How to Decide if a Home Care Agency is the Right Fit for Your Family

If you’ve ever been a hiring manager for a company before, you understand the importance of the interview where you ask the job candidate probing questions. This interview is essential in helping you decide if they’re a good fit for the position you’re hiring for. Finding the right home care agency is similar to the corporate selection process in some respects. After you narrow down the agencies to a select few, or you are referred to one specifically, you ask them a series of questions to determine if they will be the best fit for your family. To help you make the correct decision when hiring a home care agency, here are six questions you can ask the agency and the preferred response to each question.

Question: How do you select your caregivers?

Preferred response

After several interviews to determine if a caregiver meets their selection standards of having exceptional aptitude and attitude for the position, the agency should complete a thorough background check, including past employers, references, and certifications the caregiver has or should have.

Question: How do you train your caregivers?

Preferred response

Once a caregiver is hired, the agency should have an orientation program to familiarize the new caregiver with the agency’s expectations of how care will be delivered to clients.

After orientation, caregivers should receive training on the specific types of care they’ll be giving (respite care, dementia care, personal care, etc.) and regular, ongoing training provided by the agency.

Question: How does your agency utilize technology to deliver cutting-edge care?

Preferred response

The agency you select should be able to monitor caregiver clock-in/clock-out times electronically and be able to confirm daily that all care items have been completed for each visit.

Additionally, a family member should be able to log onto an electronic verification system to review their loved one’s schedule for the current week or past month.

Question: How do you ensure your caregivers meet your agency’s care standards?

Preferred response

A local member of the agency’s management team should make at least a weekly Quality Assurance Call to the client or designated family member to ensure the care recipient and the family are completely satisfied with the care being delivered.

Question: How long have you been in business?

Preferred response

Ideally, the agency you select should have been in business for at least five years, so they’ve had time to build a track record you can check out, like their Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating and online customer reviews.

The management team and caregivers should also be experienced, and caregivers’ average length of time with the agency should be checked to confirm the stability of the agency and their caregiver turnover rate.

Question: What types of payment do you accept?

Preferred response

The agency should accept credit, debit cards, and checks by phone or online. In addition, they should accept payments from the Veterans Administration (VA), insurance companies, and other third-party payers.

Check out AmeriCare Plus

If your loved one needing care lives in the State of Virginia, call AmeriCare Plus. We have ten locations spread throughout the Commonwealth, and our “Team Teal” caregivers are experienced, trained, and compassionate. Over two-thirds of them have been with us for two years or longer.

Contact us today to learn more and let us know how we can serve your family.