What is Private Duty Home Care? [Assisting Hands Home Care]

There are significant differences between home health and private duty home care:

• As healthcare costs rise, our loved ones and seniors are more often being cared for at home.
• In-home care is still often provided by families, relatives, and friends, but these days it can be harder to manage with increasingly busy schedules and long distances to travel.
• Home care agencies like Assisting Hands Home Care can provide significant relief and support for those individuals in need and their caretakers.

What Is Home Health Care?

Certified home health care is provided for patients in need of skilled care by nurses and other home health assistants such as physical therapists or licensed vocational nurses.

Home health care is typically covered by Medicare and consists of caregivers coming to a patient’s residence over 30 to 60 days.

A patient’s physician coordinates home health care visits.

Home health care covers a wide range of skilled health care services, given at the time of illness or injury.

This type of care is given in the home under doctor’s orders. It includes care similar to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities but is less expensive and convenient for patients and caretakers.

Hospice care is typically a life-limiting illness.

Examples of Skilled Home Health Care Services:

• Wound care for pressure sores or a surgical wound
• Patient and caregiver education
• Intravenous or nutrition therapy
• Injections
• Monitoring serious illness and unstable health status

Home Health Care in Hospice:

Often the goal of Home Health Care services is to treat the patient so that they get better, gain independence, and maintain that level of functioning.

In hospice cases, that is often impossible, so the focus and goals must shift to providing the patient with care to end the last chapters of their lives with dignity, peace, and pain-free.

The Difference Between Hospice & Palliative Care:

It is important to note the distinction between Hospice and Palliative care.

Both offer compassionate care to patients with life-limiting illnesses; however, palliative care is only one of the many components of hospice care.

Palliative Care is primarily concerned with relieving the symptoms of a patient’s condition.

What Is Private Duty Care?

Private duty care aims to help maintain a client’s ability to stay in their home comfortably and offer respite care to other caregivers.

Private duty care is typically provided to elderly individuals who require assistance with their day-to-day activities.

Private duty aides can assist with housekeeping, meal preparation, and offering companionship to those who need additional assistance to remain safe and comfortable in their own homes.

Private duty care is not covered by Medicare and is typically paid for by the client.

Examples of Private Duty Care Services:

• Personal care – bathing/dressing, hygiene, transfers, and ambulation.
• Homemakers & Companions
• Meal cooking and preparation
• Medication reminders
• Transportation for doctor’s visits, shopping, etc.
• Caregiving for specialized conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Hospice, or other comfort needs.