Care for Everyone
For your aging parent, driving to an appointment can lead to confusion, or inability to negotiate traffic entering and exiting parking lots. Aging parents who are no longer sure of their driving skills may not know how to arrange for other transportation and may miss essential doctor’s appointments. They may not want to place a burden on their children by requesting a ride. It’s reassuring to know that A Better Care Option provides senior home care assistance with transportation. Our caregivers can arrange transportation and accompany your senior parent to appointments.
Post-hospitalization Care
After your senior parent’s discharge from the hospital, you can rely on our experience, compassionate, and caring services to be sure that your loved one experiences a complete and speedy home recovery. We will design a customized care plan that meets your parent’s particular needs by utilizing the necessary following services:
- Assistance by the Hour or 24/7 care
- Facilitating Scheduling with Therapists and Specialists
- Reminders for Medication Treatment and Prevention
- Prevention of Falls and Injuries
- Pickups of Prescription Drugs
- Daily Activities Assistance
- Change in Condition Monitoring and Alerts
- Scheduling of Doctors’ Appointments and Arranging of Transportation,
- Bathing, Dressing and Personal Care Assistance
- Light housekeeping, Preparation of meals and Nutrition Guidance
- Medical Alarm for 24/7 Monitoring
Rehabilitation Assistance
During recovery from orthopedic surgery—including a procedure for a hip or elbow or knee replacement—it’s vital that patients carefully pursue their doctor’s rehabilitation directions. Exercises prescribed to strengthen and develop range of motion must follow the prescribed schedule in order to prevent weakness or loss of function.
Although our caregivers don’t provide rehabilitation services, they can help in the management and scheduling of rehabilitation appointments and coordination of transport. In addition, our caregivers can go for frequent walks with your loved one as needed to encourage their recovery or motivate them to complete their home rehabilitation exercises.
Recovery Assistance Resources
Any hospital stay related to an illness, surgical procedure or injury can have a serious impact on the health of older adults. Elderly patients are especially prone to falls and relapses after a hospital discharge. They may easily experience a new injury by trying to lift something or by making a sudden movement. They might not eat well enough to encourage a complete recovery because they feel weak or unable to fix their own meals. Below are some helpful resources to help facilitate your loved one’s complete home recovery.
>Information on Nutrition: By maintaining strict shopping guidelines and proper food preparation, specialized dietary needs for conditions such as heart disease, hypertension or diabetes can be managed, aiding in the recovery process. Your caregiver will prepare food to meet your precise nutritional needs in order to boost your recovery. Appropriate nutritional resources will be provided.
>Logistical Information: Follow-up visits to doctors and specialists are usually required during the recovery process. A Better Care Option can manage follow-up appointments by scheduling and coordinating transportation to medical and therapy appointments. Your caregiver, with your permission, can attend doctor visits and take notes to ensure that instructions get home and are followed.
>Information on Medications: Medication is required for recovery from an illness or surgical procedure. A Better Care Option can provide medication reminders so that medicine is taken as directed. As needed, your caregiver can drop off and pick up prescriptions at your local pharmacy.
