Help us choose home

By News Team
ads@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Tue, Nov 17th, 2009
Posted in Faith & Worship

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November is National Home Care Month and The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society-Home Care has reason to celebrate. 2009 is their 15th anniversary. They accepted their first client in June of 1994 and were Medicare certified in October of that year. Until closure, our office had moved to 200 St. Paul Street in downtown Preston. Our agency has grown to cover a wide area of Southeastern Minnesota and North Central Iowa. As baby boomers age, home care has grown in popularity. Home care encourages independence for clients as well as those living with chronic health conditions, while helping to keep families together. Home care is cost efficient and patient preferred. Home Care combines compassion and efficiency with the latest in healthcare technology.

Good Samaritan is proud to be a pioneer in the technological field. Good Samaritan has had an active Tele-health program for the past five years. With this technology, many seniors have been able to avoid emergency room visits while managing their chronic disease. Good Samaritan has been fortunate enough to upgrade their Tele-health equipment by going with a new vendor. The new machines are from Honeywell HomeMed and are now being implemented throughout the service area. With this technology, nurses are able to monitor their client's vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, weight, O2 saturation, and blood glucose). The client has a Tele-health monitor in their home. The machine is programmed to remind the client to take their vital signs at a regular time each day. That information goes through the phone line to the home care office where a nurse looks for abnormal readings. If something is found to be out of range, the nurse is able to follow up often allowing for an intervention without the client ever leaving the comfort of their home.

Good Samaritan also is able to provide those clients who have trouble remembering to take their medications with an automated medication machine. The machine is programmed to dispense the correct dose of medications at a preprogrammed time. These machines were purchased with grant monies and have continued to be a popular aide to keep people safe. Clients who take a blood thinner need to have their blood levels checked on a regular basis. Sometimes it is very difficult for clients to get out and have the blood checked, especially in the winter. Good Samaritan is fortunate enough to have several machines that the nurses are able to take out into the home and check the blood with the prick of a finger. The doctor is then able to adjust the dose of the medication without the client having to leave home.

Home care is truly a safety net of our health care system. When a patient is discharged from the hospital and still requires care, our staff is able to go into the home and provide for the needs of the patient including nursing, therapy, and home health aides. This early intervention often prevents the patient from having to be readmitted to the hospital. Meanwhile, chronically ill or frail elderly patients are able to take control of their health management with the help of in-home caregivers who empower and educate patients at the same time that they provide necessary rehabilitative, assistive, and preventative services that keep the patient out of the hospital or other facility.

It is a great honor this Home Care month to recognize the dedicated caregivers who make it possible for patients to receive the needed life sustaining care at home in keeping with the patient's strong desire to remain in their home.

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