173-3-06.4 Homemaker service.

(A) Definitions:

(1) “Homemaker service” means a service that provides routine tasks to help a consumer to achieve and maintain a clean, safe, and healthy environment. Examples of components of a homemaker service are:

(a) Routine meal-related tasks: Planning a meal, preparing a meal, and planning a grocery purchase;

(b) Routine household tasks: Dusting furniture, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping floors, removing trash, and washing the inside of windows that are reachable from the floor, kitchen care (washing dishes, appliances, and counters), bedroom and bathroom care (changing bed linens and emptying and cleaning bedside commodes), and laundry care (folding, ironing, and putting the laundry away); and,

(c) Routine transportation tasks: Performing an errand outside of the presence of the consumer (e.g., picking up a prescription), grocery shopping assistance, or transportation assistance, but not a transportation service under rule 173-3- 06.6 of the Administrative Code.

(2) “Aide” means the person who performs the activities of a homemaker service.

(B) Minimum requirements for a homemaker service by an agency provider:

(1) In general:

(a) In home: The provider shall only perform a homemaker service in the consumer’s home, with the exception of routine transportation tasks.

(b) Availability: The provider shall maintain the capacity to provide a homemaker service at least five days per week and possess a back-up plan for providing the service when the provider has no aide available.

(c) Records: For each service performed, the provider shall document the consumer’s name; service date, arrival time, and departure time; service description; service units; name of each aide in contact with the consumer; provider’s signature; and consumer’s signature.

(2) Aide qualifications: The provider may only allow an aide to provide the service if the provider has documentation that the aide successfully completed at least twenty hours of training on the following topics that included successful passage of written testing and skill testing by return demonstration:

(a) Communications skills, including the ability to read, write, and make brief and accurate oral/written reports;

(b) Universal precautions for infection control, including hand washing and the disposal of bodily waste;

(d) Recognition of emergencies, knowledge of emergency procedures, and basic home safety; and,

(e) Documentation skills.

(3) Employee manual: The provider shall maintain, comply with, and make available upon request a written manual of its policies and procedures that, at a minimum, shall addresses:

(a) The procedure for reporting and documenting an incident;

(b) The need to obtain the consumer’s written permission before releasing information concerning the consumer to anyone;

(d) Personnel matters, including job descriptions, qualifications to provide the service, performance appraisals, documentation of orientation training, and an employee code of ethics.

(4) Aide training:

(a) Orientation training: Before allowing an employee to have direct, face-to-face contact with a consumer, the provider shall provide orientation training to the aides or other employee that, at a minimum, addresses the expectations of employees, the employee code of ethics, an overview of the provider’s personnel policies, incident reporting procedures, the agency’s organization and lines of communication, and emergency procedures.

(b) Continuing education: The provider shall maintain evidence that each aide successfully completes eight hours of continuing education every twelve months, excluding agency orientation and program-specific orientation.

(5) Aide supervision:

(a) The provider shall employ at least one aide supervisor who:

(i) Is an RN;

(ii) Is an LPN who works under the supervision of a RN;

(iii) Has successfully completed a baccalaureate or associate degree in a health and human services field; or,

(iv) Has completed at least two years of work as an aide.

(b) Before allowing an aide to begin providing a homemaker service to an individual consumer, the aide supervisor shall visit the consumer’s home to define the expected activities of the aide and prepare a written care plan for consumer. The visit may occur at the aide’s initial visit to the consumer.

(c) After the aide provides subsequent homemaker services to the individual consumer, the aide supervisor shall evaluate compliance with the care plan, the consumer’s satisfaction, and the aide’s performance by conducting a visit to the consumer at least once every ninety-three days and documenting this evaluation. The supervisor may do this without the presence of the aide being evaluated. In the documentation, the supervisor shall include the date of the visit, supervisor’s name, the consumer’s name, the consumer’s signature, and supervisor’s signature.

(1) Availability: The provider shall maintain the capacity to provide a homemaker service at least five days per week and possess a back-up plan for providing the service when he/she is unavailable.

(2) Records: The provider shall document each episode of a homemaker service, including the date of service, the time of arrival, the time of departure, a description of the tasks performed, his/her signature, and the consumer’s signature.

(D) Minimum requirements for a homemaker service by a consumer-directed individual provider:

(1) Availability: The provider shall maintain the capacity to provide a homemaker service at least five days per week and possess a back-up plan for providing the service when he/she is unavailable.

(E) Unit of service: A unit of homemaker service is one hour of homemaker service.

Effective: 02/15/2009

R.C. 119.032 review dates: 08/31/2013

Promulgated Under: 119.03

Statutory Authority: 173.02; 173.04; 173.392; Section 305 (a)(1)(C) of the Older Americans Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 210, 42 U.S.C. 3001, as amended in 2006; 45 C.F.R. 1321.11

Rule Amplifies: 173.04; 173.392; Section 321 of the Older Americans Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 210, 42 U.S.C. 3001, as amended in 2006