By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
A resident at the Summit on First Hill independent living community recently had eye surgery. After the operation, she was required to use eye drops several times daily but was unable to administer them on her own.
Six months ago that may have posed a problem for the resident. Today that has changed. A new health clinic recently opened inside the Summit, giving the woman a way to have someone put her eyedrops in for her.
The program, called SummitCare, was built into the original plan of the building as a future service when it opened just over two years ago, according to staff nurse Linda Simmons. Now that plan has come to fruition.
“We envisioned that these needs would be there. They in fact did materialize,” Simmons says.
“It’s exciting to me to be able to start a new program,” says Nurse Joan Wieringa, the clinic and homecare coordinator for SummitCare.
Wieringa explains the program has two parts: it fills the needs that might be too little for a trip to the doctor’s office or a half-day homecare service, but too much for family members or hired assistants to tend to every day. It’s also helpful in providing short increments of service in case the resident needs help, like with getting dressed or having someone nearby as the resident showers, for safety’s sake. Normally, a homecare service would require a minimum of four hours with a client.
“In terms of the homecare program, what we can offer residents — which is very helpful — is that we can give smaller increments of service,” Wieringa says, referring to the half-hour minimum.
While the Summit has some assisted living facilities, most apartments in the building are for older people who can live independently. SummitCare is geared primarily toward them.
Wieringa and Simmons were careful to point out what the clinic does and does not do. In the case of the eye surgery patient, the clinic helps with simple tasks like eyedrops or helping residents take medicine. They would not, however, fill the prescriptions or make any decisions on what drugs a patient would take. If a resident had a concern about an illness, Wieringa might ask about symptoms and then refer that person to his or her physician.
There are procedures and guidelines in place for any situation that might come up, and Wieringa would communicate with the resident, the resident’s family, and medical professionals to ensure the person receives the right care.
“Everything would be clear so it would follow the same standards,” she said.
Though some services, such as first aid, home safety checks or family information sessions are free, most are fee-for-service. None of the services are covered by insurance plans.
“Going to the physician’s office for some of these kinds of things is not feasible. Having a nurse come in is expensive, so really it’s about the same” as traveling to a clinic where insurance might cover the visit, Simmons says. “The fees associated with it are more or less convenience fees.”
Convenience doesn’t necessarily mean expensive, according to Dov Sugarman, the Summit’s chief operating officer.
“It’s priced very, very competitively,” says Sugarman, “especially with co-pays for insurance.”
Sugarman explains that SummitCare’s niche is where a doctor’s office is too much of a hassle to get to, and enables the resident to stay close to home.
“We took advantage of the fact that they can come downstairs during certain hours and get things done for them,” Sugarman says.
Wieringa has worked as a registered nurse for several years, and spent the last seven working in a private care management firm, helping others get care when they needed it. She has worked in clinical settings before, but this is the first time she has run one of her own. One of the parts of the job she enjoys is making the residents comfortable with having her available to them, while helping them understand that paying for SummitCare is not a bad thing.
“If the residents feel that ‘service is going to help me and I think I’ll be comfortable with her’ the price is worth it,” she said.
Simmons added that education to introduce the residents to the new service included having sessions with the families of those residents. Feedback thus far has been positive.
“The residents and very much the family members are grateful and relieved,” she says. “We really get people who are grateful for the services.”