I am going to be shopping around for Home Care for my elderly mom. What are some good questions to ask?

My feeling is go with your gut. Do you like the people? The atmosphere? Or is there something that makes you feel that they are just in this for the money. Watch how they interact with the residents, and if they have staff, watch the dynamics there. I think you know the basics, so it's more about feel than anything. Good luck,
Carol

Emotions can be running high when you realize that someone you care about needs help to continue to stay safe living in their home. While studies show that almost 90% of seniors wish to remain in their own home, very few are open to the idea of having someone outside of family in their home. It is this reason that hiring a home care agency for a loved one is critically important to get right the first time. Be diligent in your research of home care agencies in your area and select 3 or 4 agencies to interview. It's not something that you want to rush through. Set aside an entire day for you and your family to sit down and conduct interviews.

I always encourage a family to write out all of their questions that come to mind first and then cross reference with the questions below. I am confident that by doing this you will have compiled a rock solid home care agency interview questionaire that will yield you and your loved one the absolute best home care service provider in your area



Top 25 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Home Care Agency:



1.May we meet you at your office?
2.Tell me about your agency's history. How did you get started?
3.What amount of paid training do you provide your caregiver's over the course of a year?
4.Does the agency provide any caregiver training for the family?
5.Are the caregivers employees of your company or 1099 employees?
6.Who at the company is involved with the hiring process?
7.Can you walk me through what all is involved in your employee recruiting process?
8.How does the agency monitor the timeliness of their employees? (Telephony?)
9.What is the home care agency's backup plan when a caregiver does not show up for a scheduled appointment?
10.How does the company handle customer complaints or concerns?
11.Can I get a list of references that have used your care services in the last 3 months?
12.Explain the home care agency's process for aligning a caregiver with my loved one?
13.Explain the home care agency's process for ensuring that you are providing reliable and trustworthy caregivers.
14.May we interview the caregiver before they start?
15.What is your caregiver turnover for the past year?
16.What is your agency's plan for the supervision of your caregivers in my home?
17.Are caregivers insured and bonded? Can I see this documentation and can you explain what it means and how it protects me?
18.How soon could a caregiver start?
19.Who answers the phone during after hours?
20.How does the agency communicate with the family?
21.What is the minimum numbers of hours per scheduled shift or per week?
22.Does the agency provide live in home care services?
23.Does the home care agency require any commitment to length of time that service must be provided?
24.How will the agency work to minimize the number of different caregivers that will be utilized to provide care for our loved one?
25.Why should I choose your agency?
As you can see, it will take some time to get through all of the questions, but sticking to your guns and asking all of the questions will give you a good basis for making your final agency selection. Please ensure that you have set aside 60-90 minutes with each home care agency so you can be confident that you have selected the best care provider for your loved one and provide you with the peace of mind knowing your loved one is in good hands.

Since you know your Mom the best, consider what you are seeking the agency to provide. Companionship? Med reminder? Bathing? Meal prep? etc. Are you seeking part time or live in? Ask about training and experience for the aide that relate to your Mom's specific issues. (I found that some agencies provided more training for dementia issues than others.)

And just to be safe . . . I removed all financial documents and important family pieces prior to starting in-home care for my Mom. (Better safe than sorry) I also changed the mailing address for all my Mom's financial institutions so statements were sent to me. Good luck.

Awesome list of questions AssistanceHC. I found that initially when I asked most of these questions...got good answers. Utilized home care but as time went on and the caregivers came and went. We now have an individual who is wonderful and experienced. Course we don't have the back up that an agency can provide.

If your loved one is returning home after a stint in rehab or the hospital you must begin this process long before discharge. If I had done this I wouldn't have picked the agency we are currently working with. There requirements regarding prepaying and timelines for reducing and then ending services were too inflexible to meet my father's needs. At this time my father no longer requires care but surely will in the future. I may start interviewing before the need arises. Brochures from agencies are just not enough.

I learned as I went along one agency I was going to use impressed me because the owner of the company went to the rehab and met with me and my husband and then talked to the nurses and the head nurse to learn about what my husbands needs were and they agreed to provide care for the hours that were good for me-the other agencies picked the hours they thought were good-my husband died and I never got to use that agency but have recommanded them to others-call all the agencies in your and you will get a feel for the best.