Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aid
Why Hire CNA’s
Atlas Home Health employs compassionate and competent certified nursing assistants (CNAs), also called home health aides, to supplement skilled nursing and therapy services. CNAs help you to perform fundamental tasks of daily living, such as bathing and grooming, light housework, and mobility assistance. The services that CNAs provide can allow you to remain safe and comfortable in your home.
Often times, CNA services are ordered in combination with skilled nursing and/or therapy services. For home health aide services to be covered under the Medicare home health benefit, the services must be reasonable and necessary to the treatment of the patient’s illness or injury, provided on a part-time or intermittent basis (not full time or for extended periods of time per day), and meet the definitions of home health aide services: personal cares, simple and non-skilled dressing changes, non-skilled assistance with medications, and non-skilled assistance with therapy activates (non-skilled means assistance can be provided safely by someone other than a licensed nurse or therapist).
Certified Nursing Assistant services are given by licensed and educated CNAs. If you receive care from a CNA, they will be supervised by a licensed, skilled nurse. This supervising nurse will make your very first home health visit to assess your overall health and work with you to determine a plan of care. The CNA will then begin making regularly scheduled visits to give you that care. You will be contacted and/or visited by the supervising nurse about the care you are receiving on a regular basis. Doctor’s orders are needed to start care.
Our certified nursing assistants will:
- Help you to perform fundamental activities of daily living.
- Assist you with moving from one place to another within your home.
- Allow you to live at home safely and comfortably.
What a Typical Visit Looks Like
A typical home health visit from a Certified Nursing Assistant may include:
- Checking your vital signs.
- Helping you with bathing, dressing, grooming and/or oral care.
- Assisting you with moving or transferring within your home.
- Helping you with elimination and perineal care.
- Performing light housework such as cleaning, meal preparation, laundry, and grocery shopping.
- Reminding you to take your medications.
- Basic exercises, as assigned by a nurse or therapist, to increase your range of motion.
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Technical Terms & Rules
The following are technical terms and Colorado and Medicare rules for Home Health Certified Nursing Assistants/Home Health Aides:
- Certified nursing assistant care will be provided in accordance with the patient’s plan of care, under the supervision of a registered nurse and as permitted by Colorado Nurse Aides Practice Act (Colorado Revised Statutes, Title 12, Article 38.1).
- A3-3119.2, HHA-206.2: Personal care means:
- Bathing, dressing, grooming, caring for hair, nail, and oral hygiene which are needed to facilitate treatment or to prevent deterioration of the patient’s health, changing the bed linens of an incontinent patient, shaving, deodorant application, skin care with lotions and/or powder, foot care, and ear care; and
- Feeding, assistance with elimination (including enemas unless the skills of a licensed nurse are required due to the patient’s condition, routine catheter care and routine colostomy care),