MEDICAL CARE SUPPORT AT HOME

This is the case study of the home healthcare services provided to one Mrs. Nidhi Suri, a resident of Malviya Nagar location in South Delhi. Mrs. Nidhi Suri needed a home healthcare service for her mother. Her mother was bedridden. She had bed sores in the hip area when she contacted us for home care support for her elderly mother. She also had a few sores on her legs. We assess the condition of the mother of Mrs. Nidhi Suri.

We suggested a 24 hours female caregiver support for her mother. But, she was keen to keep someone for 9 or 10 hours in the day shift. She didn’t have much budget to spend on the home care services of her mother. We provided a caregiver instead of a nurse. We suggested a nurse to her, but she denied keeping one. She preferred a caregiver only. The caregiver sent by Medical Care Support at Home team started her duty. She started performing her job and responsibilities assigned to her. These included as follows:

• Taking care of the toiletries and bathing
• Assisting the elderly in the movements like getting up, walking etc
• Take care of the meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) as prescribed
• Taking care of the oral medication management as prescribed
• Taking care of the cleaning & hygiene task for the elderly

Mrs. Nidhi Suri started involving a caregiver in household and kitchen tasks. These tasks are not clearly part of the caregiver’s job and responsibilities. Yet, the caregiver helped the family initially. This increased the family’s expectation for more effort from the caregiver in household chores. These were also to the elder care tasks assigned to her. Slowly this extra household task hampers the caregiver duties towards the elderly mother of Mrs. Nidhi suri.

During a routine check-in about the home care service, the staff coordinator learned that Mrs. Nidhi Suri had assigned an extra task related to her household chores to our general duty attendant on duty. We then requested that Mrs. Nidhi Suri allow the caregiver to focus on her primary duties, which involve providing care to her mother. Assigning extra household tasks to the caregiver falls outside the attendant’s core responsibilities. After this discussion, Mrs. Nidhi Suri began to blame the caregiver for various unverified reasons.

Afterward, upon sharing the final service invoice with Mrs. Nidhi Suri, she began to raise objections in a clear effort to avoid the payment. Mrs. Suri made several complaints about the attendant; nevertheless, these allegations remained unsubstantiated when we requested evidence. We strongly disapprove of such behavior, as it disregards professional services and undermines the rightful compensation of dedicated caregivers. These individuals often leave their own parents to give essential care for the elderly.