As a result of these difficult economic times, many families are turning to hiring their own private caregivers in hopes of saving some money. In many cases, this may work out just fine – however, there are pitfalls that should certainly be considered. Our list below is meant to raise the awareness of all that goes into providing care to elder clients by a professional home care organization.

The advantages to hiring a professional home care company like, Barton Home Care, for your elder care is as follows:

1. We hand-pick our caregivers after careful scrutiny of their background, talents, personality, compassion and desire to make a difference.
2. We choose only those who have demonstrated their caring capabilities through helping someone in their family or from having a professional care background.
3. Everyone goes through a thorough background check including validation of their social security number, address check, criminal background check and screening of their motor vehicle record.
4. All employees are bonded and insured.
5. Employees sign off on an extensive Policy and Procedures document as well as an Employee Agreement. Nothing is left to interpretation.
6. Every employee goes through an Orientation session to ensure they know our expectations and requirements for providing superlative care.
7. All employees are required to access our training site which covers the spectrum of challenges facing our elder clients as well as the fundamentals of providing extraordinary care.
8. As a company, we carry general and professional liability insurance exceeding the requirements of the State of Colorado license law.
9. All employees are covered by Workman’s Comp insurance so if they are injured on the job – it is not the concern of the client. We take care of the problem.
10. All employees are supervised so if there ever is an issue, our client’s do not have to confront the employee – we handle the issues … and we have very few.
11. Our caregivers keep us constantly updated with the status of our clients. We, in turn, keep the family up-to-date on how things are going.
12. Compatibility is key – we ensure that the client caregiver match is as good as it can be.
13. If an employee gets sick or has personal problems, we will arrange for substitute care if desired.
14. Since we do employ, our clients are not faced with payroll tax issues including completing a 1099 at the year’s end and the potential for the IRS to consider their caregiver contractor as an employee requiring back payment of withholding taxes.
15. As with all home care companies in this area, we are to be subject to regulation by the State of Colorado. Independent, private caregivers have no overseeing authority.
16. Ours is a completely managed process. Our (almost) eight year track record is proof positive that our approach makes the most sense to those families needing elder care.

So, one can conclude that there is much to consider when exploring care for an elder in their home. The cost differential between a private caregiver and employing a professional home care company should not be the only consideration.

Tom Barton

Barton Home Care