Caregivers must understand how hospitals and doctors’ offices function, medical terminology, how to interpret test results, and who’s who on the healthcare team if they hope to successfully achieve the desired services. In addition, you may want to hire someone to help you with your caregiving duties in the home. If you do, you become an employer and are subject to Hiring laws.
I attempt to cover the laws and regulations that caregivers encounter the most, providing links to additional resource information as appropriate to the topic.
Furthermore, rules and regulations are detailed and restrictive. Unless you know what to and not to do, it is easy to run afoul of their rules. The world of healthcare is a dangerous place for family caregivers and your family member if you are not well-versed in knowing how to be a patient advocate. When …
Standards of Practice Whether receiving care from a small-town hospital or a nationally owned health system, government agencies maintain strict oversight of the healthcare industry and all associated organizations. Likewise, each healthcare profession maintains standards of practice by which they expect healthcare professionals practicing under their job titles to follow. While each state may vary, …
The Healthcare Team It’s important to know who’s who on the healthcare team anytime you’re interacting with healthcare professionals. Understanding the chain of authority and who handles which type of problems can save you a lot of time and wasted energy. In addition, if you attempt to move forward on an issue without this knowledge, …
Monitoring Your Metabolism Metabolism is how we convert food into energy and use that energy to make the body function properly. That process is essentially a chemical one and occurs through a series of organs doing their part to mechanically break down the food and chemically decompose it into energy. If our organs don’t work …
CBC – Complete Blood Count A Complete Blood Count (CBC) is one of the most common tests ordered. The test’s purpose is to check the count of all the cells in your blood and identify how many are present. A CBC includes a count of the red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, hemoglobin, …
The Importance of Understanding Lab Values Why is understanding lab values an important skill for a caregiver? After all, the doctor reads the lab work and tracks what is going on with your family member. Why not trust them to handle that part of the care alone? Advantages of Knowing Lab Values Understanding lab work …
Adapting to Caregiving requires a Knowledge of Healthcare Operations Although knowing legal rights is important, understanding medical terminology and how hospitals function is critical when navigating anything related to healthcare. Entering the world of healthcare is like entering a foreign country. Health care workers speak their own language. Their hierarchy of leadership and …
