Seniors and Hospital Readmission
A study at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, published in Gerontology in 2008, found that seniors who live alone have a 50 percent greater chance of early hospital readmission (within 60 days of discharge) and those with unmet functional needs, a 48 percent greater chance.
Comfort Keepers® works to reduce odds like these!
Our specially trained caregivers—our Comfort Keepers®—help seniors make a smooth transition back home after a trip to the ER or inpatient hospital stay. They provide a wide variety of in-home care services that help seniors follow doctor’s orders. If needed, they can provide these services in conjunction with skilled home healthcare providers, who help clients manage their illnesses.
Here are examples of how Comfort Keepers assist recently discharged clients:
- Medication reminders: Comfort Keepers help make sure clients take their medicine on schedule. Noncompliance with prescriptions contributes to 10 percent of all hospital admissions.
- Meal planning and preparation: Comfort Keepers plan and prepare meals to promote clients’ good health. This is especially important for clients who must stay on a specific diet to control conditions, such as diabetes.
- Transportation to doctors’ appointments: Comfort Keepers provide transportation to ensure clients see their doctors as scheduled for follow-up care.
- Companionship and conversation: In the course of conversing with clients, as well as providing other services, Comfort Keepers watch for signs of health changes. This way they can help clients get medical attention early on, before it becomes a crisis.
- Interactive Caregiving™: This is Comfort Keepers’ distinctive approach to in-home care, providing clients activities that engage them physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally. This care philosophy can enhance a client’s quality of life. Research shows that seniors who stay actively engaged retain better cognitive function, stay healthier, and live independently longer. Specifically, exercise has been shown to help prevent falls—a leading cause of hospitalization among the elderly.
- Technology solutions: In place of, or to supplement, person-to-person caregiving, Comfort Keepers offers in-home safety technology solutions, called SafetyChoice™. These help seniors live independently at home, safely and securely, when a caregiver isn’t present. SafetyChoice includes a personal emergency response system (PERS), web-based monitoring devices, a portable GPS location device and an automated medication management system that simplifies the sometimes complicated process of organizing and dispensing prescriptions.
Comfort Keepers, through a combination of caregiving services and technology solutions, works with families to help elderly clients continue living independently and safely at home for as long as possible—and to promote quality of life and good health. That includes preventing the need for hospital admissions.
Comfort Keepers provides in-home care to seniors and the elderly living in Ocala, Gainesville, and The Villages, Florida. We provide superior in-home care to seniors and the elderly throughout Central Florida so they can live enriched independent lifestyles! Call us today at 855-592-0013.
photo credit: David Boyle in DC
