What To Expect In A Care Consultation And What Can You Do To Prepare For It
Most senior adults and patients nowadays highly prefer staying at home for their retirement years or while they are in the phase of recovery. This gave rise to the booming of the home health care industry which is now a widely-accepted option alongside nursing homes, hospitals, and assisted-living facilities.
If you have not been fully aware of home health care and how you or a loved one may benefit from it, then this article will be very handy for you. Most health care agencies would offer basically the same services like personal care, homemaking, respite care, skilled nursing, and others. But before you benefit from any of these services, it is a must that you go through a care consultation first, especially if this is your first time to avail of any of these offerings.
A care consultation is necessary for the health care agency and its care providers to give you the most appropriate home care services that you need, based on your requirements and living conditions. Here are the things that you can expect in a care consultation and what you can do to be better prepared for it.
1. The health care agency will ask about the health condition of the patient.
First of all, the health care agency will have to assess the medical condition of the patient at hand. During this time, the care consultant would need to go through medical records and physician’s instruction to design the best care plan fit for the patient. What you can do to prepare is to have all the necessary medical, prescription, and treatment instructions ready so you can go through with the discussion smoothly, swiftly, and more accurately.
2. The health care agency will assess the living condition of the patient.
Most care consultations happen at home because the consultant would also need to see the immediate surroundings of the patient. This is to make sure that necessary safety measures are in place and to better understand the assistance needed by the senior in navigating around the house and in accomplishing tasks for the household. The best way to prepare is not to. By this, we mean that you should present the most natural, and everyday look of your house so the assessment and recommendations can be more practical and realistic.
3. The health care agency will get to know about the family’s day to day activities.
The consultant would also have to understand the daily routines and activities of the family members. This way, the health care agency can understand the specific role that the care provider will play in the household. There are times when care providers are just needed to assist the family members while there are also cases when the care providers themselves manage the entire household in the absence of loved ones. To facilitate better understanding, you may take note of your daily schedules ahead of time to not miss a detail. Then you can also discuss with the consultant any change that you want to happen to your usual activities should the care provider comes in.
4. The health care agency will ask about your needs and expectations.
A care consultation is the best time to level-off expectations. So make sure to discuss thoroughly what you want to get out of their services so they can include then in their planning.
5. The health care agency will provide care plan recommendations.
After the interview, assessment, and probing, the consultant will then make a recommendation of the best possible care plan that you can get from them. At this time, you may, of course, request for things to be added or taken out, depending on your preference.
Here in Better Living Home Care Agency, we offer free in-home consultations to make sure that our clients are highly satisfied with the care services we provide for them. We want to be the preferred provider of senior home care in Simpson Park Road Weir Mississippi by delivering patient-centered and tailor-fit programs to every household we serve.
Contact us today to get the benefit of our free in-home care consultation offer.