Growing trend of Home health services across America

Global healthcare is undergoing a dramatic and revolutionary change in present times to deliver a more effective and proficient care with the shift being considered as the new normal for the healthcare sector. This continuum of care sector driven by integration and technology is enabling the people to become more connected, raising their awareness and enabling them to understand healthcare sector intrinsically.

Home health services that were just a fragment of the vast healthcare sector a few years back have emerged to be an important part of it with an upward plunge in recent times with an increased focus on value based caring in comparison to volume based care.

Home Health Services refer to

The basis of Home Health Services lie in the humane inherent qualities that lie dormant within one and enforces them to come a little closer to becoming a child, a partner, a companion to someone.

Patients require compassion and skilled care while recuperating from a severe illness or traumatic injury and their chances of recovering become faster if they receive those specialized services in surroundings which are comfortable for them. What more could a patient want than staying at home and also benefiting from quality and comprehensive treatment program especially designed for them laced with a skilled professional caregiver aka companion.

Insistent drive towards Home Health Services

Though Home health is at crossroads in America, it has somehow managed to gain momentum and significance and is the most understood service in US today. Reasons why people are being lured towards this sector are varied and are taking the healthcare sector by force.

Ageing Citizens: The ageing citizens require compassionate care underlined with skilled deliverance, the prima reason why home health has picked up pace. According to the Statistics Report of U.S. Census Bureau population aged above 65 years was 40,267,984 in the year 2010. It is further expected to rise to 55,969,000 in the year 2020 to 72,774,000 in the year 2030 will further enhance the need for home health services.

Chronic Diseases: Patients recovering from chronic disease require skilled care that does not trigger off mental disorders. Thus steps in the home based care sector which takes care of all the needs of such patients. According to RAND people affected with chronic diseases are expected to raise almost 1% every year until 2030 that would substantiate to 37% or rather an increase of 46 million people which will further shift the home health graphs to an upward trend.

Increased threat of Post Hospital Syndrome: As presented by Dr. Harlan Krumholz in the New England Journal of Medicine, it was evidently stressed that hospital environment creates anxiety in patients and makes them more vulnerable to developing psychological stress that in the long run is hazardous for their health. This syndrome has emerged as a potential indicator of the shift to home based services.

Preferentially stressed by Patients : Focus on quality and value based care has given a new dimension to patients where they can be treated within their comfortable zone. According to AARP, citizens falling in the age group of 54-65 with disabilities prefer to stay at home and be cared for. Even patients with 24 hour care requirement prefer to be taken care of within their homes rather than nursing homes.

Growing Trends :

Home health care service that took shape in the USA in the 1880’s has grown ever since to become one of the most sought after industry and fastest growing segment in the Healthcare Sector presently. The number of agencies providing home health care in the United States grew from 8,314 in 2005 to 12,613 in 2013 and as per reports at present there are almost 12,057 Medicare-certified home health agencies and 23,405 other home care companies in the United States.

It is being presumed according to surveys that medical professionals with critical expertise to deliver home services will be in much demand over the coming years increasing the value stressed care and its preference by patients, its cost effectiveness and high quality therapeutics. Though home health services accounts to only 3% of the healthcare industry, the annual growth in Home health services is estimated to be 9%.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that the growth rate in home healthcare services would further observe a growth of 5% from 2014-2024 which would account to almost 760,400 new jobs.

UHC Staffing, one of the leading healthcare staffing agencies in the USA foresees tremendous growth in the home healthcare services and believes that with just a few modifications in the implementation of existing strategies and understanding the relevance of home health services in accordance with value rather than volume, revision of existing system that has certain loop holes regarding medical benefits and payments, home health services is likely to become the most unparalleled sector of health care in the coming times.