< Comfort Care Home Health, LLC Overview
Comfort Care Home Health, LLC Specialty Programs & Disease Managment
- Aural Rehabilitation Program
- Palliative Care Program
- Mental Health Program
- Fall Prevention Program
- Wound Care Program
- Diabetes Care
- COPD Care
- Stroke Care
- Joint Care
Aural Rehabilitation Program
What is Aural rehabilitation?
Aural rehabilitation is the process of identifying and diagnosing a hearing loss, providing different types of therapies to patients who are hearing impaired, and implementing different amplification devices to aid the patient’s hearing abilities. Aural rehabilitation includes specific procedures in which each therapy and amplification device has its goal of habilitation or rehabilitation of persons to overcome the disability caused by a hearing impairment of deafness.
Things to note: Aural rehabilitation is to enhance the quality of life by assessing and providing means to improve hearing impairments. Most older adults have some form of hearing loss, and Comfort Care provides an Audiologist that will come to the homes of patients and provide the assessment. If a hearing impairment is detected and treatable, the speech pathologist will develop a plan of care for the patient, fit and train in the use of any assistive listening device that might be warranted.
Goals of Aural Rehabilitation:
To enhance the quality of life by detecting and improving auditory deficits using an interdisciplinary team approach with collaboration between Audiologist, Speech Pathologist, clinician, patient, and family.
Palliative Care Program
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is is the medical specialty focused on relief of the pain, suffering and other debilitating symptoms of serious illness.
Palliative care is not dependent on prognosis and can be delivered at the same time as treatment that is meant to cure you. The goal is to relieve suffering and provide the best possible quality of life for patients and their families.
Ensures quality of life
Palliative care is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Patients have a range of diseases and respond differently to treatment options. A key benefit of palliative care is that it customizes treatment to meet the individual needs of each patient.
Palliative care relieves symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite and difficulty sleeping. It helps patients gain the strength to carry on with daily life. It improves their ability to tolerate medical treatments. And it helps them better understand their choices for care. Overall, palliative care offers patients the best possible quality of life during their illness. Palliative care benefits both patients and their families. Along with symptom management, communication and support for the family are the main goals. The team helps patients and families make medical decisions and choose treatments that are in line with their goals.
Different from hospice
Palliative care is not the same as hospice care. Palliative care may be provided at any time during a person`s illness, even from the time of diagnosis. And, it may be given at the same time as curative treatment.
Hospice care always provides palliative care. However, it is focused on terminally ill patients-people who no longer seek treatments to cure them and who have a life expectancy of 6 months or less.
Provided by a team
Usually a team of experts, including palliative care doctors, nurses and social workers, provides this type of care. Therapists, pharmacists, nutritionists and others might also be part of the team. Working in partnership with your primary doctor, the palliative care team provides:
- Expert treatment of pain and other symptoms
- Close, clear communication
- Help navigating the healthcare system
- Guidance with difficult and complex treatment choices
- Detailed practical information and assistance
- Emotional and spiritual support for you and your family
Common diagnosis that would be appropriate for palliative care
- CHF
- CAD
- CVA
- COPD
- HIV/AIDS
- Alzheimer’s/dementia
- Cancer
What matters most is not necessarily more treatment, but rather quality of the treatment provided.
Mental Health Program
Program Highlights
Clinical tracks for diseases such as Alzheimer’s/dementia, bipolar disorders, Schizophrenia, and depression. All nurses are credentialed through Medicare.
- Provides mental health assessment, and education such as skilled teaching and training on disease process, symptom management, medication compliance, coping skills, problem solving.
- Promotes and encourages maintenance of therapeutic home environment.
- Provides evaluation and management of the patient’ s care plan.
- Crisis intervention and counseling.
- May also include adjunctive therapies, such as PT, OT, SLP, MSW, and home health aide.
Benefits of Program
- Provide early assessment and intervention, decrease the patient’s level of confusion and prevent further exacerbation.
- Increase patient’s self care management through symptom recognition, medication compliance, and enhanced coping skills.
- Decrease the need for urgent/emergency care.
- Enhance patient/caregiver understanding and knowledge base of disease process.
- Facilitate transition from inpatient care to home, better continuity of care.
- Measurement and utilization of patient outcome data for modifying and improving clinical practice.
Fall Prevention Program
Who can qualify?
- Any patient who has a high risk for falls.
- Any patient who has a fall within the past six months.
- Any patient with dizziness issues.
- May also include other disciplines such as nursing for comprehensive medication management and teaching, social worker for assistance with community resources, and home health aides to assist for a short time with activities of daily living.
Benefits of program
- Provide early assessment and intervention, and to decrease the risk of falls related to lack of knowledge.
- Increase patient’s self management through symptom recognition and medication compliance.
- Decrease the need for urgent and emergent care.
- Enhance patient and caregiver understanding of disease process.
- Measurement and utilization of patient outcome data for modifying and improving clinical practice.
- Home safety evaluation
Wound Care Program
What is the wound care program?
A team of multidisciplinary clinicians who have had comprehensive training of wound management, including anatomy and physiology of the skin, causative factors, factors that enhance or impede the healing process, treatment options, and how to manage complicated wounds.
What does the wound care program offer?
- Specialized and trained wound care team
- Certified wound care nurses on staff
- Wound V.A.C. therapy
- Mentoring
- Staging and measuring competency
- Nutritional consultation as needed
Cardiac and Congestive Heart Failure Care
- Inotrope infusion for cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure
- Clinical tracks and teaching for patient self management of cardiac diseases
- Hypertension care and management
- After care of cardiac bypass surgery, including cardiac rehabilitation from therapists.
- Pulse oximetry
- Early notification to MD of possible exacerbations of diseases.
- Telephonic monitoring of early warning signs.
Diabetes Care
- Teaching based on national standards set by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for patient’s self management.
- Nutritional consultation as needed for nutrition teaching.
- Screening for sensory loss in feet.
- Insulin injection teaching.
- Clinical pathways and teaching for patient.
COPD Care
Stroke Care
- Multidisciplinary team approach, with frequent case conferences, and based on evidenced based practice to achieve optimal outcomes.
- Teaching and training patients and caregivers on warning signs to observe and report.
- Therapeutic drug monitoring.
- Teaching and training of a healthy lifestyle practices.
- Interventions to prevent further complications from strokes.
Joint Care
- Physician specific protocols implemented for therapy following joint replacement, including Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) equipment.
- Monitor therapeutic drug levels in home.