Home Health

Home Health Care includes a comprehensive plan of treatment and rehabilitation,
made in collaboration with the patient and their primary care provider. This plan includes
both acute and chronic care services. Vermont’s Non-Profit Home Care System is
committed to;

1. Medically necessary, cost-effective home health services throughout the state;
2. Local community governance, involvement, responsibility and accountability;
3. Promotion of patient self-determination and independence;
4. High standards of quality performance and continuous quality improvement;
5. Coordination and collaboration in the organization and delivery of services
   rather than competition in providing care.

Skilled Home Health Services: one or a combination of the following disciplines: Nursing, Physical, Occupational or Speech Therapy, Licensed Nursing Assistants, and Medical Social Worker.  These professionals work with the patient, their families and their primary care provider to create an individualized plan of care.

Palliative & Hospice Care

Palliative care is a philosophy and practice of care designed to provide specialized comfort and support for individuals of all ages with a life-threatening illness. The related word “palliate” means “to relieve symptoms of pain and suffering.”

Likely diagnoses might include cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis and others. Palliative care might also be appropriate for anyone who has had multiple hospitalizations or emergency department visits over the previous year.

Palliative Care:

• Is an approach to care that is foremost patient-centered and addresses the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patient within the context of family and community
• OEVNA uses a team approach to care for a patient and their family with attention to the physical, spiritual, psychosocial and emotional aspects of living with a life-threatening condition
• Can be provided from the point of diagnosis of a life-threatening, chronic or terminal illness—not just in the last six months of a person’s life
• May be provided in a home setting, outpatient clinic, or in a care facility setting
• Provides expert pain and symptom management
• Encourages advance care planning, including advance directives, through ongoing discussion among providers, the patient and the family
• Allows cure-oriented treatment, such as chemotherapy, to continue
• May be covered through private insurance, Medicaid or the Medicare Home Care Benefit
• Requires a referral from your primary care provider

Hospice Services

The end of life is like the beginning of life: a period of waiting and expectation followed by a certain amount of intensity to transition.  For those dying from a terminal illness, and for their families, hospice has brought new hope and meaning. Hospice is a specialized health care program emphasizing the management of pain and other symptoms associated with end of life. Care for the patient is managed by their primary care provider and a multidisciplinary team comprised of our hospice medical director, nurses, aides, social worker, therapists, clergy and volunteers.

Concern for the total family is part of what makes hospice different from traditional forms of health care. Ideally, the patient is cared for at home by family or other significant individuals allowing them to remain in their home or setting of their choice for end of life care.

To this end, Hospice staff assist the family, not only in providing care, but also in coping with the effects of the illness. Hospice assists the family in achieving the highest quality of life for their loved one.

When is Hospice appropriate?

Hospice requires the referral from the patient’s primary care provider following specific criteria. Some illnesses appropriate for hospice care include cancer, heart disease, lung disease, AIDS, ALS and the later stages of Alzheimer’s and other dementias among others. Patients are eligible for hospice care when their physician determines that, given the natural course of the illness, life expectancy is six months or less. At that time, symptom management and comfort care become the primary focus as continuing treatment is no longer beneficial or desired by the patient.  Many people continue to receive Hospice care past this point in successive 6 month increments.