November kicks off a month of events honoring the home health care and hospice community and the millions of nurses, home care aides, therapists and others who tirelessly serve patients and their families throughout the country, and play a central role in our nation’s health care system. It’s also a time to raise awareness about the importance and availability of home care and hospice services. Each November, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) joins with its providers to celebrate National Home Care Month, National Hospice Month, and Home Care Aide Week (taking place November 13-19).
“It is highly appropriate in November that we celebrate the nurses, therapists, aides, and other providers who choose to use their lives to serve our country’s aged, disabled, and dying,” said Val J. Halamandaris, NAHC President. “No work is nobler, and no group is more deserving of our respect and admiration. Their goal is helping society’s weakest members live the fullest lives they can. By marrying high tech with high touch, home care professionals and volunteers allow patients to get care at home where they can be with the ones they love,” said Halamandaris.
This year’s theme is “Home Care and Hospice Deliver Freedom,” with NAHC planning to release new studies in the coming weeks that showcase the increasing role of home care and hospice in health care. “Whether it is dollars spent or miles driven, the value of home care and hospice is immeasurable,” according to the NAHC.
Home health care is generally regarded as one of the most viable solutions for providing long-term care to the nation’s growing elderly population. It involves an extensive list of services to attend to multiple needs of the patient and typically begins with a nurse assessing the patient’s physical and psychosocial needs, consulting with appropriate health care team members and family, initiating physician orders and evaluating patient response to treatment. The patient is then periodically reassessed by clinical management to gauge needed changes, if necessary, to the plan of care.
Hospice provides comfort, compassion, and end-of-life support to patients and their families in the comfort of their home. Patients are usually referred to hospice care when they are in the last phase of an illness so that they may live as fully and as comfortably as possible. Hospice care includes the activities listed above for home care, as well as administering medications for optimum patient pain management by a licensed professional caregiver; coordinating patient care by utilizing critical thinking and performance ability; and being accountable to the family in managing patient care.
About Manchester Specialty
The individuals involved in both home care and hospice are “true heroes” because of their daily outpouring of compassion and quality care to patients and families during their most difficult times, including the final stages of life. At Manchester Specialty, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the home health and hospice providers and agencies for the invaluable service they provide to individuals and their families. We provide business insurance solutions to the home healthcare and hospice sector, and we are proud to serve this noble profession.