In-Home Care in the Age of COVID-19

If you are considering in-home care for a loved one, you are undoubtedly concerned about COVID-19. Caregivers often take on multiple clients, presenting opportunities for spreading infection. Even with full-time care, unless you have a live-in caregiver, this means a person coming into your loved one’s home on a daily basis and often involves direct physical contact.

In-Home Care: A Costly Proposition

If you are researching in-home care, you likely already know it can be costly from an economic perspective, with hourly rates ranging from $14 to $24, depending on the market in your area. With the emergence of COVID-19, hiring in-home care could have a high human risk as well. There now exists a trade-off between minimizing economic costs (by reducing hours) and reducing risk. A part-time caregiver who goes from home to home on a daily basis presents an increased risk of infection to both their customers and themselves. This is also a challenge for professional caregiving organizations to maintain healthy caregivers.

Assisted Living vs. In-Home Care

Assisted living is often viewed as a viable alternative to reduce the financial costs associated with in-home care. However, this of course increases risk of infection due to the number of people living and working in the congregate setting. Few states have any regulations regarding staff-to-resident ratios and a typical assisted living scenario involves a great amount of resident to resident and resident to staff interaction in a given day.

Another point to consider, aside from safety, is the fact that most people prefer to not leave their own homes. In fact, according to an AARP study, 90% of seniors preferred to stay home and 80% believed they would remain at home for life.

Not to mention that removing individuals from familiar surroundings and routines can cause great anxiety.

Medical vs. Non-Medical Home Care

An important part of making this decision is understanding the various levels of care available, which could have substantial financial implications. If your loved one has recently been discharged from the hospital or has short- or long-term medical needs, then medical home care or home health care will likely be required.

Medicare, as well as private insurance, will pay for some services, like visits by nurses, and speech and occupational therapists. When discharged from the hospital, Medicare will pay for a nurse, occupational and speech therapist for the senior at home, but only according to a doctor’s prescribed plan of care.

However, many older adults without major medical issues just need an extra bit of support and daily reminders, such as remembering to take medications, hydration reminders and easier communications with loved ones. GrandCare not only facilitates these tasks, but can also allow you to monitor your loved one’s activities and vitals, including blood pressure, body temperature, pulse oximetry readings, weight, blood sugar levels, and more. With GrandCare, you may be able to reduce the risk for infection by safely monitoring and empowering a loved one with telehealth technology.

Technology to the Rescue

As technology continues to evolve and a new generation of seniors are becoming more comfortable interacting with digital devices, there is an opportunity to harness technology to help seniors age in place, staying at home for as long as possible. GrandCare envisions a future where all are able to remain independent and connected to family and friends. We provide a full telehealth, activity monitoring, video visit and communications platform for seniors. See how our product can help your loved one maintain their independence longer!