On-site nurse practitioners help with health of nursing home residents
EUGENE, Ore. - With America growing older, concern is mounting over health care.
But in Eugene, a program between some nursing homes and a local health plan is showing promise.
Collaboration and thinking outside the box are the forces behind this idea. Here's the problem: doctors are hard pressed to visit patients in nursing homes locally, and patients are making trips too often to the hospital or the emergency room.
It's another day at the office for Shirlin Gauthier. The nurse practitioner is visiting South Hills Rehabilitation Center resident, Russell Moon. "I'm going to do a physical today and just listen to your heart and lungs and see how everything is going," Gauthier explains to Moon.
Trillium Community Health Plans and the rehab center have teamed up to place on-site nurse practitioners in the center.
Trillium CEO Terry W. Coplin says these are "highly qualified nurse practitioners that can address the needs of our patients in a routine daily manner."
Trillium and Pinnacle Healthcare, the owner of South Hills, kicked this effort off with a pilot project in January. They like the results.
"It appears that we're having fewer hospitalizations with our patients," Coplin said. "We're getting very good feedback from families as well as patients."
Officials explain the new program not only saves money and saves patient trips but does something else very important: Illnesses and conditions are discovered much sooner than before.
"The first sign of any infections or any change in status, we can take care of it right then rather than wait for it to develop into a more serious condition," says Shirlin Gauthier.
For South Hills Center residents like Russell Moon, it means better health care, right where he is. Moon has kudos for the work of the practitioner. "Well, she's around a little bit more often," he said. "It's a good deal I think."
Along with South Hills Rehab Center, the nurse practitioners will be used at Green Valley Rehabilitation Health Center.
