The home healthcare industry is comprised of many different medical services that are available to you in your home or facility. There is home health, hospice care, caregiver services, palliative care, and many others. These services are administered by an even more increasing and diverse set of medical professionals. Although, there may be a lot options the reality is you can seemingly get all your medical needs in the comfort of your home.
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The Growing Desire of Home Health Care Services
The two key elements in this equation can be summed up in two words “Home” and “Care”. They are the fundamental reason why home healthcare is becoming so very important in our society. These two factors determine the desire and need for services. Take the first part of the equation “home”. A new poll by Bring the Vote Home, surveyed 4,533 registered voters aged 65 and older. The poll showed that American seniors overwhelmingly favor Medicare home health services. In fact, 91% of American seniors favor the Medicare home health benefit, which provides care for 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries. 87% of American seniors prefer to receive medical treatment at home. The numbers show more people do desire to receive their treatments in the comfort of their home.
The Benefits of Home Health Care Services
It might be easy to say “I feel better at home”, but what about if it is better for you? The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research firm, studied knee and hip replacement patients who where discharged from an acute care hospital to their home for either home health rehabilitation, outpatient therapy, or none formal continuing care. The study found that 35 percent of patients who were discharged to their home or received home health care were less likely to be institutionalized than in other facility settings.
Many studies have also shown an increase of mental health for individuals 65 and older, who reside in the home versus a facility. A program in Connecticut for psychiatric patients was even effective in reducing hospital re-admissions by integrating home health care into the treatment plan. Patients who received home care services had a significantly reduced readmission rate of 11.8 percent compared to 45.9 re-admission rate who did not receive home care services.
As mentioned the benefits for home health care can be seen in the access to medical staff and treatment, the desire to have medical services at home, and the benefits of familiar settings when treating curtain aliments; so what about the second element in our equation “Care”.
The Growing Need for Home Health Care Services
The “Care” element in the home care equation encompasses the increasing need for home health care services that has been sparked by a growing elderly population. According to the U.S. census in 2010 the population aged 65 and older will account for 13 percent of the population. This segment is projected to increase to 19 percent by 2030. To put this into reference the oldest age group in the United States is projected to grow to reach 19 million. The need for home care services will be drastically increasing. Home health care agencies will need to be able to effectively accommodate this need with services and staff.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ the home care sectors picked up 30% of the 2013 august health care job growth. With the staggering increase in demand for services home care agencies will need to pick up more staff. This will also come with the need to pick the best staff to ensure quality services so agencies can stand out in a pack. That is why home health care agencies like, Assisted Home Health, Hospice Care and Caregiver Services go through rigorous testing and evaluation to ensure their staff is certified and trained to provide the best possible care.
As an industry, home health care services, is an extremely important segment of our society. With such a huge desire for home care services and the large increase in the need for services home care agencies will need to provide the highest standard of services.
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