Take a Close Look At Home Health Agencies

by Jeff Goll, Eldercare Navigation

From the NYTimes blog “The New Old Age” comes this story about the fast growing and largely unregulated world of home health care agencies. Some of the more disturbing facts:

• Only 16.5 percent of agencies tested potential caregivers’ basic knowledge about the job and its requirements.
• No agencies assessed potential caregivers’ “health literacy” – their ability to understand medical terms and instructions.
• Only 32 percent of agencies performed drug tests on applicants for caregiver positions.
• No agencies performed criminal background checks on applicants in states other than the one in which they were operating.
• Only 15 percent of agencies provided some type of training before sending a caregiver into someone’s home.
• More than half relied on caregivers’ own assessment of their skills – their ability to administer medications, provide dementia care, or transfer someone from chair to bed, for instance – without independent verification.
• Only 23 percent of agencies supervised caregivers by sending someone to the home monthly to check up on them.