Home Care

居家护理

This report is based on the U.S. home care Franchise industry. The data contained in this report was drawn from the Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD) of a representative sample of 18 home care franchises and published industry sources.

本报告的调查对象为美国居家护理连锁加盟行业。报告中所包含的数据来源于18种居家护理连锁加盟和已公布的行业发起者极具代表性的案例的连锁加盟公开文件。

Defining Home Care

Home care refers to a wide range of services that are provided for individuals with restricted mobility either in their own homes or in a senior care facility. The U.S. Senate Special Committee released a report on aging in February, 2000 that described home care as the following:

居家护理涉及的服务范围十分广泛，主要是为自己家中或者老年人看护机构中活动能力受到限制的个体提供服务。2000年2月，美国参议院特别委员会发布了一份有关老龄化的报告，其中对居家护理的描述如下：

“It [long-term care] differs from other types of health care in that the goal of long-term care is not to cure an illness, but to allow an individual to attain and maintain an optimal level of functioning….

“这(长期护理)与其他类型的健康护理有所不同，因为长期护理的目标不是治愈疾病，而是能让个人获得或者保持最理想的机能水平……

Long-term care encompasses a wide array of medical, social, personal, and supportive and specialized housing services needed by individuals who have lost some capacity for self-care because of a chronic illness or disabling condition”1

长期护理包含因为慢性疾病或者残疾而失去某些自理能力的个人所需的一系列医疗、社会、身体以及支援和专业化的居家服务。

Individuals may require long-term home care if they suffer from a chronic condition or illness that limits their ability to carry out basic self-care tasks, called activities of daily living (ADLs), (bathing, dressing or eating), or instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) (household chores, meal preparation, or managing money). Most home care is non-medical and is provided by paraprofessionals. Some aspects of home care can only be provided by licensed professionals and so franchises may employ licensed professionals in order to offer this medical care.

慢性疾病或者残疾会限制人们进行基本的自理、日常生活所必须的活动(ADLs)(如洗澡、穿衣或者吃饭)、或者日常生活的功能性活动(IADLs)(如家务、准备一日三餐或者管账)的能力，遭遇这类疾病痛苦的人有可能需要长期的居家护理。大多数居家护理并不牵涉医疗，而且主要是为专业人员提供助手。有些居家护理只能由有执照的专业人士提供，所以连锁加盟有可能会为了提供这种医疗护理服务而雇佣有执照的专业人士。

For more detailed information on the services provided by home care franchises, please see “Types of Home care”

更多有关居家护理连锁加盟所提供的服务的详细信息，请参阅“居家护理的类型”。

A Brief History Of Home Care

Home care is a diverse and dynamic service industry that began in U.S. in the 1880’s2. By 1930 the leading cause of death was no longer infectious diseases but chronic degenerative diseases. Patients mainly sought care in hospitals and only a small margin of people wanted to be cared for at home. With the rising costs of hospital care and introduction of Medicare legislation, which was enacted to help provide benefits to home care patients, and Medicaid, the state medical assistance program for the poor that included provisions for home care, the popularity of home care began to rise and has continued to rise as more people opt to “age in p