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Pediatric private duty nursing in Douglas County

In-home skilled nursing (often called private duty nursing) and personal care for medically fragile children across Douglas County, through Georgia’s Pediatric Program. For families who qualify, Georgia Medicaid covers it in full.

Check eligibility Call 678-459-2590

DouglasvilleLithia SpringsWinston

Who we serve in Douglas County

Children under 21 whose day-to-day care needs a nurse or a trained caregiver: a tracheostomy or ventilator, a feeding tube, oxygen, seizure care, or significant help with lifting, positioning and daily activities. There is no fixed list of qualifying diagnoses. Approval turns on how much hands-on care your child needs each day, and Georgia Medicaid decides who is approved, not HeartPath.

Douglas is smaller than its neighbours, and care here is built around the child rather than around a territory. Give us your ZIP on the first call and we will tell you exactly what applies to your address.

Where children come home from in Douglas County

Douglas families are often discharged from outside the county, which is worth knowing early because it changes who your discharge planner is. If your child is still admitted anywhere, that is the best possible time to call.

Wellstar Douglas in Douglasville runs a Level II NICU. That covers babies who need feeding support, monitoring and time, but not sustained intensive respiratory care.

Babies who need more than a Level II unit can give them are usually transferred out, most often to Wellstar Kennestone in Marietta or to a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta campus. So a Douglas County discharge frequently starts in Cobb or Atlanta, and the case manager you need to talk to is there, not in Douglasville.

Babies Can’t Wait in Douglas County

Douglas County is served by District 3-1, the Cobb and Douglas health district. Douglas shares its health district with Cobb, so the same Babies Can’t Wait program serves both counties.

Babies Can’t Wait is Georgia’s early intervention program for children under three. It runs alongside GAPP rather than instead of it, and a child can be in both. If you are still working out which programs apply, our guide to coming home from the hospital walks through the order they happen in, and Babies Can’t Wait and GAPP explains how the two fit together.

Getting there from Douglas County

Douglas is west on I-20, close enough that a nurse based in west Cobb or south Fulton can cover it.

Care is scheduled around your family, including nights, weekends and overnights. We match nurses to a child and work to keep the same nurse with the same family, because the nurse who knows your child’s baseline is the one who notices the day it changes.

What it costs a family here

Nothing. For children approved through Georgia Medicaid there is no out-of-pocket cost, no copay and no deductible. If you have been told your income is too high for Medicaid, read how Katie Beckett works before you give up on it. That pathway ignores parents’ income entirely and looks only at the child’s medical needs.

Starting from Douglasville

Call 678-459-2590 or check eligibility online. We talk with you, help get the physician documentation moving, and submit the authorization request to Georgia Medicaid. About 30 days from first call to care starting is typical, though Medicaid sets the pace of its own review. Here is the full timeline.

Questions from families in Douglas County

We were transferred out of Douglas. Does that change anything?

Not for eligibility. Georgia Medicaid approves on your child’s documented daily care needs, not on which hospital you are in. It does change who to ask: the referral should come from the case manager at the hospital where your child is actually admitted, which for higher-acuity babies is often Kennestone or a Children’s campus rather than Wellstar Douglas.

How far is your office from Douglasville?

Our office is in Dunwoody, which is across the metro. That matters less than where your nurse lives, which is what we actually match on. Care is delivered in your home, not at our office, so you would rarely have reason to visit us.

Conditions we care for in Douglas County

HeartPath nurses care for children in Douglas County with a tracheostomy or a ventilator, a feeding tube, oxygen, seizure disorders, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and NICU graduates coming home for the first time. There is no fixed list of qualifying diagnoses, so if your child is not described here, call and ask.