Home Health Care & Non-Medical Home Care-What’s the Difference?

There is a lot of difference between home healthcare and home care. The two are not mutually exclusive but you may only need just one or the other. Which one is right for your patient or your family member?

The difference that is the most significant is the level of skilled medical care that is administered by the staff of a home healthcare service. The services of a home healthcare organization allow for patients to be given care by licensed and medically trained professionals. This care is an alternative to hospital care or nursing home care.

Home Healthcare

This service is prescribed by a doctor and then administered by a nurse, CNA, a home health aide, and/or a doctor. The services are usually covered by medical insurances and usually Medicare.

Some of the things that Home Healthcare covers are:

• Teaching diabetes management, ventilator patient care, tracheotomy care, IV infusions, injections, catheter care, and, administering medications.
• Post-op rehabilitation includes speech therapies, occupational therapies, and mobility training.
• Pain management
• Skilled assessment includes grief counseling, elder or child abuse investigations and reporting, facilitating support groups, and discharge planning.
• Disease and education management
• Teaching the management of medications
• Wound care

In-home care is not home health care. What it offers are:

Assistance with activities of daily living. This can include bathing, feeding, dressing, transferring, using the bathroom, and personal care.

Assistance with light housekeeping, shopping, laundry, cooking, medication reminders, and even companionship.

Who Uses Home Health Care Services?

• Those that are terminally ill and wish to live out the remainder of their life at home.
• Those that need assistance due to disability or age.
• Those with short-term health needs

Who Uses Non-Medical Home Care Services?

Anyone can use it, but you will normally find that it is used by the elderly for added assistance so that they can live at home independently.

What’s Your Best Option?

Talking to your doctor about which is the best care option for you is the first step. If you’re in need of skilled nurses and doctors to help in your daily care, then Home Healthcare is the perfect option for you. Don’t be afraid to leave a hospital setting for fear of something bad happening. This is exactly why home health care exists in the first place. Regain your independence. With this form of skilled care, you can have medications regulated and all of your care covered.

If you are a home health care service in need of quality candidates to help  to staff your home healthcare agency, Proactive Home Healthcare Recruiters can help