Health And Dental Helper

What defines an excellent home care company? Is it decent rates, a helpful staff, and a simple contract? While those three things are important there are other factors that should play a bigger role when it comes to selecting an agency.

Home Health Care Virginia  is a private duty home care company serving the Northern Virginia area. Its founder, Dr. Granger Bensons, has spent ten years building it into a peerless provider in the home care field. The company exemplifies all the best qualities that a home care company should embody.  Some of the most important ones are described below.

First of all, Ready Hands is fully licensed by the Virginia Department of Health. Licensure requires compliance with numerous standards that are designed to protect consumers.  These include things like minimum levels of insurance coverage and bonding, background checks, staff credentialing standards, quality assurance activities, record-keeping requirements and more.  Licensed companies are subject to periodic unannounced audits and must submit remedial plans to correct any deficiencies or risk losing their license altogether.

Ready Hands also uses exclusively W-2 employees for which it assumes all obligations of the employer.  The company submits payroll taxes, carries workers compensation insurance, checks for legal work eligibility and supervises its caregivers.  Many companies skirt these duties, sometimes in conflict with the law, by designating their workers as 1099 independent contractors.  Such companies can offer services for two or three dollars less per hour, but at considerable increased risk to consumers.

A real test of a home care agency’s sound management and commitment to its clients is its ability to provide seamless coverage when an aide encounters a sudden emergency. Like any employee, a home care aide can get sick, face a family crisis or encounter a child care problem.  In such circumstances, Ready Hands can send a replacement aide from its pool of trained employees.  The company also has mechanisms for assuring that the replacement aide knows the client’s needs and special circumstances.

One more important thing to look for when hunting for a home care agency is the ease with which you can speak to an actual person who can respond to your questions and concerns promptly. If you notice a sudden decline in your loved one’s health, or need to change your caregiver’s schedule on an urgent basis, you don’t want to spend fifteen minutes on a phone tree or waiting on hold. At Home Care in Virginia there is no answering service or automated attendant.  You can reach a live person directly, including the owners, 24 hours a day. Call (703) 330-7740 to speak with a friendly staff member and find out more.