Home health care has a wide range of services available to individuals who have illnesses or injuries. The care is usually less expensive than the care he or she would receive in a hospital or nursing facility, and that is why more and more people are turning to home health care. This is even truer for the elderly. More and more of the elderly want to be able to live independently and not in an institutionalized setting. They are choosing to receive the treatment help in their homes, because it gives them the sense of independence and comfort.
I have always felt as though the home healthcare field is where I was meant to be. I have never worked, professionally, in this field, but I feel I do have experience in caring for people. When my
…show more content…
First, the agency needs to meet Medicare/Medicaid standards (sometimes referred to as a medical assistance program), they must also obtain a state license, and they can also gain the Joint Commission seal of approval by applying for a survey and then preparing to be evaluated. Home health care agencies can become accredited through the Community Health Accreditation Program and also through the Accreditation Commission for Health Care.
Having a quality assurance program is required by most state licensing programs and accrediting organizations. The Department of Health and Human Services considers high quality health care for Medicare patients a high priority, so since 2010, home health agencies have been required to collect data and evidence showing this type of care. Having quality assurance care promotes the best practices across the home health industry and results in better patient care. It also results in effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness, safety and
…show more content…
The main reason for documentation is to maintain accurate records of all the care and services that are provided by the agency. Accurate documentation also proves that all regulatory requirements are met. This allows reimbursement for services provided. Medicare requires certain requirements be met in order to reimburse the agency. Many agencies use Home Health Certification and Plan of Care. This document contains information about diagnoses, types of services, the length and times of visits, treatments, medications, allergies, prognosis and other information about the patient. Though this form of documentation is not required, many agencies still use it, because it helps them to document the patient’s plan of care. Medicare also requires documentation of a physician’s certification of the need of home care. The physician must certify that they are an allowed non-physician practitioner has had a face-to-face encounter with the patient within 90 days prior to the start of home health and within 30 days after the care has started. There should also be a comprehensive assessment documented. This documentation includes information about the patient, such as the illness, medications taken, emergency plan and skilled nursing that is
Another focus for change is that over the years the demand for home and community care over hospital care has continued to grow, as stated by the Queens nursing institute “Recent health policy points to the importance of improving and extending services to meet the health and care needs of an increasingly older population and provide services which may have previously been provided in hospital within community settings”.
State and federal regulations, national accreditation standards, and clinical practice standards are created, and updated regularly. In addition, to these regulations, OIG publishes a compliance work plan annually that focuses on protecting the integrity of the program, and prevention of fraud and abuse. The Office of the Inspector General examines quality‐of‐care issues in nursing facilities, organizations, community‐based settings and occurrences in which the programs may have been billed for medically unnecessary services. The Office of the Inspector General’s work plan for the fiscal year 2011 highlights five areas of investigation for acute care hospitals. Reliability of hospital-reported quality measure data, hospital readmissions, hospital admissions with conditions
All nursing home facilities have their own regulations that governs and controls the facility residents, providers, policies and procedures. In addition to their own regulations, nursing homes are regulated jointly by state (department of health for each state) and the federal government (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS) (Rosenfeld, 2009). In order to ensure that nursing home facilities comply with regulations and policies, state and federal government send agencies to conduct surveys which are inspections that are done once or twice annually depending on the facility performance and the inspections are done
Long-term care (LTC) covers a wide range of clinical and social services for those who need assistance due to functional limitations. These limitations usually result from complications associated with age related chronic conditions, from disabilities related to birth defects, brain damage, or mental retardation in children; or from major illnesses or injuries suffered by adults (Shi L. & Singh D.A., 2011). LTC encompasses a variety of services including traditional clinical services, social services and housing. Unlike acute care, long-term care is much more complicated and has objectives that are much harder to measure. Acute care mainly focuses on returning patients to their previous functional level and is primarily provided by specialty providers. However, LTC mainly focuses on preventing the physical and mental deterioration of an individual and promoting social adjustments to suit the different stages of decline. In addition the providers of LTC are more diverse than those in acute care and is offered in both formal and informal settings, which include: hospitals, physicians, home care, adult day care, nursing home care, assisted living and even informal caregivers such as friends and family members. Long-term care services have been dominated by community based services, which include informal care (86%, about 10 to 11 million) and formal institutional care delivered in nursing facilities (14%, 1.6 million) (McCall, 2001). Of more than the 10 million Americans estimated to require LTC services, 58% are elderly and 42% are under the age of 65 (Shi L. & Singh D.A., 2011). The users of LTC are either frail elderly or disabled and because of the specific care needs of this population, the care varies based on an indiv...
