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 Why Visiting Angels?
If I were looking for home care services, I would want to know a few key factors when speaking with any company:
- Is non medical home care right for my situation
- What
makes Visiting Angels any different than any other
home care company?
There sincerely is a difference in non-medical
home care companies. We would like
to offer you a few points that can help
you in evaluating the home care industry
and how to determine the important factors
that you will want to be aware of prior
to making a homecare decision. What most folks think should be mandated or standards of law, simply don't exist in SC. BE CAREFUL! Consider
the following...
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Local Ownership / National Presence |
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Local ownership is very important in that the accountability of day to day operations exists within the office that is servicing your loved one. While this is important, it is equally important to know that there is a national presence to the company that is part of the care team. Why? Good question...
Did you know that in SC there is literally no license for non-medical homecare? SHOCKING to say the least! So what does that mean to you?
That means that ANYONE can open
a non-medical home care company
and no one is there to provide
regulatory compliance on how that
industry operates within the state.
For this reason, regulatory compliance
must come from an internal source.
That internal source for our company
is Visiting Angels corporate structure.
Nationally, Visiting Angels global
policies and procedures are as
strict as the strictest state.
This means that you can rest assured
that there is a known blue print
of how to service clients needs
successfully that has been tested
nationwide for years with thousands
of clients!
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Drug Screening |
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One of the more important issues that everyone seems to take for granted is drug screening. While most companies state that they have the option to drug screen, only Visiting Angels drug screens all caregivers prior to being hired and then consistently thereafter every 3-6 months to help ensure your safety. While this is not required, it sure is evidence that Visiting Angels goes above and beyond to trust but verify.
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Background Checks |
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"Background checks" are standard in the home care industry. What is not standard is going a step beyond. A simple "SLED" (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) background check only shows convictions in South Carolina. Since the Greenville metro area is so close to North Carolina and Georgia, it wouldn't take a great deal of effort for a criminal to move a few miles across the border into Greenville and magically appear to have no record at all. For this reason, we perform an extremely comprehensive background check consisting of a national background check, state level background check and more. Our background checking is so advanced that it finds where an individual has lived for the past 7 years and does a county criminal check at each county in that 7 year span! Amazingly detailed reporting helps us to verify not only that the individual has a clean criminal background, but also where that individual has lived. I would not settle for a simple SLED check if given the option.
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Select Your Caregiver |
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When you decide that Visiting Angels is a good fit for your families needs, how do you go about matching a caregiver with your loved one? We know that a good caregiver is one of the cornerstones to a successful care relationship. For that reason, we do the following:
- We would like to come to meet with you and explore
services and understand exactly what we can do to help. This is called a complimentary assessment.
- Once we have an understanding of your situation and how we can help, we do everything in our power to make a perfect match with a caregiver of like mind, spirit, experience, personality, etc.
- You can then meet the caregiver and ask them any question you would like to better know that caregiver. After the meeting we would discuss your thoughts and see if the caregiver appears to be a suitable fit for you.
- Once we find the perfect caregiver for you, we can start care with your blessing and on your schedule.
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Caregiver Screening |
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When interviewing a caregiver, Visiting Angels believes that to do a thorough job we must approach that individual from several different angles. To be as thorough as possible we do the following:
- Interview 1 - The potential caregiver is interviewed by the Scheduling Coordinator
- Computer Test - The potential caregiver is screened with a computer based test and compared to what has been seen as an "ideal caregiver profile". Caregivers are checked for propensity for Good Impression, Hostility, Conscientiousness, Integrity, Substance Abuse, Sexual Harassment and Misuse. While we certainly do not rely on the computer models exclusively, this is another piece of the puzzle to help safeguard your security.
- Interview 2 - The potential caregiver is then interviewed by the Director of Visiting Angels
- Skills Assessment - After the caregivers tell us how much they know about being a caregiver, we test their skills by asking them to show us what they know in our training room.
- Drug Screen - Amazingly enough, most non-medical homecare companies do not drug screen their caregivers. Visiting Angels drug screens every caregiver prior to their being hired and then again every 3 to 6 months to help ensure your safety!
- Background Checks - Please see above for background checks.
- Reference Checks - All references are checked to help validate a caregivers experience from an independent source. We look for 3 positive verifiable references that can give us more than just dates of employment and rehire status.
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Employee Training |
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If you do not train your caregivers for excellence, then it's unfair to expect excellence. If you do not expect excellence, then how can you be deliver excellence. That fundamental philosophy is a core pillar at VIsiting Angels. For this reason, we have monthly training sessions for our caregivers to hone their skills, protect themselves and protect you! Hiring "experienced caregivers" is not the same as training experienced caregivers.
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Administrative Visits |
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While we trust that our caregivers
are doing a fine job, we want
to confirm that through unannounced "Administrative
Visits". During the course
of these visits we check for the
health and well-being of our care
recipients, the appropriateness
of the level of care provided
and how our caregiver is performing
under those conditions. You are
trusting us to provide high quality
care and we want to meet and exceed
those expectations.
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Bonding and Insurance |
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All caregivers are bonded and insured. That being said, what does that mean? Bonding covers what is know as employee dishonesty (theft). Insurance covers general liability above and beyond bonding. It's important to Visiting Angels that if an event happens that requires either of these safety nets, that you are covered.
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Employees
vs. Independent Contractors |
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There is a tremendous difference
between the relationship of an
agency with either an employee
or an independent contractor.
Employees are subject to enforcement
of company stated Policy and Procedures,
dress codes, drug screening, background
checking, scheduling, tax liabilities,
workers compensation, etc. Independent
contractors are not covered by
Workers Compensation, tax liabilities
and cannot be required to follow
an agency set schedule (your schedule)
while performing tasks a specific
way. Federal law makes this distinction
very clear. For this purpose,
it is in your best interest and
ours that ALL caregivers have
a status of "employee" and
not "independent contractor".
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Phone Alert System |
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How do you know that someone
is at work when they are supposed
to be at work? Visiting Angels
has a phone clock in and out system.
The caregivers are required to
clock in and out from your home
phone. We are aware of exactly
when a caregiver arrives by that
phone call. If the caregiver has
not arrived within 10 minutes
of a scheduled shift, all Visiting
Angels administrative personnel
are alerted by email, text message
and paging so that proactive measures
can be taken to ensure that a
visit is not missed.
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As you can see, there really is a difference! Collectively, all of these measures allows Visiting Angels to provide superior levels of care. Your satisfaction, health and safety are our top priority.
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