Celebrating National Home Care and Hospice Month

Every November, the home care and hospice community honors the millions of nurses, home care aides, therapists, and social workers who make a remarkable difference for the patients and families they serve.

 

Throughout National Home Care and Hospice Month, Interim HealthCare will be celebrating our home care and hospice team. We hope you’ll join us in spreading awareness of our heroic caregivers and the critical role they play in patients’ homes across the country every single day.

 

We’d like to share a few facts about what makes our hospice and home care providers so special.

 

Home care providers literally go the distance.

Did you know that just this year, home care providers will travel about 8 billion miles to deliver the best healthcare worldwide? Nearly two million caregivers travel daily to patients’ homes to deliver essential healthcare in a comfortable environment. Home care and hospice caregivers work tirelessly to provide professional support to millions of Americans in need of quality health services. They literally go the distance and bring healing home to patients who are in need. 

 

Home care services allow families to stay together. 

Home–there’s no place like it. According to AARP, nearly 90 percent of older Americans want to age in place. Given that statistic, it’s not surprising that home care is the preferred method of health care delivery among the disabled, elderly, and chronically ill. 

 

Modern-day home care services allow patients to recover and heal from an illness, injury, or surgery in the comfort of their homes, but with the oversight of licensed medical professionals. In the past, chronic illnesses requiring a hospital stay could separate families for weeks or even months at a time. Now, home care and hospice services allow families to stay together without risking the health and safety of their loved ones who need access to professional medical care. 

 

Home care is a growing alternative to hospitalization.

Home care provides high-quality, compassionate care to more than 5 million Americans annually. Home care in the U.S. is a growing alternative to hospitalization or other institution-based forms of health care for acute and chronic illnesses. It has been reported that 65% of Americans would have considered home healthcare as an alternative to a hospital stay in the past if they had known it was an option.

 

Home care is not just for the elderly. 

In a recent survey, only 44% of Americans, and 45% of licensed medical professionals, believe care for those with long-term pediatric care needs can be provided through home healthcare. Our home care providers beg to differ. Thanks to technological advances, pediatric home health care has become a good alternative to an extended stay in a hospital or long-term healthcare facility. 

 

Bottom line–children and their families prefer to receive care in the comfort of their own homes. And today, with the many pediatric home care services available, they can get the care and support they need to do so. 

 

Home care needs more advocates.

National Home Care and Hospice Month is the perfect time to connect with your elected officials to promote advocacy to meet the exponentially growing demand for home care and hospice services. 

 

Visit the NAHC Advocacy Center to learn more about how you can amplify this organization’s voice, and strengthen and unify its efforts, to bring access to quality home health care and hospice services center stage, so patients can get the support and attention they need.

 

If you or a loved one have had personal experiences with a home care provider, we hope you take the time to tell them “thank you” for all that they do. 

 

From all of us at Interim HealthCare, Happy National Home Care and Hospice Month!