Recovery from Stroke
Stroke is quite common among the elderly, and recovery can be a lengthy process. Our stroke caregivers have expertise and training in working with stroke patients, and for your safety, they are also fully insured and bonded. In addition, we require that caregivers pass national criminal backgrounds checks. Here’s a list of services our caregivers provide:
- Assistance by the Hour or 24/7 care
- Facilitating Scheduling with Therapists and Specialists
- Reminders for Medication Treatment and Prevention
- Prevention of Falls and Injuries
- Change in Condition Monitoring and Alerts
- Scheduling of Doctors’ Appointments and Arranging of Transportation, Bathing, Dressing and Personal Care Assistance
- Light housekeeping, Preparation of meals and Nutrition Guidance
- Medical Alarm for 24/7 Monitoring
- Pickups of Prescription Drugs
- Daily Activities Assistance
- Companionship, helping reduce anxiety, stress and depression common to stroke patients
- Assistance with Bathing, Dressing and Personal Care
Recovery from Cancer
A Better Care Option can provide all the difference as your loved one recovers from cancer. Our caregivers can take on household tasks, stay in touch with long-distance family members regarding a loved one’s progress, and ensure high quality home care in dealing with patient nausea, anemia, pain, and other complications. We can design a customized care plan to match your loved one’s needs including one or more of the following services:
- Management of Scheduling Treatments and Doctor’s Appointments and Companionship
- Careful Monitoring during Recovery from Routine Treatments Pickups of Prescription Drugs
- Daily Activities Assistance
- Light Housekeeping, Preparation of Meals and Nutritional Guidance
- Bathing, Dressing and Personal Care Assistance
Easing the Cancer Recovery Process
At A Better Care Option, our caregivers see it as a privilege to form bonds with cancer patients and their families as they go through chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. If you’re facing this type of situation, we provide you and your family with encouragement, moral support, and the caregiving needed to fight this cancer. There are a variety of ways to ease cancer treatments. Our goal is to offer the most comfortable and least stressful recovery experience in facing the unpleasant common side effects of cancer therapy. A Better Care Option caregivers help from doing household tasks to maintaining communication with long-distance family members regarding progress of a loved one, to providing expert, high quality in-home care as patients experience nausea, anemia, pain, infection, among additional complications. A Better Care Option can make a difference during your loved one’s recovery from cancer.
Recovery from Surgery
As they recover from surgery, older adults may need a great deal of emotional support as well as aid with simple everyday tasks. We’re here to help design customized care plans that offer your parent the care they require at an affordable price. A Better Care Option’s services may include the following:
- Assistance by the Hour or 24/7 care
- Facilitating Scheduling with Therapists and Specialists
- Reminders for Medication Treatment and Prevention
- Prevention of Falls and Injuries
- Change in Condition Monitoring and Alerts
- Scheduling of Doctors’ Appointments and Arranging of Transportation
- Bathing, Dressing and Personal Care Assistance
- Light Housekeeping, Preparation of Meals and Nutrition Guidance
- Medical Alarm for 24/7 Monitoring
- Pickups of Prescription Drugs
- Daily Activities Assistance
Home Care Helps Reduce Readmissions
Did you know that within one month of being discharged 20% of Medicare patients are readmitted to a hospital?
- One out of five Medicare patients is readmitted to a hospital within one month of their discharge, costing billions of dollars yearly.
- Eric Coleman MD, of the University of Colorado in Denver, observed that patients tend to have a ‘honeymoon’ idea about what the situation will be when they get home. Patients often don’t know where else to go when they become confused about managing their medicine or experience other problems, so they return to the hospital.
- In 2008 the Gerontological Society of America published another study of almost 3million Medicare beneficiaries:
- Elderly living on their own had 50% increased odds of early readmission (within two months) compared to others who did not live by themselves.
- Elderly reporting unmet functional needs had 48% increased odds of early readmission compared to individuals who did not indicate unmet IADL needs.
- Elderly without self-management skills had 44% increased odds of early readmission compared to individuals who had self-management skills.
Ways A Better Care Option Can Assist
A Better Care Option has expertise in helping navigate the diverse challenges when a patient has to transition from an acute care facility to a home environment. A Better Care Option takes the responsibility for leading the transition process by reaching out to our healthcare provider partners to avoid pitfalls in the process of transferring from hospitals or acute care facilities to home environments. Agencies can begin an essential dialogue with hospital partners regarding the importance and value of home care in meeting hospital goals. For further information about our specific services, please click on Services in the website Navigation or see Post-hospitalization Care on this page.
Cost of Home Care
As you look at the diverse options available to you, you will want to choose the type of care that meets your needs. One of your first concerns could be how your care choices will affect your finances. This is common; most people seeking care for a loved one are concerned about the potential financial cost for long-term care. How much will home care cost? You may be pleasantly surprised to find it more affordable than expected.