If you or your loved one has ever been admitted to the hospital, the thing you probably longed for most was to return to the safety and comfort of your own home. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), “…nearly one in five Medicare patients discharged from a hospital—approximately 2.6 million seniors—are readmitted within 30 days, at a cost of over $26 billion every year.”

Visiting Angels Can Provide Help for Seniors Who Want Prevent Hospitalization in Auburn, Manchester, Candia, NH, and Surrounding Areas

Visiting Angels of Auburn is committed to helping seniors stay at home where they are most comfortable. Our senior services offer a variety of comprehensive tools and resources to provide help for seniors.

Why Re-Admissions Occur

To address the high rate of hospital re-admissions, we must first understand why re-admissions occur.

The reasons for re-admission are varied, but Visiting Angels of Auburn often sees:

• Difficulty managing a disease or illness at home
• Exhaustion due to disrupted sleep and eating schedules while in the hospital
• Lack of follow-through with discharge instructions
• Medication issues - not taking appropriately, missing doses, etc.
• Lack of timely follow-up with medical appointments or lack of follow-through with medical instructions

Visiting Angels of Auburn Senior Services: A Three-Prong Approach

At Visiting Angels of Auburn, we address these issues and others by using a three-prong approach to provide help for seniors returning home after a hospital stay. This unique approach is what makes our care providers so successful and sets us apart from other agencies.

1. At the hospital – with our agency, we offer peace of mind. If a client is hospitalized, we visit him or her at the hospital upon request. Our help for senior services believes collaboration with the hospital discharge planner is necessary to help ensure success at home. During the hospital visit, we provide our client with a copy of ‘Ready- Set – Go Home’, a discharge planning guide. Specific items in the guide prompts the client to ask pertinent questions about issues that impact readmission, such as symptoms to report, times and dates of follow-up appointments, medications, special dietary needs, home equipment needs, etc. For maximum benefit, this guide should be initiated prior to discharge and used across the care continuum from the hospital to the home and brought to subsequent medical appointments. 
2. At the client’s home – Home care agencies are the ‘eyes and ears’ in the home. Caregivers have unique insight into why clients don’t follow up with appointments, why they miss medication doses, and other actions that can lead to re-admission. Caregivers can share this information with the case manager or supervisor so any issues can be addressed. Additionally, many of our caregivers are trained to provide palliative care. This training enables our caregivers to understand the importance of reporting changes in condition promptly so any problems can be addressed in a timely manner.
3. At the office – behind the scenes, Auburn senior services utilize tools and resources to identify and track clients who are at high risk for re-admission. Staff can help facilitate medication delivery, equipment, and food delivery services, offer medication and appointment reminders, and accompany clients to appointments.

Contact Us Today

Visiting Angels of Auburn is happy to provide help for seniors who want to recover from a hospital stay in Auburn, Manchester, Candia, or the surrounding area. Contact us to schedule a free, in-home consultation so we can create a customized care plan that is right for your loved one.

To learn more about how our help for senior services can help your loved one maintain their independence at home, contact us today!