Home Health & Hospice Week

Home care professionals know that patients overwhelmingly prefer home care, and now they have statistics to back up that knowledge. In a Harris Interactive poll commissioned by Amedisys Inc., nearly 75 percent of Americans polled would prefer having a terminally ill family member taken care of at home with the care of a trained health aide, rather than in a traditional nursing home or other care facility, the Baton Rouge, La.-based national chain says in a release. And when considering care for an elderly family member recuperating from surgery, more than half (51 percent) would prefer home health care over any other facility, found the poll, which Amedisys conducted in conjunction with National Home Care and Hospice Month.

The results were even more compelling when respondents considered home care for themselves, the survey showed. About 65 percent of respondents would prefer home care for themselves while recuperating from surgery, while 75 percent would prefer it for themselves if they were in the final stage of a terminal illness, according to the poll that surveyed 1,006 people.