Clients often contact our offices seeking an in-home caregiver for a short visit. Often those who call seeking private care don’t believe they need assistance for more than a few hours or require assistance only with bathing or other short tasks. Abby Services has always strived to meet the needs of all the clients we serve. At one point this included working hard to make these short visits happen, here is why we stopped:
- Short visits cost more: At Abby Services, we pride ourselves on being one of the most cost-efficient options for Private Caregivers in Fort Myers. Unfortunately, short visits cost more. When offered, a 1-hour visit would cost $50 or more. We found that patients would be insulted that a 1-hour visit would cost that much. To be honest we don’t blame them.
- Caregivers don’t like short visits: We found that even when charging more, private caregivers still did not want to assist clients with short visit requests. When we would find a caregiver to assist with a short visit inevitably they would inevitably ask to be replaced when other opportunities presented themselves. This led to high caregiver turnover. The private caregivers we work with weren’t happy, the clients we worked with weren’t happy, and that made Abby Services unhappy.
- Often more help is needed: We found that many clients requesting these short visits truly required more in-home assistance than they were requesting. A client asking only for bathing assistance would often need additional assistance with meal preparation, light housekeeping, dressing, laundry, or other general tasks required to remain independent.
So how can we help clients seeking short in-home care visits?
Abby Services has been in business for over 21 years in the greater Fort Myers/ Cape Coral area. Through our years of experience, we have found that 4 hours of caregiver service is the magic number. At this level, we are able to find professional private in-home caregivers who can consistently and reliably provide care. We encourage clients to consider what other caregiver activities they could take advantage of to justify the time. Often assistance with laundry and bed linens are an easy way to justify the additional time.
For clients who still insist on receiving less than 4 hours of care, we encourage them to consider this a per visit service vs a per hour service. For example, at $21/hour, a 4-hour visit would be $84/ visit. Therefore a client could consider the cost to be $84 for up to 4 hours of a caregivers service.
Whatever your private caregiver needs we are happy to help discuss your options. It is absolutely free to request an in-home consultation with our RN. Call today! 239-590-0861