Approximately 85% of Helping Hands’ patients are the elderly, being aged 65 or older; the remaining are patients who are younger and require physical or occupational therapy. Helping Hands’ Broward County location allows access to the 15.3% of the elderly population in South Florida (1). Medicare is the primary payment received due to the higher percentage of patients being …show more content…
Helping Hands offers skilled wound care. Wounds usually occur for several reasons and range from chronic to acute. Wounds are primarily caused by standard skin aging, from post-surgery complications, pressure sores, or foot ulcers due to poor blood flow (2). Registered nurses (RNs) will work with the patient’s doctor to develop a treatment plan for the successful management of the wound. This entitles the trained nurses to visit the patients several times per week to clean and dress the wound while also monitoring the patient’s health progress and determine which treatment works the best for him or her. Physical therapists will also aid the wound care patient gain mobility from their wounds. Helping Hands offers palliative care, which is for patients with advanced illnesses who do not want to continue medical treatment. Illnesses include cancer, kidney and heart failure, and Parkinson’s. The palliative nurse focuses on providing patients with relief from symptoms and stress of the serious illness (3). Palliative care can be given to any patient at any age to help improve the quality of …show more content…
Skilled nursing care patients face chronic conditions and may have respiratory infections, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, or they may be recovering from a stroke. The skilled nurses assess the patients and develop a plan to help treat the patient such as providing medication, entering IVs, and being a support system (4). The nurses then assist the patients in being able to function in their everyday activities. Some patients may require in-home intravenous therapy; intravenous therapy nurses aid the patient by administering medication by injections to help regulate any conditions and pain the patient may have. The registered nurses are well trained to deal with patients that have diabetes. The diabetic care consists of promoting positive health to help reduce the amount of hospital visits and injecting insulin for those patients unable to do so