Health and Care

health and care professions council

Archive for March, 2011

Employee Hiring Home Health Care

Providing primary care for elder loved one can be difficult. If you can not give all parents their own care and support from friends, family, and community organizations is not enough, it may be useful to hire a home health care workers. He or she can offer the care of a few hours a week to 24 hours a day, and can provide a lot of other helpful services. This type of home health care services include:

Management of Public Health as drug delivery or other medical care
Personal care such as bathing, oral hygiene, dressing, and shaving
Nutrients help like preparing meals, meal assist, and grocery shopping
Homemaking services including laundry, dishwashers, and light housework
Friendships such as reading with senior walk or take them on

Recruit and interview applicants

There are many ways to recruit employees home health care. Generally, home health workers can be hired directly or through an agent. Care home health agencies often have staff that includes social workers and nurses who will manage your care. But hiring an independent home health care workers are generally more cost effective, it will also give you more control over the type of care you receive.

Senior home care workers should be carefully inspected for proper training, qualifications, and temperament. Fully address the needs of elderly care recipients during interviews with prospective employees of home health care. There should be a written copy of the job description and type of experience you are looking for.

Reference

Are job applicants fill out a form that includes the following information:

The full name
Address
Phone number
Date of birth
Social Security Number
Educational background
Record of service

Before renting, you should ask to see licenses and senior home care worker certificate, if any, and personal identification including their Social Security card, driver’s license or photo ID.

References should be checked thoroughly. Prospective employees must provide employers with names, dates of employment, and phone numbers previous employer and how to contact them. It is best to speak directly with a previous employer, not only to receive a letter of recommendation. Also ask the applicant to provide or sign a conduct criminal background checks

Special Points to Consider

Make sure the person you are considering renting out how to perform the duties of elder care recipient requires, as a senior and transfer from wheelchair or bed. Training may be provided, but make sure employees successfully completed training before hiring him.

No one should be employed seven days a week. Even the most dedicated employees will soon burn out. All employees need some time to take care of their personal needs. No workers should be on call 24-hours a day. If the elderly care recipients often require supervision or care during the night, a family member or a second home health care workers should be able to help or fill in.

Live-in help may seem more convenient and economic than employees per hour or per-day but there can be drawbacks. Food and lodging costs should be factored into the total cost of care, and can be difficult to fire a person without alternative housing immediately. If you decide to take advantage of living arrangements, employees should have their own residence, leisure, and sleep well.

Job Expectations and Considerations

Before hiring health workers at home senior care, you have to go over the tasks you expect them to do and other issues, such as accuracy, benefits, pay scale, vacations, holidays, absences, and the time notice is required for either employers or employees before employment is terminated. If you work and rely heavily on home health care, emphasizing the importance of informed as soon as possible if he or she will be late or absent so that you can make alternative arrangements. Be clear about the required notification for the time off, or what to do in case of a private home health care workers experiencing an emergency condition that requires them to suddenly leave the job. It’s important to have a backup list of friends, family, other home care workers, or home health care agencies you can call.

Be clear about the issues of salary, payment schedules, and replacement or petty cash fund for out of pocket expenses.

You have to spend the day with home health care workers on the first day to ensure you are both in agreement over how to carry out everyday tasks. It will also help to supply the home health care workers with a list of information about elder care recipients such as: special diet, likes, dislikes, mobility problems, health problems, signs of danger for the monitor, and behavior problems may accompany the coping strategies, drug schedule, exercise therapy, glasses, dentures, and each prosthetic.

You also must provide the following information for your home health care: your contact information, emergency contacts, security measures and access to the keys, clothing, and the location of the washing / cleaning supplies, medical supplies, light bulbs, flashlight, fuse boxes, and stuff Other domestic matters.

Transportation

Another major consideration in hiring a senior home care workers is how he will go to work. If they do not have a reliable car or access to public transport, then you might want to consider hiring someone to encourage him or her, which may be more economical than using a taxi. Inform your insurance company if the home health care workers will drive your car when caring for seniors. Your insurance company will do a background check is required to drive. If the home health care workers to use his car to drive elderly care recipients, and then discuss the use of his or cars, and conduct background checks of driving.

Insurance and Payroll

Check with your insurance company about coverage that is right for workers in your home.

