Skilled nursing and home health: when you need a nurse, not an aide
This is a service Serenity does not provide. This page exists to help you find someone who does.
You need a licensed nurse — not a home care aide — when the task itself requires clinical training and a physician order: wound care, injections, IV therapy, catheter or feeding tube management, or monitoring an unstable condition. A nurse assesses, performs the clinical task, documents it, and reports back to the ordering physician.
This care is delivered by a Medicare-certified home health agency, and it is typically covered by Medicare or health insurance when a doctor certifies it is medically necessary. It is ordered — you cannot simply buy it the way you can buy home care hours.
Serenity Care Partners does not provide skilled nursing. If that is what your family needs, tell us and we will connect you with a local agency that does, at no cost to you.
Serenity does not provide this
Serenity Care Partners holds an Ohio Department of Health non-medical home health agency licence (4491HHN). We do not provide skilled nursing, home health nursing, wound care, medication administration, IV therapy or any service requiring a physician order. This page is here to help you find the right provider — tell us what you need and we will connect you with a trusted local provider, at no cost.
What counts as skilled nursing
The line is not about how serious the situation feels — it is about whether the task legally requires a licensed clinician. A caregiver can remind someone to take a pill they take themselves. Only a nurse can draw up and give an injection. A caregiver can notice that a leg looks more swollen than yesterday and tell the family. Only a nurse can assess it clinically and change the plan.
Care that requires a licensed nurse:
- Wound care, dressing changes and surgical site management
- Injections, infusions and IV medication
- Catheter, ostomy and feeding tube care
- Clinical assessment and monitoring of an unstable condition
- Administering medication, as opposed to reminding someone to take it
- Teaching a family to safely perform a clinical task at home
How home health nursing is arranged
It starts with a physician. A doctor — usually a primary care physician, a hospitalist at discharge, or a specialist — writes the order and certifies that the care is medically necessary. A Medicare-certified home health agency then takes the referral, opens an episode of care, and sends a nurse to do an admission assessment at home.
If you are being discharged from a hospital or rehabilitation facility, the case manager or discharge planner arranges this before you leave, and you will usually be given a choice of agencies. That choice is yours to make, and you are allowed to ask questions about it rather than accepting the first name on the list.
If you are already home and the need appears later, the route is through the treating physician’s office. Call and say plainly: we think we need home health nursing, can you order an evaluation.
What it costs
Medicare Part A or Part B covers intermittent skilled nursing and therapy at home when a physician certifies the need and the person meets Medicare’s criteria, including being largely unable to leave home without considerable effort. When those conditions are met, the covered visits generally come at no cost to the patient.
Medicare Advantage plans and commercial insurance cover home health under their own rules, which usually involve prior authorization and a network of contracted agencies. Ohio Medicaid also covers home health nursing for eligible members.
What none of them cover is the ongoing, non-medical help with daily life that most families also need. That is the gap families hit when the nursing episode ends.
What usually happens after the nurse stops coming
Home health is authorized for an episode. When the wound heals or the therapy goal is met, the visits end — and very often the person still cannot shower safely, still cannot manage meals, and still should not be alone all day.
That is the point at which non-medical home care takes over, and it is what Serenity does. Personal care, homemaker services, companionship, supervision and respite, on a schedule built around what is actually happening in the home. Many of our clients come to us at exactly this handoff.
If you are anticipating that handoff, it is worth lining up before the last nursing visit rather than after.
Questions families ask
- Does Serenity Care Partners provide skilled nursing?
- No. Serenity Care Partners is licensed by the Ohio Department of Health as a non-medical home health agency (licence 4491HHN) and provides personal care, homemaker services, companionship, supervision, respite care and structured family caregiving. We do not provide skilled nursing, wound care, medication administration or therapy. We will connect you with a local agency that does, free of charge.
- Who pays for home health nursing?
- Medicare covers intermittent skilled nursing and therapy at home when a physician certifies it is medically necessary and the person meets Medicare’s homebound criteria. Medicare Advantage plans, commercial insurance and Ohio Medicaid also cover home health under their own rules, usually with prior authorization.
- Can a home care aide give medication?
- No. A non-medical home care caregiver may remind a person to take medication they take themselves and may hand them a prepared dose organizer, but administering medication — including injections — requires a licensed clinician. Any agency that tells you otherwise is describing something outside a non-medical licence.
- How do I get home health nursing started?
- Through a physician. Ask the treating doctor’s office to order a home health evaluation, or, if you are being discharged from a hospital or rehab facility, ask the case manager to arrange it before discharge. You are entitled to choose which certified agency provides the care.
Tell us what you need
One short form. If it is something we provide, we will help directly. If it is not, we will connect you with a trusted local provider — free.