Skilled nursing
Wounds, new medications, injections, IV or nutrition therapy, and watching a condition that is still unstable.
For families
Coming home from the hospital
Most of our patients start after a hospital stay, a surgery, a fall, or a stretch of unstable illness. If a case manager says you need home health, you can choose the agency. Ask them to send the referral to New Horizon, or call us and we will help gather the order.
Ask before you leave
Get this in writing from the case manager or discharging provider.
- What skilled services are ordered for home (nursing, therapy, aide), in writing
- Who is sending the home health referral, and that you can choose the agency
- A current medication list, including what changed in the hospital
- Which symptoms mean call the doctor, and which mean call 911
- The follow-up appointment, and how you will get there
- Whether it is safe to be home alone, and for how long
The first days at home
Home health visits are intermittent. These steps help the house stay safe between them.
- Fill new prescriptions the same day. Set aside anything that was stopped.
- Walk the real path: bed to bathroom, shower, kitchen. Add a nightlight or shower chair if the path is unsafe.
- Keep one sheet by the phone: medication times, doctor numbers, and family contacts.
- Call for new confusion, shortness of breath, a fall, or refusing food or water.
What we can start quickly
After a complete referral, a nurse typically completes the start-of-care visit within 24 to 48 hours. The plan can include nursing, therapy, medical social services, and a home health aide, as ordered.
Therapy
Walking, transfers, stairs, bathing, swallowing, and the tasks that make the house usable again.
Home health aide
Help with bathing, walking, or grooming on the days you are also getting skilled nursing or therapy.
A Medicare home health aide is not a private caregiver
What an aide can do
Under Medicare, a home health aide is part of a skilled plan. Typical help is walking, bathing or grooming, changing bed linens, and feeding, while nursing or therapy is also ordered. Visits are part-time, not around the clock.
What Medicare does not cover
24-hour care, companion sitting, home-delivered meals, or homemaker work such as shopping and cleaning when it is unrelated to the care plan. Personal care alone, without skilled nursing or therapy, is not a Medicare home health benefit.
If you only need hired help for daily living, say so when you call. We will not enroll a case that does not meet skilled-care rules.
Official coverage: Medicare.gov home health services.