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
Posted by Erin Wade on Tue, Jul 21, 2009 @ 04:58 PM
Cam Willis and her
eighty-two-year-old mother, Abbie, had planned a fun weekend road trip
together to Shreveport. When Cam arrived that morning to pick up her
mother for the drive, she immediately noticed her mother’s unusual
behavior. Abbie was disoriented, erratic, and unable to complete her
packing her luggage. Assuming that her mother was just having a bad
morning, Cam finished the task for her, and they headed out on the open
road.
Throughout the weekend trip, Cam observed Abbie’s disrupted sleeping
habits, disorientation, and lethargy, and at that point Cam started
having warning bells go off in her head as this behavior seemed out of
sorts for her. When the weekend trip was coming to a close, and Cam
brought Abbie back home, the unthinkable happened: Abbie fell in her
bathroom, was immediately taken to the hospital by ambulance, and then
diagnosed with four fractured ribs. In addition, Cam was informed that
her mother would need rehab to rebuild her strength and was having the
beginnings of short term memory loss, which would only continue to
increase in the future. Although Abbie and Cam had begun to consider
the idea of a retirement home for Abbie, her mother’s fall and
additional prognosis accelerated the process significantly, and Cam
began making plans to relocate her mother that very day.
Challenge
“As an only child, I had no siblings or family in town, and I had
not married. While my mom was in the regular and then rehab hospitals,
I was still trying to work full time, checking in on my mom, collecting
mail from her apartment, investigating retirement centers, arranging
for her upcoming move, and still trying to run my own personal life.”
Cam explains “Basically, I was managing two lives by myself, and I
realized I needed help!”
Solution
At the recommendation of a nurse, Cam contacted HealthBridge, and that very morning, Matt Johnson and Courtney Layton, Vice President, HealthBridge,
came out to visit with them. In the midst of the confusing, changing
circumstances, Matt and Courtney took the time to completely understand
the situation and recommend a personalized solution to provide the best
care for Abbie while relieving Cam of immense stress.
Cam explained “I realized that the more nervous my mom was becoming
by her changing circumstances, the more I was reacting to these
changes. My mom wasn’t acting like my mom, and it really threw me.”
She continues “Initially, HealthBridge
proposed round the clock, twenty-four hour care of my mom, delivering
someone to assist my mom that first night. In addition, Courtney even
helped me navigate through the maze of healthcare insurance coverage, allowing me to better understand what was covered and what wasn’t.”
HealthBridge
continued to assist Cam with the day to day living and care for Abbie,
including helping her shower, dress and providing overall personal care
in addition to helping with meals, light housekeeping, and driving to
appointments. All the while, Cam was able to effectively and
efficiently coordinate and manage her mother’s move to a retirement
home, knowing her mother was in capable hands.
Three months later, Abbie’s doctor
recommended that Cam relocate her mother to an assisted living center
due to Abbie’s additional memory loss and need of more ongoing care.
Feeling the stress mounting, Cam recognized she had another move to
coordinate and implement on her mother’s behalf, and HealthBridge was there to help with Abbie’s care. Once Abbie settled in her new assisted living residence, Cam has continued to utilize HealthBridge more on a case by case basis for periodic morning grooming, errands, and transportation to and from doctors’ appointments.
Result
“Over the past six months, I have worked with numerous HealthBridge
personal care attendants in a variety of capacities and spoken with
Matt and Courtney countless times. They were extremely professional and
sensitive to our needs, have always been in the loop on my mother’s
care, and consistently went the extra mile” explains Cam.
Simply put, HealthBridge delivered personal relationships and peace of mind.
“I feel like they genuinely care for me and my family, and I have made some new great friends. It’s neat to know that HealthBridge
is there when I need them,” Cam expresses. “I’m not sure what the next
stage will be in regards to care for my mother, but I do know that I
can count on HealthBridge to walk with me, step by step.”
Written by Carolyn Cameron