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Medical Care Advisory Committee Utah Mcac Article
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Non Medical Home Care Selection
Finding the right non medical home care service provider for your family member, friend or loved one is a difficult decision and one that needs to be taken seriously.
Since the non medical home care provider will have daily or scheduled access to the patient it is important to get the best possible match both for the well being of the patient as well as your peace of mind.
A high quality non medical home care service is a great asset, but one that hires poor quality service providers or is disorganized or unreliable is often more trouble than they are worth.
Choosing a non medical home care provider requires some research as well as taking the time to actually interview the person that will be directly responsible for caring for the patient.
It is important to know exactly what services you want the non medical home care staff to provide, what schedule you would like them to follow as well as what your budget is. The more involved the tasks you are asking the service provider to complete the more costly the service will be.
Some services may also offer basic packages so be sure to ask if they have packages that may include different responsibilities and tasks. If you are considering a package take the time to go over each aspect of the package and clarify what any responsibilities may be.
It is a good idea to interview at least three different non medical home care service providers before making your selection. If you are interviewing a larger company, ask to have the person that will be working with the patient at the interview.
In many cases you will only see the sales agent or the office representative, which is not likely to be the person working with your family member. If the patient is able to attend the interviews this is important to consider and they should be involved. Some services will even complete the interview at the patient's home for convenience.
Don’t hesitate to ask the non medical home care service for references and follow up with a few phone calls.
Your doctor, family friends or even professionals at a hospice or medical supply company may also have professionals they would be willing to recommend. Get a contract that clearly outlines the services provided as well as sets up regular review times so you can ask questions or make changes to the contract as needed.
The contract should also clearly outline the cancellation policy for both yourself and the agency.