General information, not medical advice
This article is general education about nursing care at home. It is not advice about any individual, and reading it does not create a nurse–patient or provider–patient relationship. Decisions about care belong with you and your own clinicians. In an emergency, call 911.
Most agency websites sound alike, this one included. These questions are the ones that produce answers worth comparing. Ask them on the phone, where hedging is audible.
Licensing and scope
- What home care license do you hold in Minnesota, and what is the license number?
- Which of the services we need are within that license, and which would we need another provider for?
- Are the nurses who would come to our home employees or contractors?
Staffing reality
- Do you currently have nurses near us with the skills this care requires?
- Of the hours we are authorized for, how many do you realistically expect to fill in the first three months?
- How many different nurses would we likely see in a typical month?
- What happens when a scheduled nurse calls in sick at short notice?
Clinical oversight
- Who supervises the nurses, and how often does an RN review the plan of care?
- How are nurses oriented to our specific equipment and routine before their first solo shift?
- How do you escalate a change in condition, and how quickly?
- How will you communicate with our provider and case manager?
Communication and problems
- Who do we call outside business hours, and who actually answers?
- How do we raise a concern about a specific nurse, and what happens next?
- How do you handle it when a placement is not working?
A note on the answers
An agency that answers 'it depends' and then explains what it depends on is usually telling you the truth. An agency that promises full coverage and perfect continuity before assessing the situation is telling you what you want to hear.