Should Home Nursing Be Required To Have More Oversight?

Introduction

Home nursing is a type of health care service that provides skilled nursing care to patients in their homes, usually after hospital discharge or for chronic conditions.
Home nursing can offer many benefits to patients and their families, such as convenience, comfort, continuity, and cost-effectiveness.
However, home nursing can also pose many challenges and risks, such as lack of supervision, coordination, and regulation, as well as potential for abuse, neglect, and fraud.
The purpose of this article is to examine the pros and cons of home nursing and to discuss whether home nursing should be required to have more oversight to ensure the safety and quality of care for patients.

Home nursing can provide several advantages to patients and their families, such as:
- Convenience: Home nursing can allow patients to receive care in their familiar and preferred environment, without the hassle and stress of traveling to a healthcare facility.
- Comfort: Home nursing can enable patients to maintain their privacy, dignity, and independence, as well as to receive personalized and holistic care that meets their physical, emotional, and social needs.
- Continuity: Home nursing can foster a consistent and trusting relationship between patients and their nurses, as well as to facilitate communication and collaboration among the health care team, the patient, and the family.
- Cost-effectiveness: Home nursing can reduce the costs of health care for patients and the health system, by avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations, readmissions, and complications, and by utilizing the existing resources and support of the patient’s home and community.

Home nursing can also present several challenges and risks to patients and their families, such as:
- Lack of supervision: Home nursing can expose patients to the possibility of receiving substandard or inappropriate care, due to the limited oversight and accountability of the home nursing agencies and staff, as well as the variability and complexity of the home care settings.
- Lack of coordination: Home nursing can result in fragmentation and duplication of care, due to the lack of integration and information sharing among the multiple providers and services involved in the patient’s care, as well as the lack of clear roles and responsibilities of the home nursing staff.
- Lack of regulation: Home nursing can create gaps and inconsistencies in the quality and safety of care, due to the lack of uniform and enforceable standards and regulations for home nursing at the federal and state levels, as well as the lack of adequate monitoring and evaluation of the home nursing outcomes and performance.
- Potential for abuse, neglect, and fraud: Home nursing can expose patients to the risk of being harmed or exploited by the home nursing staff, who may have access to the patient’s personal and financial information, as well as to the patient’s medications and valuables. Home nursing staff may also commit fraud by billing for services not rendered, inflating the charges, or falsifying the records.

The pros and cons of home nursing suggest that there is a need for more oversight to ensure the safety and quality of care for patients.
More oversight can be achieved by implementing the following measures:
- Strengthening the supervision and accountability of the home nursing agencies and staff, by requiring them to undergo regular inspections, audits, and evaluations, and by imposing sanctions and penalties for non-compliance or misconduct.
- Improving the coordination and integration of the home nursing services, by establishing a centralized and standardized system for referral, assessment, care planning, and documentation, and by promoting the use of electronic health records and telehealth technologies.
- Enhancing the regulation and standardization of the home nursing practice, by developing and enforcing national and state guidelines and criteria for home nursing eligibility, quality, and safety, and by requiring the home nursing staff to have adequate education, training, and certification.
- Preventing and detecting abuse, neglect, and fraud in-home nursing, by conducting background checks and screening of the home nursing staff, and by implementing reporting and investigation mechanisms for complaints and incidents.

Home nursing is a valuable and beneficial healthcare service for many patients and their families, but it also poses significant challenges and risks that require more oversight to protect the patient’s rights and interests.
More oversight can be achieved by strengthening the supervision, coordination, regulation, and prevention of home nursing, which can ultimately improve the safety and quality of care for patients.