How to find nurses for Private Duty Nursing (Night Nursing)...In Utah at least

So, Medicaid has approved Private Duty Nursing (Night Nursing)...NOW WHAT?

Or Maybe...your current Home Health company is unable to provide 100% coverage for your Private Duty Nursing...NOW WHAT?

Medicaid does not have preferred providers for PDN (Private Duty Nursing).  Any agency who is willing to accept the small amount medicaid is willing to pay, is fine with medicaid.

Here is what I am currently doing to find better coverage (I was previously only getting about 3 nights per week covered).  I googled home health agencies in Ogden.  I wrote down their phone number and address.  A few months ago I tried calling each of them.  It was a lengthy process.  And did not yield any success. 

Medicaid told me that you just have to call each of the agencies each month and see if anyone has openings because nursing staffing can change month to month.

This time around I decided to take a different approach...I wrote a letter listing out all of the information I knew they would want to know and asked them to contact me if they were interested in providing services.  I mailed it out to all of the local agencies.

As a side note...my particular Medicaid (Healthy U) is willing to do a split authorization due to the nursing shortage.  This means that 2 agencies would provide services.  So for example...one agency could provide night nurses Mon-Wed and another agency could provide nurses Thurs-Sun.  Or whatever configuration works out.  Agencies do not love doing this and some are not willing to do it at all...but some will.

****************************

Here are the agencies in my local Ogden UT Area (at least that came up on Google)

Ivy Lane Pediatrics

115 Historic 25^th St #2

Ogden UT 84401

801-774-9698

Canyon Home Care and Hospice

450 S. 900 E. #100

SLC UT 84102

801-485-6166

 Encompass Home Health and Hospice

5478 Adams Ave Pkwy

Ogden, UT 84405

801-392-8880

 Horizon Home Health

72 W. Gentile

Layton UT 84041

801-294-8600

Harmony

5650 S. Green St.

Murray UT 84123

801-264-8000

Bright Star

5320 S. 900 E. #280

SLC UT 84117

801-559-3999

Salus

7001 900 E. # 300

Midvale UT 84047

801-352-7358

 Right at Home

1496 E. 5600 S. Unit 6

South Ogden UT 84403

801-479-7026

********************************
Here is the letter I sent to each company, we will see how it works...

3/27/18

Dear Home Health Company,

I am looking for new Night-time Private Duty Nursing for my 16 YO daughter.  Do you meet the following criteria?

Offer pediatric PDN services?

Offer services in Ogden?

Have nurses available to meet night-time shifts/or can hire new nurses?

Willing to take payment from Medicaid Healthy U for PDN services?

If you answered yes to those 4 questions, keep reading to see if we will be a good match.

Hours

We qualify for 8 hours of night-time private duty nursing per night on the acquity grid paid for by Medicaid Healthy U

These hours can be an LPN or an RN

Sun, Mon, Tues, Fri, Sat would be 8 PM-4 AM

Wed would be 8:45 PM-4:45 AM

Thur would be 8:30 PM-4:30 AM

Hours could be tweaked slightly if nurses have different needs

Location

We live in Ogden

Client/Patient

My daughter _________ is almost _______ years old. 

She weighs 60 lbs.

Medical Needs

We do not have a lift in the home…we will within a few years…when we remodel our bathroom.

So nurses need to be capable of lifting 60 lbs.  Such as from her elevated “sleep safe” bed to her wheelchair or from the bed into the elevated bath chair.

She has a G-tube and is on continuous feeds with a feeding pump.

She gets meds by G-tube.

She would be cathed twice on the night shift.

She wears braces on arms and legs at night.

She gets multiple breathing treatments and suctioning before bed.

She uses bi-pap and oxygen during the night

Her temperature needs to be monitored due to dysautonomia.

She needs to be bathed in the shower several times per week.

She requires diapering

She gets enemas

She needs range of motion stretching done

She needs position changes to avoid pressure sores.

She is non-verbal and non-ambulatory

She cannot talk verbally, cannot sit up, cannot hold up head, cannot roll over

Preferences

I only want female nurses

Your company needs to have pediatric clients or be currently branching out into pediatric…they are completely different that geriatric.

We also have 1 small dog (Schnauzer mix)…in case nurses have allergies.

Insurance

We have_________ Insurance as Primary (they will not pay anything towards PDN)

Medicaid Healthy U is our secondary insurance.  So you need to be willing to accept the payment that Medicaid is willing to offer.

Her Medicaid number is _________________

Our PDN backstory

We have been approved for PDN since about late summer 2017.  We were using _____________Home Health (since they also provide the school nurses for my daughter).  I only ever got 3 nights per week covered with them.  They were never able to hire enough nurses to provide us with better coverage.  Ivy Lane was audited by the state and were told they needed to provide better coverage than 3 nights a week for their clients.  So Ivy Lane will be discharging us as of Apr 14, 2018 in order to give their remaining clients better coverage. 

Please contact me if you are interested in serving us.  We are also willing to do a split authorization if necessary.

Sincerely

My Name

Me cell number  (text or voice call OK…but no messages)

My email