Home Health Care and Hospice

Last week I shared with you my knowledge and experience regarding independent living vs assisted living vs memory care. Today I am going to share my knowledge and experiences with Home Health care and Hospice. I know it sounds scary hearing Hospice as one automatically thinks of movies and TV shows where a hospice nurse comes in for the end of life. Thankfully, Hospice offers many, many services.

When Mom and Dad were at Memory Care number 1, the nurse coordinated the Home Health services as a supplement to their services. The Memory Care does include a nurse (usually an RN with an Associated degree) who helps facilitate the Home Health process and manages the medications (that alone is worth it's weight in gold). Home Heath is covered under Medicare and my parents have a supplemental insurance so there were no additional fees to them.

Home Health is managed by a General Practitioner who would come on site to them. This GP does have the ability to provide all the different specialty roles if needed. For Dad, this worked (because it was not comfortable for him to leave the facility and honestly, he didn't need specialists) but for Mom I like her to go see the specialists because I like a variety on eyes on her. The GP and the Nurse Practitioner would flip flop their visits and stop by every 4-6 weeks.

Home Health also provides a nurse,  physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. The specific goals for therapy vary for each person. For Mom, the therapists will access her for need. Based upon their assessments they will generate a plan. For mom, she receives 8 visits and then must wait 3 months to get assessed again. Physical therapy helps her with get out of her chair and maintaining her strength. They also worked with her to help her (and me) if she falls. Occupational therapy helped Mom (and me) with removing fall risks and providing tools to help with bathing. Speech therapy was more of a cognition therapy to help with the Alzheimer's. Everyone has their own needs and goals. The Home Health Nurse visits every 7-10 days. What's awesome is that all their services are included under Medicare and the supplemental services so there is no out of pocket costs.

I distinctly remember the discussion about incorporating Hospice care for Dad as again, one always thinks of what they have seen on TV. I immediately jumped on board because it added another layer of eyes on my Dad. Hospice included a nurse, a caregiver to help with bathing, clergy, and a volunteer to visit Dad and Mom. Hospice also provided Dad's hygiene products, wheelchair, and hospital bed. All of these services and products were at no cost to them as they were paid for by Medicare and his supplemental services. When Dad had his first major decline, hospice ordered the end of life medicine and the memory care had these medicines on hand for when he was actively dying, which was extraordinarily helpful because there was no wait time.

I am very thankful for Home Health and Hospice for a variety of reasons. My parents were in excellent care at the Memory Care and Assisted Living, but I appreciated the extra set of eyes on them. I am confident they were treated professionally and with dignity by all the staff, but I also knew how overworked these people were, so to have an assigned person come in specifically to bathe my Dad was amazing. To have a home health nurse, a hospice nurse, and the memory care nurse all work together to ensure my Dad was taken care of, was priceless. I feel the same about Mom today. She lives at home with me and my family, so I know she is well taken care of, but I like other people to come in and look her over. Currently Mom has her GP and NP, Home Health Nurse, and the variety of specialists she sees. Everyone reviews her medication to ensure there are no gaps or over-medication. Soon, it will be time for her to start getting physical therapy again. All of these services are at no cost.

Recently we had a concern Mom had an UTI, so I was able to call Home Health on a Sunday for a Nurse to visit and check on her. Mom was able to stay in the comfort of our home and not go sit in urgent care or the emergency room and wait for hours to be seen.

So if you are in a position where your parents are needing some assistance, I recommend finding a General Practitioner who supports house calls and works with a Home Health agency. Asking the local memory care who they use is a great start. Utilizing these services will help your loved ones stay in their home longer, saving them money. When it's time to transition into a new home environment, these services will already be established.

Happy Tuesday Friends!