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There's No Place Like Home
Home Care Services lets patients heal in the comforts of home

Great health care doesn’t end when our patients leave our door. The Health System goes home with patients in the form of visiting nurses, private duty services, medical equipment, infusion services, respiratory therapy, specialized wheelchair seating and more. The entire range of health care services a patient may need at home can be found in one of the five departments that make up Home Care Services. This 24/7, 365-day-a-year operation takes staff right into the most personal of all spaces—the patient’s home—to ensure they can safely and comfortably recover from illness or injury.

Each Day

HomeMedHomeMed clinical pharmacist Jamie Tharp (left) trains patient Kathy Jones on the proper way to flush an intravenous catheter.


HomeMed
100 employees, 4,000 prescriptions, 5,300 patient orders, 2,300 deliveries every month

HomeMed is a pharmacy that provides a full spectrum of medications and supplies. Licensed pharmacists, nurses and registered dietitians contribute to the clinical care management and preparation of special medications in a state-of-the-art facility. Often, with proper medication training and education in their homes, patients can avoid hospitalization.

 

 

Michigan Visiting NursesU-M visiting nurse Kelly Piekarek, R.N., cares for patient Alan Dale Hegwood at his home in Manchester, Mich.Michigan Visiting Nurses
170 employees, 5,600 patient visits every month

Michigan Visiting Nurses provides skilled home health care to pediatric, maternal, and adult patients recovering from illness or injury. MVN nurses and physical, occupational and speech therapists are able to meet the patient’s changing needs. “We’re the eyes and ears of the physician,” says Nancy Rose, R.N., director, Michigan Home Care Nursing. MVN enjoys a 95 percent patient satisfaction rate and meets or exceeds national bench-marks on reducing hospital readmissions and emergency room visits.

 

Wheelchair Sitting ServiceChris Savoie of Wheelchair Seating Services adjusts a patient’s wheelchair at High Point School.
Wheelchair Sitting Services
25 employees, 125 custom chair deliveries every month, nearly 1,000 chairs in process

Working with each patient’s health care team, Wheelchair Seating Services provides professionally fitted wheelchairs and customized mobility products for patients with limited mobility. WSS offers on-site expertise at many UMHS specialty clinics and numerous school systems. The service has more on-staff certified rehabilitation technology engineers than any other group in Michigan.

 

 

MedEquipHome Care Services technician Tony Dahl performs function and maintenance checks on a portable ventilator.

MedEquip
100 employees, 6,500 patient orders every month

MedEQUIP provides equipment, supplies and clinical respiratory care to patients, working closely with UMHS discharge planning staff to coordinate delivery to the patient’s hospital room so they have what they need when they go home. MedEQUIP also manages Michigan’s largest home ventilator program with nearly 90 patients on continuous service and more than 30 ambulatory and primary care delivery locations.

 

Michigan Visiting CareConnie Barnes, R.N., visits with patient Ernesto Galan.

Michigan Visiting Care
150 employees, 3,500 hours nursing care, 1,000 hours home health aide care every month, 15,000 flu shots each season

Michigan Visiting Care offers private duty home care nursing, home health aides, community wellness and immunization programs, and the House Calls nurse practitioner program. Home health aides provide assistance with daily living, personal care, housekeeping, transportation and companionship. Nurse practitioners with House Calls provide primary care, including management of chronic disease, consultative care with the patient’s primary care provider and geriatric case management. —CM

 

 

Did you know?

VISIT www.med.umich.edu/homecare TO READ MORE ABOUT HOME CARE SERVICES.

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