Make sure all the proper taxes are being taken from the employee’s check by contacting the Internal Revenue Service, state departments of finance, social security and labor departments. If you do not want to deal with the complexity of cutting his own salary, than you can hire a payroll company for a fee.

Even if the home health care worker you work as a contractor, you are still required to report income to the IRS. Talk to your accountant or financial advisor about making sure you follow the IRS rules.

Ensuring Safety

You have to protect the personal letters and valuables in locked filing cabinets, safe deposit box, or safe. If you can not retrieve your mail every day, have someone you trust to do it, or have it shipped to a post office box. You should check the phone bills for unusual items or unauthorized calls. You should put a block on your phone to 900 numbers, collect calls, and long distance calls.

Keep your checkbook and credit card is locked. Review credit card and bank statements on a monthly basis, and periodically request credit reports from credit reporting agencies. Lock valuable possessions or store inventory items accessible to people working at home.

You can help to prevent abuse by parents for your loved one:

Ensure comprehensive home health care workers understand their responsibilities, medical issues and elder care recipient limitations, and how to cope with stressful situations.
Do not overload the home health care workers.
Encouraging openness of potential problems.

The following are possible signs of elderly abuse or neglect:

Changes in personality
Crying, moaning, or refusing to talk
Sloppy appearance
Personal hygiene is poor
Irregular or dirty living conditions
The signs of inappropriate sedation, such as confusion, or oversleeping
Mysterious bruising, pressure sores, fractures, or burns
Weight loss

If you suspect abuse, act immediately. Do not wait until the situation turns tragic. Investigate the situation by talking to the recipient of parental care in a safe situation, or install monitoring equipment. Examples of abusive behavior including yelling, threatening, or control over behavior that may involve senior isolate from others. If the situation is serious, you need to replace the home health care worker as soon as possible. If you are afraid of receiving parental care is in jeopardy, he must be separated from the home health care as soon as possible. Place the elderly care recipients with a trusted relative or in a respite care facility. Make sure your loved ones safe before facing home health care workers, especially if there is concern about retaliation.

Report the situation to Adult Protection Services after ensuring the safety of elderly care recipients. The police should be contacted in case of serious negligence, such as sexual abuse, physical injury, or misuse of funds.

Overseeing Health Care Workers

The most important thing to remember when hiring a home health care workers is to keep lines of communication open. You should describe the job responsibilities are clear, and your responsibilities to the home health care workers. Do not forget that there are home health care workers for elderly care recipients and non-family member. For live-in arrangement, the maximum amount of privacy must be set for the residence of home health care workers. Meetings should be set up on a regular basis to ensure that problems are nipped in the bud. If the conflict can not be resolved after repeated attempts, rather than the best to terminate the employee. In such cases, you may have either a recipient of parental care in nursing homes temporarily or hire a home health care worker through an agency. Reserve fund should be kept on hand in case of emergency.

Requirements General Requirements for Home Care Benefits

Employing a home health care workers directly is usually cheaper than hiring through home health care agency, but if the recipient of parental care who are eligible and you want to use the help from Medicare, you have to hire someone through a certified home health care agency. For patients eligible seniors, three or more services must be ordered by a physician. Other factors or eligibility is a necessary requirement for skilled nursing assistance, or one of the following therapies: physical, speech or work. Medical needs of elderly care recipients will determine asset and income requirements.

Employing Workers Home Health Care through Health Department Home Care vs Independent

Different health professionals can assess the care needs of elderly recipients. A nurse or social worker can help with the design and coordination of home care plan. Your care manager, physician, or discharge planner can help with the services covered by Medicare. They generally help make arrangements with home care agencies.

You should ask the home health agency care how they supervise their employees, and what kind of training their employees receive. Find out the procedure for when an employee does not appear. Also ask about the schedule of fees and what it covers, there may be a sliding fee schedule. Next, find out if they have a policy to a minimum or maximum hours. Ask the agency if there are limitations on the type of task performed.

Especially if you have to pay for care services themselves, to find out if there are hidden costs such as transportation. If all the costs to employ care workers through an agent becomes too much, you might want to consider hiring directly.

Hiring an independent home health care workers are not only more economical than using an agency, but also allows more direct control of parental care.

 

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