Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: Working in Home Health

I’ve only worked in Home Health for a little while now, and it’s a lot crazier than I thought it would be. I’ve already experienced crazy phone calls with people and have crazy experiences with people coming inside the office. Of course, if you have any questions about experiences that I’ve been in, I’m not going to share names or personal client details. Obviously. That would be horrible.

I want to clarify I’m a secretary, so I work in an office from 8-5, however I still deal with clients, aids, nurses, and sometimes even doctors. I’m the first person people talk to when they call the agency I’m located at! There’s only one secretary (me) for the entire office, so sometimes it can be a lot.

If you have any questions, shoot away!

I've no idea what Home Health entails, so I guess my (first) question is: what does it mean? What's the most common job in this area and how do you factor into that?

Ooo good question! Home Health is medical care provided directly in people’s homes. So our agency sends professionals to clients’ houses so they can get the help they need without having to go to a doctor’s office, nursing home, or hospital. Of course, if there’s an emergency, they go to the hospital, or if they fall and don’t go to the hospital, that’s marked as an incident.

Home Health Aides visit clients for all kinds of reasons. They might drive clients who can’t get around on their own, help clean the house, assist with changing clothes, or help with bathing and personal care. Many of our clients are elderly and have limited mobility, but we also work with paraplegic clients, amputees, and individuals with mental disabilities. However it’s not JUST old people I work with. Our aids and nurses also help young clients too!

We also have nurses who handle things like administering injections, managing medications, and other medical needs. Every aide and nurse is trained and have their license.

Honestly, one of the most common things I deal with in Home Health is confusion among clients. A lot of elderly clients call the office feeling anxious, upset, or confused. They often forget their schedules or get worried when their aide hasn’t arrived yet. So that’s when I step in! I’ll check their schedule and say something like, “Okay, Mr./Ms, your aid/nurse is scheduled to arrive at this time. I can call them to confirm and let you know when they’ll be there.”

Most of the calls I handle are about scheduling, complaints, or clients needing something but not knowing who to ask. For example, someone might call asking for help taking a bath (and of course, the office can’t do that) so I check when their aide is scheduled and reassure them that help is on the way or they’ll get help at that time. I also get calls from workers asking for a clients address, handing over a complaint, having questions about vacation time or PTO hours, etc. I talk to pretty much everyone.

Basically, my role is like being the tech guy behind Spider-Man. The aides, nurses, and assistants are out there doing the hands-on work and I’m the one behind the mic. Just transferring calls, talking to their clients, and helping solve problems.

Is this in the US? How does insurance interact with it, if so?

My partner has daily aids at home, she has a degenerative disease and is allowed for help at home through dependence assurance and life care assurance. So we meet home health people every day.
You are the one we would call to cancel appointments or any urgent question. I know what kind of people are engaged for your job in our country.
So my question, do you have a medical background or are you trained?

I hope the aids your partner has are ones they like. I always find it so heart-warming when I see clients love their aids, so I hope that’s the case for them.

And to answer your question, I have no training in any home health scenario, because I don’t go into people’s houses nor do I leave the office at all. The agency where I work is actually very small and so few clients come inside the building (the people I see in person are mostly aids, nurses, and other staff from a linked office in another county).

If I were working out on the field, I would need to have many classes. However, for my job, I had to get a background check done and a whole ton of paperwork to make sure I was good enough for the job. It was a process but then again, I’m working with HIPAA, and they are very thorough!

This is the U.S! Honestly, I’ve learned that it depends on which state you’re in, as I live on the border of three different states (and can walk to each of them). Insurance has a BIG effect on how many hours you’re allowed to get as a client, alongside if you’re even able for services at all. For example, a man called saying that he lost his services, but that’s because his insurance changed and was no longer paying for it. It was very sad, but in those situations, there isn’t much we can do.

We also have clients that work through the VA (US Department of Veterans Affairs)! So they might talk about home health care through us, but then end up getting home health care through the VA instead. In case you don’t know, the VA is a program that helps veterans and their families.

Some clients can only have a specific amount of home heath care hours in a week because of their insurance. Like the insurance could say “yeah you can only have ten hours of home health” and so an aid could go there for two days (5hrs each) or like 5 days (2hrs each). We have clients who call and ask for more hours but sadly, we can’t give them more because of their insurance.