Note:
Each Home Health Agency defines its services in a particular way. The following definitions are meant to provide CarePilot users with a basic understanding of commonly used terms on our site.
- Accrediting Organization
- Accrediting organizations evaluate health care service providers against performance standards. Providers that meet the performance standards are "accredited". A home health agency must voluntarily seek out accreditation.
- AIDS/HIV Treatment
- AIDS/HIV care is provided by specialized nurses and includes assistance with activities of daily living (ADL), the provision of home-delivered meals, and help with adherence to treatment regimens. Patients are also taught self-care techniques to help improve their quality of life and to help control the impact of an acute and chronic illness such as AIDS/HIV.
- Alzheimer's Care Program
- Care programs tailored specifically to the needs of Alzheimer's patients and their families, including companionship and activity supervision, assistance with activities of daily living, as well as maid service help with laundry, shopping, and meal preparation. Skilled care includes help with medications.
- Behavioral Health
- Health services that address the unique challenges of mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, personality disorders, and geriatric mental health matters.
- Diabetes Care
- Diabetes care involves diabetes nurse specialists who help patients learn how to live with their illness and become more capable in the self-care of their condition. Nurses teach patients to self-inject their insulin as prescribed, monitor their blood glucose levels, plan meals, and recognize the symptoms of potential complications.
- Durable Medical Equipment
- Durable medical equipment (DME) is equipment that is ordered by a doctor for repeated use in the home. Some examples of DME include hospital beds, walkers, wheel chairs and oxygen tents.
- Home Health Agency
- A home health agency (HHA) is an organization that provides homecare services, including skilled nursing care and home care aide services as well as occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and medical social services.
- Home Health Aides
- Home Health Aides assist patients with activities of daily living such as walking, bathing, toileting, dressing, and getting in and out of bed.
- Home Health Care
- Home health care encompasses a broad spectrum of health and social services that are delivered in the home setting to persons who are disabled, chronically ill or recovering from an illness. These services include skilled nursing care and home care aide services as well as occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and medical social services.
- Hospice Services
- Hospice care involves skilled professionals and sometimes volunteers who provide care for the terminally ill and support for patients and their families. It is based primarily in the home, and allows families to remain together during the end-of-life process.
- Infusion (IV) Therapy
- Infusion therapy is managed by nurses who administer medications, fluids, and blood to patients intravenously.
- The Joint Commission
- The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission is the nation's predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Since 1951, the Joint Commission has maintained state-of-the-art standards that focus on improving the quality and safety of care provided by health care organizations. The Joint Commission's comprehensive accreditation process evaluates an organization's compliance with these standards and other accreditation requirements.
- Legal/Elder Law Services
- Legal services tailored to the needs of seniors, including wills, health care power of attorney, trust and estate administration, assisted living and nursing home placement, and Medicaid and Medicare planning, applications and appeals.
- Maternal/Child Health
- Home-based care services for mothers, infants, children, adolescents, and children with special health care needs (CSHCN).
- Meal Programs
- Programs that home deliver meals for individuals who are unable to shop for groceries or safely prepare meals for themselves. Ready-to-eat meals, which help maintain independent living at home, can be specially prepared to meet medical &/or dietary requirements.
- Medical Social Workers
- Medical Social Workers assist patients and their family members with the social and emotional concerns related to a patient's condition. Medical Social Workers sometimes also serve as case managers when a patient's condition is so complex that it requires a variety of health and social services.
- Occupational Therapy
- Occupational Therapists help people improve their ability to perform the general activities of daily living. They work with individuals who have conditions that are mentally, physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabling. They instruct patients on using specialized rehabilitation techniques and equipment to help them improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, as well as to compensate for permanent loss of function.
- Physical Therapy
- Physical Therapists provide services that help restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain, and prevent or limit the permanent physical disabilities of patients suffering from injuries or disease through the use of exercise, massage and other techniques. Their patients include accident victims and individuals with disabling conditions such as low-back pain, arthritis, heart disease, fractures, head injuries, and cerebral palsy.
- Private Pay
- Private Pay refers to direct payments from patients &/or family member(s), or payments from a private third party, such as an insurance company.
- Quality of Care Grade
- CarePilot's Quality of Care Grade combines the ten home health quality measures tracked by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with each given equal weight, into one numeric grade. To learn more about the home health quality measures, click here.
- Respiratory Therapy
- Respiratory Therapists evaluate, treat, and care for patients with breathing or other cardiopulmonary disorders. Practicing under the direction of a physician, respiratory therapists assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care treatments and diagnostic procedures.
- Skilled Care
- Health care that is given by a trained medical professional. Nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language therapy are all considered skilled care. In addition to providing direct care, these professionals manage, observe, and evaluate a patient's care.
Any service that could be safely done by a non-medical person (or one's self) without the supervision of a nurse is not considered skilled care.
- Skilled Nursing Care
- Skilled nursing care is a level of care that must be given or supervised by a Registered Nurse (RN). Examples of skilled nursing care include administration of intravenous medication, injections, tube feeding, oxygen-assisted breathing, and changing sterile dressings on a wound.
RNs record patients' medical histories and symptoms, help to perform diagnostic tests and analyze results, operate medical machinery, administer treatment and medications, and help with patient follow-up and rehabilitation.
- Speech Pathology
- Speech-language Pathologists, sometimes called speech therapists, assist with problems involving speech, language and swallowing. Communication problems can be present at birth or develop after an injury or illness, such as a stroke. Speech therapists also retrain patients in breathing, swallowing, and muscle control.
- Transportation Services
- Transportations services supplement or complement the efforts of family members, neighbors, and friends to provide options that enable seniors to stop driving without losing their ability to go places. They also fill in the gaps where traditional transit options are unavailable or cannot accommodate the special needs of seniors.