That's why it's important to stay informed about the new services available to patients. If you work in a hospital, knowledge about new home care technologies can help you formulate discharge plans. School nurses will undoubtedly encounter children with special healthcare needs who take their assistive devices to school.
Nurse practitioners are likely to treat home care patients in ambulatory care settings.
Home care has come a long way since the first home care agencies were established in the 1880s. Since then, growth has been phenomenal. There were 18,874 home healthcare agencies and hospices in 1995, with about 60 percent of them Medicare-certified. In California, there were 14.3 million home care visits to 620,000 patients paid for by Medicare alone in 1994. 3 And strong growth of 16 to 20 percent annually is projected to continue between now and the end of the century.