April 7th, 2020

Dr. Lucy

The biggest challenge in the home care and hospice area are being recognized in new emergency regulations and laws is being included as essential workers we have had to ensure that at the state and federal levels we are seen an as vital component to keep frail and elderly at home with needed medical and personal care. the Second is as with everyone lack of adequate PPE

Tags: coping, Health Care Heroes, PPE

() |
Comments (2)

Comments (2)

Lucy, much of the work I do within the ED at a large academic hospital in the the South focuses on returning elderly patients to their homes and ensuring these vulnerable patients have the resources they need (HH, PT, OT, prescriptions, etc.) to get through this. I share your view that these in-home providers are truly the “front lines” of this and we need to somehow streamline or improve the communication between EDs, PCPs, and in-home providers. Each shift I feel conflicted between our patients’ potential risk for functional decline and ED re-visits as compared to their increased risk for infection by having the true “front-liners” in their homes. Thank you for what you do!

()
| Reply

Hi Lucy:

Thanks for joining our conversation. If you were in charge, how would you deal with the challenges? What would make the most difference?

()
| Reply