If you’ve started searching for home care in Metro Atlanta, you’ve probably noticed a problem: every agency’s website sounds the same. “Compassionate care.” “Trusted caregivers.” “Like family.” The words are warm, but they don’t actually tell you anything.
And when it’s your parent, your spouse, or your child’s safety on the line, warm words aren’t enough. You need real answers.
Here’s what to actually ask, and what those answers should sound like, before you choose a home care agency for your family.
1. “Are you a licensed Private Home Care Organization?”
This is the first question, not the last. In Georgia, home care agencies are required to hold a Private Home Care Organization (PHCO) license. This isn’t a formality, it means the agency is subject to state oversight, inspection, and accountability standards.
What to listen for: A clear, immediate “yes,” ideally with the license readily referenced or available on request. Hesitation or vague deflection here is a red flag worth walking away from.
2. “What does your background check process actually involve?”
Most agencies will tell you they run background checks. Far fewer will tell you the details — and the details are where the real answer lives.
Questions worth asking specifically:
- Is it a single check at hiring, or renewed annually?
- Is it multi-jurisdictional, or limited to one county or database?
- Does it include DMV verification, especially if the caregiver will be driving your loved one to appointments?
- Is drug screening included, and how often?
- Is TB testing part of the standard process?
At Deft Home Care, every caregiver undergoes rigorous multi-jurisdictional background checks, DMV verification, drug screening, and TB testing — repeated annually, not just at hiring. That last part matters more than most families realize: a clean background check from three years ago tells you very little about who is walking through your door today.
3. “How do your caregivers exceed state training requirements?”
Georgia sets a training minimum for home care caregivers. The word “minimum” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, it’s a floor, not a standard of excellence.
What to listen for: Specifics. How many continuing education hours per year? What do those hours actually cover? Is there any clinical oversight beyond the initial hire, such as in-person quality assurance visits?
Deft caregivers complete 12+ hours of continuing education annually, and our clinical team conducts regular in-person quality assurance visits, not just phone check-ins. Ongoing training and ongoing oversight go hand in hand; one without the other leaves gaps.
4. “How is my care plan actually built?”
This is where a lot of agencies quietly default to a template. Ask directly: does the plan come from a real, thorough in-home assessment of your loved one’s medical, emotional, and daily living needs, or is it a standard package with a few boxes checked?
What a good answer sounds like: A description of an actual assessment process, who conducts it, what it covers, and how the resulting care plan is unique to your family rather than pulled from a shared template. “One-size-fits-all” should never be the honest answer to this question.
5. “Can you support specialized or complex needs?”
Not every family’s need is companionship and daily living support — some need post-surgical recovery care, adult disability support, or skilled pediatric nursing through Georgia’s Pediatric Program (GAPP). Ask directly whether the agency has documented experience and trained staff for your specific situation, not just a general willingness to “figure it out.”
The Bottom Line
A trustworthy home care agency won’t flinch at any of these questions — they’ll welcome them, because the answers are exactly what they’re proud of. If you get vague reassurance instead of specifics, take that as your answer.
At Deft Home Care, we built our entire process so that every one of these questions has a clear, specific answer, because we believe families deserve clarity, not just comfort, when choosing who cares for the people they love most.
Ready to ask us these questions yourself? [Schedule a free, no-pressure care consultation] and see exactly how The Deft Standard works for your family.
Deft Home Care is a licensed Private Home Care Organization serving Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Forsyth, Cherokee, Fayette, Henry, Rockdale, and Dawson counties.