Posted by Erin Wade on Tue, Jul 21, 2009 @ 05:23 PM
Bill Lindley, a technology manager with a working wife and two busy, teen-aged daughters, recognizes the stress and challenge associated with caring for an elderly parent. For the past twenty-five years, his mother, Marjoria, had lived a seemingly self-sufficient and fulfilling life, remarrying after the death of her first husband and traveling together across the country.
As the result of her failing health in early 2008, the family decided to move her to the Dallas area to provide a more “hands on” approach for her basic supervision. In order to help eighty years young Marjoria with her day-to-day activities in her apartment, Bill decided to hire a home healthcare provider. Throughout this process, Bill followed his natural tendency and asked himself, “what is the cheapest home healthcare solution?” He performed a quick internet search, located a home healthcare agency with individually contracted caregivers, performed a quick interview, and made the hire. Problem solved – right? Wrong.
Challenge
Unfortunately, mid-year, Marjoria experienced a severe heart attack and was in hospital care and rehabilitation treatment for over two months, instigating Bill to reevaluate her living situation. Due to her need of additional, personal care, he began researching assisted living and nursing home facilities. Throughout this process, however, Bill discovered two critical barriers for entry: high cost and intense isolation from loved ones.
Bill explains, “My mom is on a fixed income, so we definitely needed a cost effective solution for our family. Personal interaction was an essential criterion in our decision-making. We weren’t just looking for a warm body ‘hanging out’ in my mother’s room; I wanted someone interacting with, caring for, and loving my mom.”
After extensive evaluation, he instead decided to move his mother into his home and turned again to the individual caregiver he had used previously for home healthcare assistance. This decision became a single point of failure as issue after issue cropped up with the caregiver, resulting in worker unreliability and undependability. To add insult to injury, the caregiver quit via text message with no notice, leaving Bill and his family little reaction time and huge issues in care for his mother.
“Due to our disappointing experience, I began a new search for a home healthcare agency, requiring optimized caregivers who were screened, trained, personable, and dependable as well as extremely reliable and flexible in coverage. I needed a best in class home healthcare business,” explains Bill.
Solution
While surfing the Internet, Bill discovered the HealthBridge website, agreed with their fundamental philosophies, and made an appointment. After speaking with HealthBridge, Bill felt an immediate match in philosophies, ended his search, and hired them on the spot.
HealthBridge currently provides in-home care three days a week for the Lindley family, helping with Marjoria’s day-to-day activities, including bathing and dressing, medication assistance, meal preparation, driving to doctors’ appointments, and some light household duties.
Result
“Kim, our personal caregiver, is an absolute angel. She has gone above and beyond our wildest expectations.” Bill continues, “It’s obvious she is much more than just a caregiver in our home. She loves and adores my mom, and she showers my mom with fantastic care. Even our dog, Mitzy, waits by the door for her to arrive. We have completely embraced her as part of our family.”
Courtney Layton, Vice President, HealthBridge, expounds, “It is the compassion and dedication of our caregivers that makes us truly unique. We take great pride in the hiring of sincere, honest, nurturing people, and we make it our highest priority. They are the lifeblood of our company.”
Bill adds, “HealthBridge has been extremely flexible in their ability to accommodate our needs, even in a short-notice timeframe. Kim has been so spectacular to even rearrange her schedule in order to care for my mom. If she is not available for some reason, HealthBridge has a multitude of trained caregivers to fill the gap for us.”
“HealthBridge delivers a niche model of healthcare, offering professional, affordable expertise through their multitude of caregivers in the home, creating a significant advantage over individual coverage,” offers Bill. “It allows us the best of both worlds… that is, experiencing a closer relationship with my mom and she with her grandchildren while receiving professional experienced care from someone who knows best.”
He continues, “We are thrilled with our arrangement with HealthBridge and Kim, and as such, I envision this arrangement carrying on for the foreseeable future.”
Their future is bright with HealthBridge.
Written by Carolyn Cameron