Bonner General recognizes home health workers

More than 11 million Americans receive home-delivered health care from home health care providers. In their honor, Bonner General Hospital joins the National Association for Home Care & Hospice in recognizing November as National Home Care Month.

Home care professionals, volunteers and modern medicine make it possible for people to stay in their homes, regardless of their condition.  Through technological advances, home-delivered health care has grown far beyond basic professional nursing and home care aide services.

Today’s modern home care agency offers a wealth of nursing, physical, occupational, respiratory and speech therapies, counseling, dietary, laboratory, dental, optical, pharmacy, X-ray, medical equipment and home medical supplies, and personal care.

Bon-ner General Hos-pital’s Home Health Services team provides services across the full spectrum, from the infant who requires specialized care to the elderly person who needs assistance with daily living activities.  Our Home Health Services is comprised of a multi-disciplinary group of individuals that includes:

• Registered nurses

• Physical therapists

• Occupational therapists

• Speech language pathologists

• Medical social workers

• Certified home health aides

Using a multi-disciplinary team approach, our Home Health staff is able to provide a wide range of care to clients.  Just a few of those services include:

• Providing wound/incision care, ostomy care and catheter care

• Giving injections and managing IV therapy

• Teaching you or your family to give insulin shots, use oxygen and breathing machines or manage medications

• Setting up a home exercise program

• Teaching you to walk with a brace, cane, or walker

• Providing ultrasound massage or other types of pain relief treatment

• Teaching you to eat and drink safely if you are having swallowing difficulties

• Giving bed and tub baths and assisting you in personal care

• Teaching your family to assist you in continuing therapy on your own

• Helping you find community resources to meet your immediate or long-term needs

Home care services are paid for by public and private sources, or directly by patients and their families. Medicare and Medicaid are significant payers, often driving the payment agenda for commercial insurance. Despite massive cutbacks in government funding, home care continues to be the preferred means of receiving quality health care services for millions of Americans.

If you would like more information about Bonner General Hospital’s home health services, please visit the hospital website at www.BonnerGeneral.org or call 265-1107.