Abbey St. Claire Quality Care Services and Certifications is a home health care company that provides medical services that include, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and nursing from medical professionals who qualified and competent to handle other services such as bathing and eating.
For the sake of records, the company has compiled an extensive records and information that provides details of funding and state dealings. For many consumers, the cost of home healthcare warrants a proactive planning that weighs on the budget and income level. Abbey St. Claire Quality Care Services and Certifications charge a high of their visits a week to an approximate of $ 18,000 a year. Clearly, this is expensive for many low-income earners. Determining a full picture of what one might part of for healthcare requires that one looks into the public programs that one is legible. It is also important to explore the payments these programs cover as well as the private funding that are available. The US department of Healthcare and Human services reported that the average cost of healthcare per hour across the United States is $ 29 per hour. However, these costs vary widely across different states. Still, home nursing plays a critical role in healthcare especially for senior citizens.
Medicare.Gov, the official site for Medicare reports that long term services refers to medical services provided for people with chronic illness or disability. The intention of long-term care is to meet the needs of victims with such problems. In addition to helping with chronic conditions, long-term care provides support services such as activities of daily life like eating, bathing, and daily errands. By 2020, US Medicare project that 12 million older Americans will need long-term services. The problem with these services is that Medicare do not provide finances for them unless the condition is medically related. For low-income earners, the state and federal sponsored Medicaid can provide financial assistance for health services for older people. In some states, Medicaid can assist with long-term services at home or in community nursing. However, to be eligible, one has to prove that they have no resources to take care of themselves. The rest of the finances must come from either insurance or personal savings.
Economically, the cost of making weekly home visits for six months for the sake monitoring blood pressure of an elderly client is far much lower than the cost of being hospitalized for a stroke. In the state of Illinois, for example, a home visit for one hour will go for a minimum of $ 29. If the visit takes more than three hours a day, then it approximately $ 90 for one visit that translates to for approximately $ 2160 for the six months weekly visit. Let us compare that to the cost of hospitalization for a stroke. Hall, Levant, and DeFrances (2009) reported that in 2008, direct medical cost of stroke was about $ 18.8 billion, half of the amount accrued from hospitalization. At the same time, stroke was the number four cost of death for the period between 2008- 2009. During that period approximately 800, 000 people were hospitalized for stroke. Clearly, stroke hospitalization is far much more expensive that home care.
Standhope, M & Lancaster, J. (2010) report that the concept of upstream thinking plays a critical role in alleviating the chances of getting sick but also getting prepared for any eventuality. The concept requires that instead of waiting to seek medical help when sick, it is better to seek wellness and balance of staying healthy before one gets sick. This is an easy concept that can help solve many problems for many families struggling with financial problems. It goes to the root cause of the problem of sickness and proposes a solution that is premeditated and reliable. While it is consensually agreed that upstream thinking reduces the cost of healthcare and the effects, few people in the medical profession takes it seriously. This points out that the society is one that is hysterical and responds to situations as they come.
In the article, Integrating Environmental Health into Clinical Nursing, Butterfiled argues that nurses can play a critical role by integrating environmental health into practices by examining hazards that affect the health of individuals and communities and responding to the patients while pointing out these issues. The article reinforces that nurse play a critical role the general welfare of the community by protecting the health of the people of different socio-economic dynamics. The nurses can provide credible and sound scientific information about environmental concern using the social capital that they built by their daily contacts. The economic side to this argument is that it is a cheaper way of sensitizing the community about environmental issues.
According to the author, the most salient issue worthy of research is the environmental origins of health problems manifested in the population. Solving the problem requires distributive and strategic actions. The author believes that solving environmental problems would solve many medical problems.
References
Butterfiled, P & Osaki, C. (2012). Integrating Environmental Health into Clinical Nursing. University of Washington.
Hall, M & S.Levant. (2009). Hospitalization for Stroke in US hospitals. Retrieved, September, 12, 2002 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db95.htm
Medicare. Govt ( 2012) What is Long Term Care http://www.medicare.gov/longtermcare/static/home.asp Retrieved Sept. 12, 2002
Standhope, M & Lancaster, J. (2010). Foundations of Nursing in the Community: Community-Oriented Practice, (3rd ed.) St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier.
