Home Health Care – Customised Care at Home
Home health care is a kind of supportive care or health care delivered by an experienced caretaker in the individual’s house where they are residing. It constitutes a spectrum of activities, specific assistance by professionals, and help in daily routines for those patients who are ill, senior, or disabled.
Characteristics
The following are the characteristics of home health care:
- Home health nurses assist patients with certain activities of the day, like bathing, feeding, and toileting, or supervise ADL care.
- There are two types of nurses under home health care. Nurses that travel to numerous homes in a day and pay short visits to several patients and other nurses that may stay with a single patient for a particular period of time in a day.
- Home health care nurses keep track of crucial signs, carry out the physician’s orders, sometimes conduct blood work, and record the duties they perform and the status of the patient’s health. The person also communicates between the patient, family, and physician.
- Home health care services include nursing services, such as physical therapy, medical social work, occupational therapy, home health aide services, and speech-language pathology.
- Clients receiving home health care may have lower costs, obtain better care, and have more gratification compared to other kinds of care.
Pros & Cons of Home Health Care
Pros:
- The care is provided straight to the patient’s residence, which could either be a home or a facility.
- Experienced professionals provide medical services.
- The staff that is part of the home health care carries out the prescribed plan by the physician.
- The goal is to help the patients regain independence and self-sufficiency at home.
- Home health care is generally less expensive than hospitalisation or placing the patient in a long-term nursing home.
Cons:
- Home health care services may not include services such as cooking and cleaning.
- Patients must meet the “homebound” requirements.
- They may not be suitable for patients who need 24-hour management.
- It could be expensive if not covered by insurance.
- The number of home health care providers available could be limited based on location.
HOSPICE CARE: Not for All, but Boon for Some!!
Hospice care is a kind of health care that primarily focuses on terminally ill patients’ distress and symptoms and heeding to their emotional and spiritual needs as they near the end of their life. Hospice care prioritises convenience and quality of life by lessening the pain and misery. Hospice care provides a choice of therapies that focus on measures that prolong life. Sometimes that may be difficult, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not agreeing with a person’s pre-set plans.
Characteristics
Here are some of the characteristics of hospice care:
- Hospice care is provided for pain and symptom management for those people who have a terminal illness and aren’t expected to live longer than six months.
- Hospice also covers most of the cost of pharmaceuticals and equipment essential for someone to be comfortable, including medicines. It also covers required tools and supplies, such as incontinence supplies, oxygen, supplies for wound care, a walker, a shower chair, or even a hospital bed if or when needed.
- Many people avail hospice care until the last days or weeks of their life.
- Hospice care doesn’t mean “giving up,” instead, it’s deciding to concentrate on the quality of life of the patient and being able to spend time with family and friends. It’s about doing things that are significant to you with the time you have left rather than spending time going in and out of the hospital to get tests done and to complete treatments that are no longer helping with the cure.
- Patients can obtain hospice care wherever they want. They can avail hospice care at their residence, an in-patient hospice centre, a facility, and a short stay at an in-patient hospital location.
Pros and Cons of Hospice Care:
Pros:
- Hospice involves physicians, chaplains, nurses, trained hospice volunteers, home health aides, and certified medical workers. They meet the requirements of the patient and their family or personal caretakers.
- The care is available 24/7, including on holidays and weekends.
- Choosing hospice care results in a decrease in expenses for medications, medical equipment, and supplies.
- A patient who prefers comfort care chooses hospice care means avoiding unwanted hospitalisations, medical treatments, and other procedures.
Cons:
- Hospice agencies could deny diagnostic tests even if requested by the patient’s physician as these tests are expensive and may not always be helpful; hospice agencies often will not approve them.
- Once a patient enters hospice care, hospitalisation is discouraged. Sometimes the benchmarks for admission and scope for specific treatments are poorly defined.
- Involvement in experimental treatments and medicines or clinical trials is not permitted as they are believed to be life-prolonging.
Difference b/w Home Health Care and Hospice Care
| Differences | Home Health Care | Hospice Care |
| Eligibility | Home health care is open to all those who have a requirement for skilled nursing for a short period of time. It is generally provided at a hospital or clinic. The patients must be homebound to acquire home health care. | Any person with a grave sickness who physicians think has a brief period to live. Usually around 6 months or less than that. These people qualify for hospice care. |
| Members | Nurses, physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, and social workers. | Medical director, grief specialist, nurses, volunteers, chaplain, certified nursing assistants, and social worker. |
| Type of Care | Services generally contains physical therapy, occupational therapy, or care for a wound after a hospital stay or surgery. | The hospice team cares for the person as a whole and tends to the patient’s physical, emotional and spiritual consolation. They even provide grief support and other aids for family members. |
| Goal | Under home health care, the emphasis is on the patient’s health progress with a goal to return to functioning on their own. Patients must be producing improvements to resume the services. | Under hospice care, the goal is to provide the patient with comfort and let them experience the best quality of life through their last moments of life. The hospice team walks along with their patients and their loved ones to aid them during those last months so they can live comfortably and in the way that is most meaningful to them. |
Can you get home health care while also on hospice?
There are certain situations when the patients can obtain home health care and hospice care at the same time. This may be an alternative option only if the patient satisfies the benchmarks for availing of both services. These benchmarks vary from institution to institution.
Conclusion
When home health care is compared with hospice care, you can notice that they are both parts of continuous care. People obtaining basic health care could change to hospice care if their health ailment worsens. Patients receiving hospice care could also change to home health care if their situation improves enough that they are no longer eligible for hospice care.
Although there are numerous differences between hospice care and home health care, both types of care could help people with terminal illnesses and senior citizens in their homes.
FAQs
What services does home health care not provide?
Home health care only delivers medically essential services. It mostly consists of professional services prescribed or suggested by a medical doctor. It does not provide unprofessional services or day-to-day needs such as cooking, transportation, cleaning, and bathing. These services are covered by personal home care help. Some home health care services offer individual home care assistance at an additional cost, which may or may not be covered by insurance.
Who is eligible for hospice care?
Any person with a grave sickness and have limited chances of living, usually around 6 months or less than that. These people qualify for hospice care.
Does hospice include 24/7 care?
The care provided at hospice varies. Some hospice provides 24 hours a day, 7 days a week custodial care or full-time care at home or an outside facility. Hospice delivers a lot of support. Although, most of the day-to-day care of a person who is terminally ill is provided by their family and friends. Regardless, a person from a hospice care team is generally always available by phone 24/7.
What is the most common diagnosis for home health care?
Some of the typical diagnoses among patients under home health care comprise circulatory disease (31 per cent of patients), heart disease (16 per cent), injury and poisoning (17 per cent), musculoskeletal and connective tissue disease (14 per cent), and respiratory disease (12 per cent).
What are the benefits of using hospice care?
Research has shown that when an individual enrols in hospice care, they are more likely to have family fulfilment, and there is better symptom and pain oversight. Patients are also less likely to xperience tests or be given medicine they don’t need or want.
