eOncology Report

 

eOncology Report

eOncology Report

Continuing care after the patient has gone home

Lynne Patton, L.C.S.W.

Lynne Patton, L.C.S.W.

Providence Home Services

Patients often move from one home services program to another, prompting a change in staff and often care protocols. Depending upon circumstances, this can be stressful to the patient and affect care.

To better care for patients who have a life-changing illness, Providence Home Services has established Providence Connections Palliative Care
Consultation Service, a team of living-well specialists who help your patient navigate the health care system and find community resources.

Consultants often spend an hour or more with patients, which allows them to hold difficult conversations and address challenging topics.

Connections can involve
Providence Home Health,
Providence Home Health Palliative Care and
hospice. The connections team includes doctors, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social workers and chaplains who can provide information specific to your patient’s diagnosis. They also can help with family or physician communication, help patients identify health care wishes, and give advice on pain and symptom management.

Consultations can be held at Providence Portland, Providence St. Vincent and Providence Willamette Falls medical centers and in the outpatient setting where the patient lives. (Plans are being made to provide service at Providence Milwaukie Hospital and Providence Newberg Medical Center.)

Consultants often spend an hour or more with patients, which allows them to hold difficult conversations and address challenging topics. Team members also are available as a resource to physicians. A
physician’s order is required for a consultation.

Providence Home Health is available to patients who meet homebound criteria and who require a skilled service (R.N., M.H.R.N., P.T., O.T., S.T.). Social work and home health aides can be added on to these services.

Some patients receiving home health care may need a greater level of care while they seek curative treatment for their disease. This is where Providence Home Health Palliative Care can help. While the patient still must meet homebound criteria, specially trained nurses act as case managers, monitoring the patient’s status to alleviate pain and other symptoms and prevent re-hospitalization. Home health palliative care is also an appropriate option for patients who are not yet ready for hospice or who do not want it.

No matter where a patient is in his or her disease process, the goal is to make each transition seamless and humane. All services are supplemented as needed with
Providence Home Medical Equipment, oxygen, home infusion or specialty pharmacy.

If you would like a Providence Connections Palliative Care Consultation guide with suggestions on talking with sick patients and how to have a family meeting, call the program at 503-215-CONX (2669). To order a consultation using Centricity, use the generic referral form and send to the Connections desktop by flagging Connections, Prov. One of our nurse practitioners will provide a consultation.

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