Selecting an agency to take care of an elderly loved one can be quite a big task. There are many organizations who provide in home care in the Philadelphia area, but how do you know which one is the best fit for your own family? In this blog, we’d like to take the opportunity to share how Pennsylvania Agency of Nurses operates – we’ll step you through our process for providing in home care, the types of home care we provide, how we hire our employees, and also how we match them to clients. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Each home care case begins with a free assessment of need in your home.

Pennsylvania Agency of Nurses is unique in that we are the only nurse-owned, nurse-operated home care agency in the greater Philadelphia region. We are not a franchise, and excel at providing personalized, competent care for families. Each of our cases begins with a free assessment of need in your home, or wherever your loved one resides. This assessment is conducted by either our Vice President and General Manager or Registered Nurse Care Manager. Both women have extensive experience in the home care industry, and bring a professional, caring, and personalized touch to assess what kind of care your family member needs. Since they are the primary caregivers who conduct this assessment, our agency gets consistent, reliable information about the client’s needs, and thus can provide better services.

At this initial appointment, our personnel will go through a checklist called the “Home Health Aide Care Plan.” This document helps us to assess what specific needs are present, the required level of care to meet those needs, and will also help us in the client – caregiver matching process (more on this later). The Home Health Aide Care Plan provides information on allergies, diagnoses, medical history, prescriptions, and specialized diets. It discusses in greater detail whether help is required with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), such as toileting, dressing, meal preparation, and mobility. There is also a section on psychosocial characteristics, as well as assistive devices like wheelchairs, slide boards, gait belts, ostomy equipment, hearing aids, and more. In short, the Care Plan is a comprehensive document to help PAN structure a personalized plan for a specific individual.

Step 2: Does your family need Geriatric Care Management, Special Needs Care, or general In Home Care Services?

When most people think of in home care, they probably think of elderly clients needing assistance with daily tasks. While this is generally an accurate portrayal, there are many other situations in which a family would benefit from home care services. As mentioned above, we use the Home Health Aide Care Plan (as well as input from family members) to inform the type of care required. Here is a brief look at the different services we offer: 

• Special Needs Care: Individuals with emotional, cognitive, or physical impairments that may prevent full autonomy in day-to-day life are a great fit for our Special Needs Care services. One example would be an adult child whose parents have since passed away, and they now require help with travel to appointments, follow through on doctor’s orders, or assistance with ADLs. We have experience working with multiple conditions and abilities. You can read more about our Special Needs Care here.

• Geriatric Care Management: Our Registered Nurse Geriatric Care Managers are uniquely qualified to help your family handle total medical coordination, transition into or out of a nursing facility, client advocacy, crisis intervention, and other situations that arise as our parents and relatives grow older. We think of ourselves as “Your Daughter for Hire.℠”

• In Home Care: In Home Care services are a generalized, catch-all term that includes basically any activity or task that a person needs assistance with. They might include meal preparation, companionship, transportation to appointments, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and more. Our staff can provide round-the-clock care, or only come for a set number of hours each day or week. Almost all of our CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants) and HHAs (Home Health Aides) work on private duty cases, meaning that clients and caregivers become very familiar with each other.

On that note, let’s take a look at who our caregivers are, how we hire them, and a little bit about our matching process.

Step 3: How Pennsylvania Agency of Nurses hires caregivers for home care services…and matches them to clients.

Caring for someone effectively requires a certain level of competency, compassion, training, familiarity, and personality matching. At PAN, we aim to hire caregivers that meet all of these qualities, and we pride ourselves on our thorough hiring process. We are unique from other Pennsylvania in home care companies in that we employ our caretakers, rather than subcontract the work. (Learn more about the difference here.) All of our caregivers…

• Have the credentials required to be a CNA, HHA, LPN, or RN
• Have passed the State Board exam or a Nursing Assistant Skills Assessment Exam
• Are approved by the Department of Homeland Security to work in the U.S.
• Have multiple positive, verified references
• Have participated in a thorough face-to-face interview and orientation
• Receive monthly training to continue their professional education

Once a person is hired with PAN, we combine the information we receive during the initial assessment with our knowledge of our employees to find a great match between client and caregiver. Factors like personality, required skill level, and compatibility are all considered. Each case between a client and caregiver has Registered Nurse supervision, and multiple opportunities exist for feedback. Nowhere else will a family receive such a personalized experience when finding someone to care for a loved one.

PAN has been serving Philadelphia families for over 30 years.

Pennsylvania Agency of Nurses takes a lot of pride in our process and the services we provide to loved ones. From our initial visit, to matching clients and providing in home care, Geriatric Care Management, and Special Needs care, we aim to help families who need assistance. Visit our Customer Testimonials to see what others have thought! PAN provides in home care to families in the greater Philadelphia area, to include Montgomery and Delaware counties. To see the list of neighborhoods we serve, please click here.   

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