The quality of the home care must meet the essentials of the patients or service seekers. But it never means to fulfil the basic needs or requirements of the individuals who are seeking the service. On the other hand, if the home care is not able to meet the basic needs of the patients then this is important to analyse the certain reasons behind this (Janamian, et. al., 2014).
A nursing home is another form of care and this involves an elderly person moving from their home to a building full of all amentities necessary for living well. The only downside to nursing homes is that they are the most exepnsive alternative and that there is a large waiting list for getting into one. In 2010, the Ontario Health Quality council reported, “wait times for a long-term care bed in Ontario have tripled since 2005” (Born, 2011). A nursing home has become a last resort because of these reasons and we need to do everything in our power to alleviate the amount of demand for these nursing homes.
Some of these care services are now provided at home. Other caregivers include families, friends, affordable caregivers, medical professional and voluntary care providers. As a result, there has a shift in the provision of the health care. However, in some countries such as Canada, people refer to get healthcare services from the hospitals rather than homes. It is because of the belief that homes provide low quality-services. These cultural aspects have led to a massive burden on the patients and the caregivers who have to offer the services from their
Conditions of Participation was created to ensure all facilities participating in Medicare follow a set of regulations that protect the safety of Medicare recipients. In 1986 revisions were made to reinforce accreditation and certification procedures. Participating hospitals that are accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or American Osteopathic Association have been deemed to meeting Conditions of Participation requirements on the wellbeing of Medicare Recipients. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations also requires that the facilities are licensed by their state. (Lohr, 1990, p.
Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.
These facilities are regulated by the state and federal government and these regulations protects the senior residents. For example it is mandatory for the facilities in Texas to provide mandatory services such as daily living activities like dressing, feeding or help prepare meals and cleaning. Depending on the facility license the staff would have to assist with financial management and certain medical services. Even though the federal government developed guidelines the state can make their own as long as it complies with the federal government. Some organizations may accept private pay while others accepted Medicaid. Regulations are developed to protect residence that from being in an unsafe environment. As a result some assisted living and nursing homes are unable to continue services by having fines or closing for an unknown amount of time. Since each state has different set of regulations I will focus on the state regulations in Texas because it is the state I reside in. The organization in Texas that regulates assisted living and nursing homes is the Department of Aging and Disability services(DADS).
Long-term health care consists of personal medical, and social services rendered to elders with chronic indispositions. These types of services are carried out through several different means, such as nursing homes, home health care, and respite care. The focus on long-term care is to provide an environment assisting with treatments plans, personal up keep and rehabilitation. As the largest part of our growing population reaches retirement age, several new questions and issues have arose. Financially, long term health has is an ever growing concern of the elder population and those who have accepted the financial burden. A large portion of the economy struggles with the cost of the ever rising prices of health care. The economy has been hindered with financial difficulty and it has had several implications on the ways we spend our money. For some of the baby boomers, it has left them with no choice but to continue to work in order to provide. For others, it has left them no option but to live with family members or seek assistants elsewhere. Income has evolved into a stressor for elders planning retirement.
I had known for years that I wanted to work in the health care field, but I always believed it would be as a doctor. I watched for the first few years of my brother’s life as he struggled with different health challenges such as being born premature, having croup and breathing difficulty, and speech impairment. Watching my brother struggle and then being able to overcome these difficulties, as well as seeing other children around him who were not as fortunate, really pushed me even at a young age to make a difference. My family, both immediate and extended, were very supportive, and I felt a real positive push towards working hard to achieve that goal of working in health care. In high school, I was fortunate enough to do a cooperative placement at the Peterborough Regional Health Center’s Intensive Care Unit. Through observing rounds and being in the medical setting, I truly knew this is where I wanted to
The purpose of quality initiatives is to promote safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable patient centered care( DeNisco & Barker, 2013). The quality improvement evaluation is important in the health care industry to find out the best practice care and to provide high quality cost effective care to patients. The public and private agencies are the regulatory entities in the health care Industry which promote quality and safety in the delivery of health care. The major regulatory agencies are CMS, the Joint commission, and AHRQ (deNisco & Barker, 2013).
Quality improvement (QI) involves the regular and constant actions that enable measurable improvement in health care. QI results in enhanced health services, organizational efficiency, quality and safe care to patients, and desired health outcomes for individuals and patient populations (U. S. Department of Health and Human Service, 2011). A successful quality improvement program is patient-centered, a collaboration of teams, and uses data in systems. QI helps to develop a culture of excellence in nursing, identify and prioritize areas of improvement, promote communication and collaboration, collect and analyze data, and encourage continuous evaluation of systems and processes (American Academy
Home- the best place for health care: A positioning statement from The Joint Commission on the state of the home care industry. (2011). 1-17. Retrieved from http://www.jhartfound.org/images/uploads/resources/Home_Care_position_paper_4_5_111.pdf