All Topics Health Care Specialized Treatment and Prevention Home Health Care Home Health Aide Services

Programs that offer the services of paraprofessional aides who provide personal health care services which do not require special technical training, in the homes of recently discharged hospital patients, elderly individuals and people with disabilities. Services are provided in accordance with a written home health care plan and may include feeding, bathing and grooming patients; changing their beds; taking their temperature, pulse or respiration; helping them to the toilet or to use a bedpan; and other types of assistance that enhance their physical and emotional comfort. The home health aide may also perform other activities as taught by a health professional for a specific patient including changing a colostomy bag; assisting with the use of devices for aid to daily living; assisting with prescribed range of motion exercises; assisting with prescribed ice cap or collar; doing simple urine tests for sugar, acetone or albumin; measuring and preparing special diets; measuring fluid intake and output; and supervising the self-administration of medications (reminding the individual to take the medication, opening bottle caps, reading the medication label to the individual, observing the individual taking medications, checking the self-administered dosage against the label of the container and reassuring the individual that they have obtained and are taking the correct dosage).