Coordinating Multiple Care Providers

Coordinating Multiple Care Providers

It is not uncommon for multiple home care providers to be involved in providing a complete service plan for one individual. Typical reasons for multiple home care providers:

• Supplementing government care with private care.
• Supplementing the 1st private home care service with a 2nd private home care service.

• Government home care is unable to provide some supports including light housekeeping, pet care, escorts or errands out. Private care providers can fill these gaps.
• Government provides a population level service; they have more caregivers across all areas of Vancouver Island and are usually the best positioned to provide services in remote areas and do not charge added travel time.
• Private care can be more limited in the times, durations and frequency they can provide or service in remote locations may have additional costs.
• Using two providers who have different scopes of service adds complexity and impacts continuity of care with two teams of caregivers.
• Private Care Providers can only communicate with Government home care to notify them of events that impact the services they provide. Those communications are typically changes to the scheduled service or late caregivers on either side.
• Government care follows strict confidentiality and privacy practices and primarily communicates with the legal representatives for the individual in question.

• The use of two Private care providers usually happens when the 1st care provider cannot provide the entire care coverage needed as the client’s needs change.
• For the family or individual coordinating service, using two private care providers adds more people to communicate with and coordinate. If they each have different policies or scopes of service that adds to the complexity.
• Private care providers will each have their own documentation that is not shared.
• Keep the visit times and expected duties separate to avoid confusion and misunderstandings. Better for one provider doing all morning visits while the other does all evenings rather than a mishmash.
• You may find that the 2nd private care provider can provide the entire service. Using one provider is always a better option for Care continuity and it may be preferable to switch to the 2nd provider entirely once there is familiarity and trust.
• Nurse-supervised care providers have a very different scope of service; use the right provider from the outset.