Home Nursing After a Trach or Ventilator Discharge From Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
If your child is at Arthur M. Blank Hospital, Scottish Rite, or Hughes Spalding and the care team is talking about going home with a trach or a ventilator, this page is for you. GAPP pays for in-home nursing at no cost to your family, and you choose the agency.
Heart and Soul Healthcare is an independent home nursing agency. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
You Choose Your Child's Home Nursing Agency
Before discharge, a case manager or social worker will talk with you about home nursing and may hand you a list of agencies. That list is a starting point, not a requirement. Under Medicaid, families generally have the right to choose any enrolled provider, and the agency you pick is the one that will be in your home every day.
If you want Heart and Soul Healthcare, tell your case manager you are choosing us, or send us a referral yourself. We will contact the discharge team and take it from there.
- Nurses trained in trach care, suctioning, trach changes, and ventilator management
- A registered nurse oversees every child's care, with on-call support after hours
- We have brought a child home from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta on a trach and a ventilator
What We Do While Your Child Is Still in the Hospital
The work that makes the first night home go smoothly happens before you leave.
We respond the same business day
Send a referral while your child is still inpatient and you will hear from us that day. The earlier we start, the more time we have to staff your child's first nights home.
A nurse can meet you at the hospital
One of our nurses can come to the hospital to meet your family, learn your child, and sit in on trach and ventilator teaching with you.
We start the GAPP paperwork before discharge
We work with your child's physician on the plan of treatment and get the GAPP request moving while your child is still in the hospital, instead of after you get home.
We coordinate with the discharge team
Case managers, social workers, and the equipment company all have a piece of the plan. We stay in touch with them so nursing lines up with the rest of your discharge.
Coming Home From Any Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Campus
We take referrals for children leaving any of the three hospitals, and we serve families across metro Atlanta and the surrounding counties.
Arthur M. Blank Hospital
Opened in September 2024 at 2220 North Druid Hills Road NE. The services that were at Egleston, including its intensive care units, moved here.
Scottish Rite Hospital
The north metro campus in the Sandy Springs area.
Hughes Spalding Hospital
The downtown Atlanta campus.
Before You Leave
Your hospital team will run its own discharge checklist. These are the pieces families tell us they are glad they started early.
- Two trained adults at home, if the hospital asks for it
- A spare trach in your child's size and one size smaller
- Suction, humidification, and monitors delivered and set up before discharge
- Georgia Medicaid in place, including through Katie Beckett if needed
- A home nursing agency chosen and the referral sent
Read the full guide to bringing your child home with a trach
Questions Families Ask Before Discharge
Is Heart and Soul Healthcare part of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta?
No. We are an independent home nursing agency in Atlanta. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. We serve families who are coming home from its hospitals, the same way we serve families coming home from any hospital in Georgia.
Do we have to use the home nursing agency the hospital suggests?
No. Under Medicaid, families generally have the right to choose any enrolled provider. A list from the hospital is a starting point, not a requirement. If you want Heart and Soul Healthcare, tell your case manager or social worker that you are choosing us, and we will take it from there.
Can you start before my child is discharged?
Yes, and we prefer to. We respond to hospital referrals the same business day, a nurse can meet you at the hospital and sit in on trach and ventilator teaching, and we start the GAPP paperwork while your child is still inpatient.
Have you cared for a child coming home from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta before?
Yes. We have brought a child home from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta on a trach and a ventilator, and our nurses are trained in trach care, suctioning, trach changes, and ventilator management. A registered nurse oversees every child's care, with on-call support after hours.
Does GAPP nursing cost our family anything?
No. The Georgia Pediatric Program (GAPP) is a Georgia Medicaid program, and approved nursing hours are covered in full. Your child must have Georgia Medicaid. Many children with complex medical needs qualify through the Katie Beckett pathway, which looks at the child's needs rather than the parents' income.
What if we live outside metro Atlanta?
We currently staff Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton, Henry, Gwinnett, Fayette, Douglas, Forsyth, Rockdale, Cherokee, Paulding, Bartow, Newton, Spalding, Coweta, Carroll, Barrow, Gilmer, and Pickens counties. Families elsewhere in Georgia are welcome to call (678) 644-0337. We will tell you honestly whether we can staff your child's care.
Heart and Soul Healthcare is an independent home nursing agency. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
Tell Us Your Child Is Coming Home
Parents, case managers, social workers, and physicians can all start a referral by phone, by fax at (470) 235-1891, by email, or with the form. We respond the same business day.