Home Health Questions?????

[militaryspouse98]

Hello, I thought I would come on this board and ask some question because I know you all are very informative and reply fast. I am currently living in Alabama and in nursing school. My husband is military so we arent close to family. My father just had 2 strokes a week ago and was in the ICU. He just got released from the hospital and is home. He didnt have any paralysis just vision problems resulting from the strokes. I had my brother in Va to ask the nurse that came to the house about possibly having a home health aide to come in to assist my father during the day until my brother can get off work. She asked him if he could bath himself. He said yes. She then said, well then insurance wont cover a home health aide it will come out of your pocket. Then she went on to say they are getting out of that stuff now. I know there are resourse out there to assist patients in the position. My father cant see and gets disoriented. We are afraid of him cooking and burning down the house. He is still not totally well. My brother has a job and cant be with him 24 hours a day. I am just wondering what I should do. My brother has been calling me stressed out and is afraid they are going to have to put him in some sort of assisted living home. Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance..

Amy

[caliotter3]

You need an appropriate assessment by the intake nurse of any of the local home health agencies or the liaison from the hospital where your father was hospitalized in order to justify in-home care. Vision problems, disorientation would be a beginning. Most home health agencies advertise that they will do free RN assessments in the hopes that the family will choose that particular agency for services, if services are needed and desired. Your father's family doctor is also deeply involved in this process, as he/she ultimately must provide the orders to authorize in-home care. If nothing else, the agency personnel that you talk to, if they can not make in-home care possible, should be able to give you referral info for private or volunteer help. A suggestion--if you can not get authorized care paid for, and it must come out of family pocket--for few hours day, advertise at the nearest nursing school or with whoever provides nursing assistant training in area or even in the local newspaper for attendant/in-home help. You can often get a nursing student to assist for few hours per day for pay comparable to nrsg asst pay in local LTC facility. Be sure to offer a favorable letter of reference/recommendation as part of compensation. Hope this info helps.