BOISE, Idaho — Across the Treasure Valley, there are dozens of home health companies, but not all them operate the same.
“Idaho is one of the few non-licensed states for home care,” said Stewart Wilder, president of Interim Healthcare of Southwest Idaho.
That means it's up to each individual company to decide how they train their personal care aides.
KTVB reached out to several agencies to find out how they hire caregivers after police say, an aide - who was employed by Boise-based company, A Caring Hand - left a disabled man in a scalding bath last May. That bath left burns on 30-percent of the man’s body. He died 11 days later.
On Thursday, Wilder told KTVB that while caregivers aren't required to be licensed, companies can be certified through a credentialing organization.
“We made the choice to provide Medicaid services, so we are licensed under the state to provide Medicaid,” Wilder said.
However, caregivers are not required to be licensed or certified.
“When we hire, we expect a one-year minimum qualification in home care,” Wilder said.
The agency will then train its caregivers through training courses, job shadowing and mentoring.
RELATED: Boise police looking for personal care aide they say left man in scalding bath, causing fatal burns
Caroline Moore is the owner of Brightstar Care, where she says, the agency conducts both phone and in-person interviews. Each caregiver candidate is put through a rigorous paperwork process, before taking part in an eight-hour orientation that includes testing their abilities and competency levels in their skill lab.
“Unless you take Medicaid, the agencies aren’t per se checked on by the state, so our files are checked because we're joint commissioned accredited, but that process doesn’t exist for every agency in the valley,” Moore said. “If they aren’t taking state or federal dollars there may not be a survey process that's following up with them.”
Anyone looking for a caregiver is urged to interview different agencies, ask questions and understand each agency’s process and procedures.
“You hate to see an incident like this happen, it's very, very unfortunate and we want to believe also preventable, but I do believe there are a lot of good people here in the valley doing good work,” Moore said.