Topic: Home Health Care

Home health care is not as petty as getting medical care at home after being hospitalized. Although it is not as extensive as surgery or emergency care, it shouldn't be brushed off as a minor field or profession. In fact, home health care contributes more to keeping illnesses at bay in so far as recovery, rehabilitation, and treatment of patients are concerned.   A wide range of services comprise this area where professional home health care providers are equipped with medical skills and support services.    How does home health care work exactly?   Usually ordered by your physician, home health care is prescribed to help treat illness or injury. It aids in the recovery, rehabilitation, and self-sufficiency from an illness or injury which can render a patient paralyzed, immobile, or incapacitated if left untreated. It is important to understand however that home health care is not an alternative to hospital care. Patients needing urgent or emergent medical attention must use facilities available near them. Once the physician deems that a patient still needs ongoing medical care but no longer requires urgent or emergent attention, home health care can be prescribed. One of the advantages of opting for home health care is that most services are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and even private insurances. It is the inexpensive counterpart of hospitalization or skilled nursing care. Differentiating it from caregiving skills in assisting patients with their ADLs, home health care practitioners are trained to medically guide patients into recovery or rehabilitation.   Who needs home health care?   Since home care is designed for treatment, recovery, or rehabilitation, any patient who has been hospitalized or has undergone surgery may receive home care. Individuals who are homebound or unable to leave their home without exerting great effort or assistance most likely need home health care services. Services offered by home health care practitioners are more complex and thorough than caregivers, who mainly assist patients with their ADLs. Although doctors make arrangement for patients to receive care from hospital to home, other individuals can opt for home care even if they weren't hospitalized.   For instance, people who need assistance with self-care, ADLs, errands, and household tasks can seek home health service. People who need medical attention in terms of cognitive development and behavioral needs can also elect home health care. Other people requiring special attention due to their complex medical condition, chronic disease, or terminal illnesses may also need home care service.   What are the services offered by home care practitioners?   Practitioners can offer a wide range of medical services and support, most requiring special training and license to ensure quality and thoroughness of the practice. Some of the services include:   1. Pain management to alleviate the condition for people with acute and chronic pain 2. Infusion Therapy or administration of drugs, supplements, through intravenous means but also include other non-oral routes 3. Nutrition therapy using specialized and monitored diet to address the medical conditions of patients 4. Wound care from surgical wound, abrasion, and any skin breakdown 5. Mental and Behavioral Health Counseling 6. Palliative Care and Hospice for patients with chronic illness or terminal conditions 7. Telemedicine and access to home equipment and medical supplies 8. Personal assistance and support by home health aide and medical social services 9. Professional assistance with physical and emotional conditions of the patients such as physical, occupational, speech, cognitive therapy   Because of the wide coverage of skilled services and support provided by home health care professionals, it consequently generates a various medical records that needed proper evaluation and management.   It is thus imperative that communication networks and medical documentation process are maintained and monitored accurately and thoroughly to the highest quality. This is where quality assurance specialist for medical records play their vital role. For one, creating and maintaining review and documentation of medical records must be standardized and updated regularly. Every patient encounter is unique, no two medical conditions are alike which requires QA nurses to be as flexible and accurate as they can get.   Medical records contain sensitive and private information that must be kept secured and confidential at all times. That is why quality assurance practitioner should be diligent, objective, and thorough when it comes to handling, retrieval, storage, and documentation of these files.   Consider this profession to be as important as brain surgery or heart bypass, both helping patients in alleviating pain and restoring their health. So next time you meet someone from home health care industry, may they be therapist, or aide, or social worker, beam them up with your widest smile.