FAQs

PDN is one on one care given in the patient’s home. It is providing the same level of care that would be performed in a hospital. Each patient we serve is total care. Some have no medical equipment but some have are on ventilators and other advanced equipment.

The nurse has only one patient and their care is provided (usually) in one room in their home. The nurse works the plan of care prepared by our agency in consultation with the patient (or their family), their caseworker and their physician. The physician approves this plan of care. While working from the plan of care, the nurse records their interactions with the patient, and give report to whoever is accepting the patient at the end of their shift. Most likely it is a patient’s family member, but for some cases, it is the next nurse. The clinical director is at the office and she is only a phone call away.

It is dependent upon the patient’s needs. We have some patients who get only 8 hours a day, some who get 12 hours, others 16 and some up to 20 hours per day. The amount of hours the patient receives is based on the plan of care approved by their physician.

Nurses can expect to work from 8 to 12 hours each shift, depending upon the authorized care. On a 12-hour shift case, a nurse can work just 3 days a week for full-time employment!

We are owned by nurses and have been since we started in 1985. We opened the first private duty case in Southeast Missouri and still service it! We have always treated our nurses as the best. Why? If we take care of our nurses, they can do a better job of taking care of our patients. We are one of only two private duty nurse providers that give employees paid time off for vacation and illness. We are the only provider that will send a replacement nurse when the assigned nurse can’t make it to work.

The nurses working for us, for the most part, have been with us a long time. The average length of employment of our nurses is nine years. Two nurses on the case we first opened nearly four decades ago are still employed with us.

Yes, and some cases are scheduled with overtime because that’s what it takes to staff the case. We don’t like to schedule overtime, but our mantra is “Cover The Case First” and we’ll work out the staffing and profitability later. That mantra is unique among area providers. We have now and have had in the past several years PDN cases shared with another agency. When their nurses can’t make it to work because of illness or vacation, the family counts on Allen Home Care Services to cover the hours the other agency can’t or won’t cover. We don’t disappoint them.

Travel is between the nurse’s home and the patient’s home. The nurse will not go from one patient to another, that’s home health nursing, which we do not do. You can come to the office when you like, but you are not required to come to the office. The supplies you will need will be either mailed or dropped off at the home for you. Training is done online, too. Plus, our phones are answered 24/7/365 so the office is just a phone call away.