Health Care at Home as a Senior-Care option

1. Health Care at Home as a Senior-Care option- A scientific analysis

2. Today we live in an era where development and innovation are the norms. With an improvement in technology, reaching out to the remote areas of the world is becoming increasingly easier. The rise in the availability and innovations of medical and healthcare facilities has resulted in more and more lives that can be saved.

3. However, like every coin, this aspect has a flip side to it too. The advanced technology comes at alarmingly skyrocketed costs of everything including the medical facilities. It is an extremely steep order for most, especially the elder citizen of our society.

4. With the onset of old age; humans become increasingly prone to weakness and ailment. This calls for necessary medical treatment on a regular basis. But with limited financial resources such as pension or personal savings, bearing the costs of medical treatment, in addition to normal living expenses, becomes more of a burden than ever before.

5. Especially in critical cases, the patients and their families are swamped under a plethora of medical bills that range from medicines, equipment costs, room and bed charges to doctor’s fees and other miscellaneous expenses, not to mention the service taxes.

6. In such a situation bringing healthcare facilities to their homes might just be the most cost effective solution, since the patients and their families can forego the additional medical costs. Additional charges such as those of the added expenditure of travelling to and from any established medical facility are an added nuance to the medical treatment. Thus, health care at home not only helps tackle these costs, but also ensures a better and all round treatment with the patient being the pivot of all care and attention.

7. The benefits of the practice are not only limited to cost-effectiveness. They extend way beyond into dealing with other problems a patient has to face in a hospital setting. From running the risk of contracting diseases from fellow patients, to the lack of intensive individualized emotional, psychological and physical support and care from doctors, the possibilities are many.

8. Something that healthcare at home ensures is individualized care and attention. This is crucial for the elderly, who are easily susceptible to ailments and diseases. The health care regime is carried out by trained health-care professionals, such as the likes of occupational therapists and physiotherapists. This leads to a positive effect on the health of the elderly under care. Also, the chances of contracting infections from people around them were they in a hospital, is minimized.

9. Agencies providing health care at home are also sending a team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists and physician assistants to monitor the growth and recovery of the patient. They also connect with the family members personally to administer treatments and medication. They conduct necessary tests and discuss the reports as needed, taking into consideration the patient as the sole recipient of attention and care.

10. The set–up at home is none less than the one in hospital rooms that monitors the progress of the patient at every level. Any improvement or deterioration is closely monitored by the team of doctors and nurses dedicated solely to the patient. Therefore, these primary health care professionals including nurses, therapists, physicians and others, work as a team in tandem with the patient party to deliver an efficient health care service, utilizing all the tools, as necessary.

11. To top it off, the best part of healthcare at home is precisely that it is from the comfort of home. One should not underestimate the far reaching emotional, psychological and physical consequences of being in a familiar setting and in the midst of people who love and care for us. At such a critical stage in life, a bit of moral support might just do the trick.

12. In this healthcare scheme, instead of the patient party rallying to get an appointment with a doctor and rushing to the hospital on fixed dates with the patient, which may be an almost impossible endeavour for the elderly people to undertake, the patient party need only call for a doctor or other personnel of the same field of work, such as a nurse, for a home visit and receive first class treatment from the comfort of their homes. Not to forget, the high class facilities that were only to be seen in a hospital are extended to the four walls of the home, with extensive professional care and attention at the doorstep.

13. Despite the aforementioned benefits, the practice of health care at home remains a forlorn tale. It is little recognized in its sheer efforts and the services it delivers. Its advantages have been overlooked more often than not and therefore it yet remains a resource waiting to be tapped. Medical professionals in tandem with other health care professionals and the patient party must reach out to provide the best possible impetus to the practice of health care at home.

14. With the world progressing with leaps and bounds, the health care industry has not remained behind. Till yesterday it could have only been a dream to wish that one received such personalized medical care at home. With a skewed ratio of doctor to patient, it was nothing but imaginary. However, such facility is not only existent, but also responsive and yields results.

15. Health care at home is an idea that represents how an ideal health system must function. It must therefore succeed to meet the six characteristics of Medicine – safe, timely, patient-centric, efficient, effective and equitable. With an interdisciplinary team of professionals devoted to health care, the revolution is not far away.

16. HCAH India provides following services- Home Nutrition Services ICU at Home Home Physiotherapy Services Home Pulmonology Services Home Cardiac Care Home Oncology Services Post Surgical Care Everyday Care Specialist Services