CVHHH program to extend care for Central Vermonters helps keep people safe, comfortable, and cared for at home.
Catherine Scribner keeps a lot of company at her Moretown home. Family and friends stop in often to visit the 89-year-old or take her shopping, and her cat, Miss Kitty, who roams the fields around her house, returns each night to nestle beside her. She also has an open door – and phone line – for the members of her care team from Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice (CVHHH).
“I can’t believe the care I get,” she says.
Catherine is enrolled in CVHHH’s Longitudinal Care Program (LCP), which provides medical support, care management, and care coordination for Central Vermonters at home when they no longer qualify for traditional home health services and are at high risk for rehospitalization or visits to the emergency room.
Clients in the program have complex care needs. They live with multiple chronic conditions, such as heart and respiratory failure, and many face barriers to accessing transportation and lack the support to stay independently at home.
CVHHH’s LCP team connects the dots between a person’s medical and social needs and their community providers. Care coordination is tailored to each individual and can include advocacy, long-term care planning, and help accessing services like heating fuel and affordable medication.
“I think it makes a big difference, especially when you consider my age,” Catherine says.
(Above, photos of Catherine taking her vitals. Every morning, she takes her blood oxygen and blood pressure from her kitchen table daily and calls the results in to CVHHH).
“It’s quite a comfort, keeping you aware of where you’re at with your health.”
Your donation to CVHHH supports independence and well-being for Catherine and other LCP clients.
Catherine’s care team includes CVHHH’s Telehealth Coordinator, Ashley Henry, RN, and Diane Jones, MS, CPT, BCS, CVHHH’s Complex & Palliative Care Coordinator, as well as a community health worker, her cardiologist, her primary care provider, a home health nurse, a physical therapist, and the Central Vermont Council on Aging.
Members of Catherine’s LCP team visit her in person on a regular basis, and the program’s telemonitoring service enables her to take her vitals remotely and call in the results every day. Other clients share their vitals with CVHHH in real time through their telemonitor tablet. If Catherine’s numbers raise concerns, a CVHHH nurse will contact her right away or arrange for a clinician to come to her house and address her needs or recommend a higher level of care.
Clients who are engaged in the management of their chronic conditions report increased capacity to get ahead of a medical event – such as an irregular heartbeat – before it triggers a trip to the emergency room.
“It gives you company in your home, and it keeps you out of the hospital and the doctor’s office,” she explains. “It makes sense, that’s all there is to it.”
Please give now. Your gift helps clients like Catherine receive oversight so they can stay in their own homes, in their own beds, with family and neighbors close by, and pets like Miss Kitty by their side.