, doesn’t qualify. Home health care also reduces loneliness among seniors, which can improve their mental and physical health, says Pecora. He points out that during the coronavirus pandemic, home health care aides were often the only people patients saw.

The compensation we receive from advertisers does not influence the recommendations or advice our editorial team provides in our articles or otherwise impact any of the editorial content on Forbes Health. Volunteers from community organizations can provide basic comfort to the patient through companionship, helping with personal care, providing transportation, emotional support, and/or helping with paperwork. Medical social workers provide various services to the patient, including counseling and locating community resources to help the patient in his or her recovery. Some social workers are also the patient's case manager--if the patient's medical condition is very complex and requires coordination of many services. Most obviously, it allows seniors to stay at home instead of having to relocate to a facility.