Have you noticed a decline in your loved one’s health and you need some help? You’re not quite sure how to navigate and find the right agency. I’m Chris Mihm. And today we’re going to talk about asking the right questions when interviewing a home care agency.
Number one, how long have you been in business and why did you get started?
When choosing a home care agency, you want to make sure that they’re in it for the right reasons and that they have a good track record. You can check out our why video on our website and know that we’ve been in business since 2014.
Number two, are you licensed, bonded, and insured?
When searching for a home care agency, you might actually come across a private caregiver option. Now, one of the benefits of working with an agency is that they’re going to be licensed, bonded, and insured. When you have a private caregiver that is not licensed, insured, and bonded, the liability falls on you.
Number three, are you available after hours?
At Freedom Home Care, we have two administrative people that are on call at all times, 24 Hours a day, seven days a week. One of our on call is an RN and our second on call is our administrative team.
Number four, what happens if a caregiver cannot make it to a shift?
At Freedom Home Care, it’s extremely important to us that we’re able to provide a caregiver for the scheduled time that your loved one has a shift. We have on call staff that we’re able to use in a situation where somebody’s not able to make it, whether it’s weather or a sickness. There are some situations where we’ve even had to provide office staff to be able to go out to somebody’s home to help get them out of bed in the morning so that they can get their day started on the right note. We understand that some clients are not able to get out of bed in the morning without help. At Freedom Home Care, we’re not going to let that happen.
Number five, what is your process when hiring caregivers?
Our process involves running a background check, a two-day orientation process. One of the days is with our registered nurse, who’s going to sign off and make sure that our caregiver is capable of providing care to your loved one. We’re not going to just send anybody out to your house.
Number six, what kind of ongoing training do you provide to your caregivers?
We provide eight hours of ongoing training a year. Much of which is in person in the office to go over topics that we deem to be relevant at a given time. Many of our caregivers are certified in different areas such as dementia, Parkinson’s, end of life care, and so forth.
Number seven, how do you match caregivers with your clients?
In a lot of cases, after we’re done with our inquiry, we actually have a really good idea of which caregiver is going to be a good fit for your loved one. We’ll go back to the office, meet with our office staff and look at the schedules to make sure that we’re matching up a caregiver with your loved one. Quality matches create better care and a better experience.
Number eight, what makes you different from other home care agencies?
It’s very important to me that we’re locally owned and operated. We’re not part of a franchise, and we have the tremendous case management program that sets us apart.
