Support Services

Home Health Aides/Personal Care

Our home health aides provide a variety of personal care services for patients of all ages. They work under the direct supervision of a registered nurse, who performs a supervisory visit every 14 days. These visits ensure that the plan of care continues to address the patient's needs.

Services include: Documenting and reporting the patient's status and the care or services provided; measuring temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure; bathing, shaving and oral hygiene, dressing, changing bed linens; nail and skin care; administering medications that do not require the skills of a registered nurse. Light housekeeping, personal laundry and preparing simple, nutritious meals are also offered, as directed.

Medical Social Services

Qualified medical social workers or supervised social work assistants are available in accordance with the plan of care. After a patient has been identified as needing medical social services, the visiting staff will make the internal referral for those services.

Medical social services include: preparation of clinical and progress notes; working with the patient's family; identifying and using community resources; participation in discharge planning. Patients qualifying for medical social services include stroke, cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer's patients; terminally ill patients; and those with a history of psychiatric or emotional problems.

Nutritional Services

Our nutritional screening and services help to identify patients who are at risk for poor nutritional health, and to identify patients whose overall nutritional health could be improved. Nutritional counseling is also provided. Our staff use a Nutritional Screening Tool Patient Classification System to assess a patient's nutritional condition.

Patients qualifying for nutritional services include: diabetic patients; those with cancer or AIDS; patients with oral-motor problems that compromise the quality of food intake; those with feeding tubes used as a partial or sole source of nutritional support.

Chaplaincy

Upon request, chaplaincy services can be provided to help a patient or family member cope with: diagnosis of serious or long-term illness; recent death of a loved one; personal or family crisis; questions about suffering/death. Bereavement counseling is also provided.

Please Note: The Support Services outlined here represent only partial listings. For complete information on services, and which patients qualify for them, call 1-800-610-2447 or 301-592-4400.