THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020576
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Jessie Hill is terrified of nursing homes and fretting that the city's recently announced layoffs will force him to die in one.
Hill, 71 and bound to a wheelchair, has been able to live at home for more than three years because nurse's aide Linda Donaldson has come around five days a week to make sure he gets out of bed, eats a good meal and has a decent place to live.
The city brought them together in 1991, and now the city manager's move toward a smaller government threatens to split them up.
City officials announced this week that they were closing down Portsmouth's Home Health Care Department - which provides Hill's services - and laying off the four full-time employees.
The move was based on an outside consultant's efficiency study, but the study didn't mention the 30 part-time nurse's aides who could lose their jobs in the shutdown, nor did it discuss the 60 patients who have come to depend on the city's services. The consultants said private companies in the region would offer the same care.
But the patients who are just learning of the move seem uncertain where to turn.
Although private agencies in the area said they will accept the city's clients for the same price they are paying now, the patients have to take the initiative to call and ask for the services.
Some patients are baffled by the city's decision to end services. Some are uncertain about the procedures for getting new health care. To others, the change in routine is frightening.
Hill said he's afraid that if he loses Donaldson, he will be put in a nursing home.
``I feel like I won't live much longer if I'm put in a nursing home,'' Hill said. ``I want to stay here if I can.
``I don't think I'll be able to find someone. I can't pay them, I don't have that much money. I need some help. It's real bad what they're doing.''
All of the patients in the city program are qualified for home health care that will be paid through Medicaid. Most patients came out of a hospital where they were given a choice of going into a nursing home or receiving care from a home health agency.
Portsmouth's department matched patients with nurse's aides, who serve as working companions. The aides do a variety of things, from reminding patients to take medication, to performing light housekeeping, cooking and helping them bathe.
A city nurse visits each patient once a month to check on them.
``Several families have called us here really concerned that there is no lapse in the service, that they'll receive the same quality and that the nurse aide will be able to stay with the case,'' said Marti Gnilka, a nursing administrator with Familycare, a home-care nursing agency in Portsmouth.
``We tell them to have the aide come in, and we'll set up the employment process,'' Gnilka said. ``Continuity of care is real important - it's one of the key issues in maintaining care. Aides become like one of family.''
The city originally planned to lay off the staff and close the department July 12, but extended the deadline until July 27 to ensure all patients are notified and transferred to another agency.
``It's hard on the patients,'' said Donaldson, who has worked for the city for six years. ``They like the one-on-one they get from the aides. And I feel the same about my patients. I want to stay with my patients.''
Ella M. Corprew, the home-care administrator for the city, said that without home care, most of her patients would have to move into nursing homes.
She said she and her staff are giving their clients a list of other agencies in the region that can provide home care.
There are only two agencies in Portsmouth that provide the same care offered through the city. They are Familycare and Home Life Health Care, a division of Portsmouth General Hospital.
Corprew said there are also a number of private agencies throughout the region that provide home health care.
Gnilka said Familycare is able to add patients. But she said the agency would be more likely to take city patients who have aides willing to come to the agency as well.
Rebecca Copeland, a 47-year-old patient with multiple sclerosis, has depended on the city's services for 23 years. She lives with her father, Wilton M. Copeland, 71. He said they'll be fine, but he worries about elderly patients.
``The older people don't have anyone to lean on,'' Wilton Copeland said. ``They don't know what to do, or how to call the agencies. Those are the ones it hurts. Although there is nothing we can do with the way the economy is, it's hard to get them to understand.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo] MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
WHAT: Portsmouth officials are closing down the city's Home
Health Care Department - which sends nurse's aides to residents'
homes.
WHY: An outside consultant's efficiency study recommended it.
EFFECT: The 60 patients, including Jesse Hill (shown above with
nurse's aide Linda Donaldson), who depended on the service must find
alternative care.
by CNB