What questions do you have about skilled nursing? Your mom benefits from this level of care after extensive surgery, when she’s ill, or after a stroke. Those are just a few ways skilled nurses can help out. Here are the frequently asked questions families have about skilled nursing care.
What Is Skilled Nursing?
What is skilled nursing? It’s a level of care where registered nurses come to your mom’s home to provide the care services she needs. It keeps her from having to stay in a hospital during recovery from surgery, after a stroke, or while she recovers from a virus like the flu.
Why would she want to leave the hospital? Many patients heal faster when they’re out of a noisy hospital ward. She’ll be in her bed in a comforting setting rather than a sterile room with people coming and going at all hours.
What Can Skilled Nurses Do? What Can’t They Do?
Skilled nursing care covers many medical services. Your mom could have skilled nurses available to record and report her vital signs each day. They offer wound care, IV/injections, catheter and feeding tube care, physical/occupational/speech therapies, dietary/diabetes education, etc.
Suppose your mom had a stroke. Many patients stay in a hospital for a week or so before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility. Instead, your mom’s medical team could arrange the care she needs with a team of nurses and therapists and allow your mom to go home for the next part of her recovery.
While she recovers from her stroke, she has nurses check her daily vital signs and see if the movement in her arms and legs is improving. Physical, occupational, and speech therapists come to her home to work on exercises that help her regain mobility, speech, and motor skills.
Your mom cannot ask her skilled nurses to change her sheets, do the laundry, and clean the home. If she needs help with those services, pair skilled nursing with companion care services.
Does a Doctor Need to Approve It?
You should talk to your mom’s doctor about skilled nursing services. Insurance cover may be available if the doctor says the services are essential to her care plan. It’s often limited to a few weeks of care, but it helps your mom focus on healing without worrying about medical bills.
For example, Medicare may cover up to 20 days of skilled nursing care if it’s advised by a doctor. From day 21 to day 100, partial coverage is offered. After that, your mom would pay for her skilled nursing care.
Skilled nursing services are essential when your mom is ill or recovering from a stroke, surgery, or another medical emergency. Talk to an advisor to arrange the skilled nursing care your mom needs.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Home Care Assistance in Aventura, FL please contact the caring staff at Specialized Nursing Services today. (305) 652-2799
Sources:
https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/skilled-nursing-facility-snf-care