An Alternative to Nursing Homes

As the saying goes, “There’s no place like home”. No matter how humble – or palatial – one’s harbor of the heart, the comfort and security of familiar surroundings is a concept not lost on Elaine Reavis, R.N., M.A. at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, California.

In February 1999 she initiated a new health care program to provide assistance to patients who wanted to remain in their own homes yet needed extra help in maintaining their quality of life. “Because this type of program didn’t exist before at Verdugo Hills, I interviewed a lot of people, developed a business plan and estimated what kind of budget would be needed to run it.”

When it came to the latter, Reavis admits she may have been too conservative. “I assumed that if someone hired us for two hours a day, it would be two hours across the board. I learned pretty fast that it doesn’t work that way!”

She explains that Care at Home is a private, fee-based program that is not reimbursed by Medicare or by any medical insurance with the exception of long-term care. “People often confuse us with Verdugo’s Home Care services. The difference is that Home Care requires a doctor’s referral, a personal treatment plan, and utilizes registered nurses for intermittent visits that are short-term in duration.”

Nearly a thousand patients have been admitted since her program’s inception. With the passage of time, some have been discharged or moved out of the area, some have passed on, others have been moved to skilled nursing facilities. Reavis and her office manager, Becky Sollesa, run the entire operation. Background checks, driving records, drug testing and a physical are mandatory for prospective Care at Home staff.

Says Reavis, “My criteria when I interview people is to ask myself, ‘Would I want this person taking care of me if I were the patient?’ I place a lot of value on commitment and compassion because the people who come to us are trusting us to give them the best level of care that we can.”

She currently has about 47 bonded caregivers working for her and providing care to 60 patients. “The needs are as varied as the personalities of the patients themselves. Some just have to be driven to doctors’ appointments or require grooming/bathing assistance. There are a few who need someone to stay with them all the time because they have severe Alzheimer’s.”

She tells the story of one patient who doesn’t recognize her own husband or children nor does she know the name of the caregiver and yet becomes agitated if she’s sees someone different come to the house to take care of her. “Another patient thought he was Jesus Christ and was very insistent about it to everyone he met.”

What’s always remarkable to me, of course, is that every one of them is like a history book. I had a woman, for instance, who was 97 and was the first woman dispatcher for the Glendale Fire Department. She had lost her $1,750 of savings during the stock market crash so when the war broke out she applied and got the job. Well, when the men came home, they expected her to give it up. How dare she want to hold on to it!”

Reavis also reflects on a female patient who had saved enough Blue Chip stamps to be able to buy a car for the nuns of St. James Church. “That’s someone who really knew how to get things done.” Yet another patient was a flamenco dancer in Spain. “I could sit and listen to these people for hours.”

When it comes to the challenges of coping with advancing years, Reavis believes that it’s more difficult to have an alert mind and a deteriorating body than a healthy system and the loss of one’s mental faculties.

What I’ve found is that people over 80 don’t deal well with reality. Mentally they may be okay and assume that their body is fine, too. They get into trouble when they try to do things that used to come easily. For their children – ‘the sandwich generation’ that’s now in their 60’s – the roles have become reversed and they’re not sure what to do when it comes to their parents’ care. I always assure them that they’re not alone.” In the case of elderly patients who need to eventually be placed in care facilities, Reavis encourages families to be as involved as possible. “It’s sad when loved ones only get visits on Mother’s Day or at Christmas and are forgotten about the rest of the year.”

Though her job is not without its share of heartache, Reavis derives the most satisfaction from being able to allow her clients to remain at home for as long as possible. The dignity of maintaining as much independence as they can, she cites, contributes more to one’s outlook than many people realize.

She also enjoys the continuity of getting to know a patient and the family over a long period of time. “As a nurse, it’s the opposite – people come in, you stabilize them, and then they leave.” She quips about a young woman she once knew in the ER who enjoyed that particular pace. “She told me she only liked ‘short-term relationships’! I’d never thought of it that way before but I like knowing I have the time in this program to really bond with the patients under my care.”

Individuals and families seeking more information on Care at Home can visit the Verdugo Hills website at www.vhhospital.com, drop into the office at 1808 Verdugo Hills Blvd., #320, in Glendale, or call Reavis directly at (818) 952-3575.

Photo: Elaine Reavis, R.N., M.A., Administrator of Verdugo Hills Hospital Care at Home