Home › Conditions we care for › Oxygen dependence
Oxygen at home sounds simple until the numbers start dropping.
Concentrators, tanks, tubing, saturation limits and the judgement call about when a desaturation is a problem. Georgia Medicaid covers in-home nursing for oxygen-dependent children.
Monitoring is the skilled part
Anybody can turn on a concentrator. The skilled work is knowing what your child’s saturations normally run, recognizing a trend rather than a single number, adjusting within the parameters the physician set, and deciding when this is a call to the pulmonologist rather than a wait-and-see.
Oxygen dependence frequently sits alongside a tracheostomy, chronic lung disease of prematurity, or a cardiac condition, and the combination is usually what builds the clinical case.
What a nurse actually does in the home
- Continuous or spot pulse oximetry against your child’s ordered parameters
- Oxygen titration within the physician’s written limits
- Concentrator, tank and tubing management, and knowing your supply
- Respiratory assessment: work of breathing, color, effort, sounds
- Suctioning and airway clearance where they are part of the plan
- Overnight monitoring, when desaturations happen in sleep
Ask your pulmonologist for written oxygen parameters: target saturation range, maximum flow, and when to call. A nurse cannot titrate safely without them, and many families have never been given them in writing.
Power outages are a real plan, not a worry
An oxygen-dependent child at home means your household needs a plan for a power cut: backup tanks, how long they last, who to call, and whether your utility knows there is a medically dependent child at the address.
Ask your DME supplier to register your child with the power company. It is a ten-minute call that changes your priority for restoration.
Questions families ask
Does oxygen dependence qualify for GAPP?
It can, especially in combination with other respiratory needs such as a tracheostomy, chronic lung disease, or frequent suctioning. Georgia Medicaid assesses the total daily skilled care need, so the fuller the picture your physician documents, the clearer the case.
Can a nurse adjust my child’s oxygen?
Within the written parameters your child’s physician sets, yes. Outside them, no. That is why getting those parameters in writing matters.
We are coming home from the NICU. When should we call?
Before discharge if at all possible. Involving us while your child is still admitted means the Medicaid steps run in parallel with discharge planning instead of starting after you are already home.
Is there any cost to us?
No. GAPP is a Georgia Medicaid program and authorized services carry no out-of-pocket cost to the family.
Ready when you are.
Tell us about your child and a real person will walk you through what comes next. No cost, no obligation.
Check eligibility Call 678-459-2590HeartPath Home Care is an approved provider for the Georgia Pediatric Program. We are not a government agency, and this page is not medical advice. Georgia Medicaid decides who is approved, which services are authorized and how many hours. Talk to your child’s physician about your child’s care.