“We strive for the best quality of care for our patients. Home Health or Hospice should be an extention of this care provided in the comfort of your home.”

Care and concern for your well-being extends well beyond the confines of The West Clinic. Your doctor's nurse will arrange for any treatment, equipment, and/or services that are needed for care at home under the supervision and guidance of your doctor. This includes coordinating the precise services that you need with the various home health and hospice agencies. The goal of Home Health care is to allow you to recover in the comfort and convenience of your own home with the important advantage of skilled medical treatment.

Medicare mandates certain criteria that a patient must meet before being referred to Home Health. You should be aware of these Medicare rules as many private insurance policies follow Medicare guidelines. To qualify, the patient must:

• Require intermittent skilled nursing care or physical/speech or occupational therapy. There must be a medically predictable recurring need for skilled services, those services reasonable and necessary to the treatment of an illness or injury, which must be performed by or under the direct supervision of a registered nurse or therapist if the safety of the patient is to be assured and the medically desired result achieved.

• Be homebound, confined to the home due to illness or injury. Homebound patients need not be bedridden, but leaving their residence must require considerable effort or supportive devices such as a cane, wheelchair, or the help of another person. Infrequent absences from home are allowed primarily for medical care.

• Be under a physician's care, who in turn, provides the home health agency with written orders for home care.

• Receive services from a certified home health agency.

Hospice criteria differ, in that no homebound status is required. Patients receive palliative care that seeks to enhance comfort and improve the quality of life during the last phase of life. To qualify for Hospice, the patient must:

• Elect Hospice benefit.

• Have a terminal illness certified by a physician.

• Select a Hospice program that is Medicare certified.

Remember that you do have a choice as to which agency you will use, however some insurance plans mandate the companies you must use in making referrals. The referral process usually takes 2 - 3 working days.