If you’re in the middle of the caregiving process for a loved one, there are a number of options. Some are formal, such as using an agency with aides on staff, others are more informal, like hiring an independent caregiver directly through a registry or staffing service.
Regardless of the path you choose, it’s important to find an independent caregiver who is trustworthy, compassionate and caring. To do that, you’ll need to interview prospective caregivers and ensure that they meet your family’s needs.
Getting Started
As the Baby Boomer generation ages into retirement and beyond, they are turning to private care agencies for in-home care. These businesses bring affordable, personalized, non-medical care to their community allowing seniors to remain living in their own homes longer.
Home care agencies provide medical or non-medical in-home care to elderly patients who require assistance with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, grooming and eating. They employ caregivers, referred to as home health aides, who are prescreened and trained for their role.
Choosing an agency isn’t always easy, especially when it comes to finding and hiring caregivers. A do-it-yourself search can take days or weeks, whereas an agency often has backup care available, can upgrade to a new worker quickly if the original one becomes unavailable and can handle concerns or complaints quickly.
As you begin to hire your staff, develop something specific and concrete that differentiates your agency to clients and referral sources, and make sure that every employee receives training and support on this differentiator. It’s not enough to say that you provide quality care; you need to communicate it and validate it with multiple other sources.
Care Coordination
Care coordination is a service that enables patients to easily and accurately access all of their health information and work with a care team to improve their health outcomes. It also ensures that everyone on a patient’s care team knows their patient’s medical history.
Healthcare coordinators can help patients navigate the various services that they need to keep their health in tip-top shape, whether it’s with their primary care provider, a specialist, or a social worker. This service can save patients time and money by streamlining the process of accessing care.
It also helps patients and their family members stay informed about their health conditions, which is another important quality performance metric that value-based care focuses on.
Often, systems can be disjointed, especially between a hospital and a primary care office or between different specialists. This can negatively impact the quality of care and efficiency, making it difficult to achieve the key performance metrics for value-based care programs.
Care Matching
Care matching is the process of finding a provider who shares a patient’s cultural background and lived experience. This is especially important for people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and other historically marginalized groups.
Many healthcare providers are reluctant to provide care for these populations because of implicit bias. For example, Black and Latinx doctors are much less likely to prescribe medication to patients of color than to white patients, even though this is proven to improve their health outcomes.
However, there are many factors that influence the match between a client and a caregiver, from personality traits to interests and a shared sense of humor. When these elements are well-matched, both parties benefit.
Fortunately, caregiver agency near me have access to a number of care matching services that can help them find the best possible match for their clients. These include:
Caregiving
Caregivers provide assistance with activities of daily living to people who need help with basic tasks like eating, bathing, dressing or walking. Whether the recipient of care is a family member, friend, neighbor or a patient in a medical facility, caregivers provide essential emotional and physical support to improve quality of life.
While many caregivers are a family members, they may also be professionals or other community supports (church members, neighbors, friends) who work to assist the person being cared for. These types of services can include transportation, meals, housekeeping and other essential duties.
As with any service provider, it’s important to do your research and go through a careful selection process before hiring a caregiver. This includes doing a background check and interviewing them. It’s also a good idea to ask for references.
