Connecting The Dots of Healthcare

Monday morning I keynoted the Georgia Assoc. for Home Health Agencies (GAHHA) annual meeting on St. Simons Island. During lunch, I had the chance to have great conversation with Kay Smith, RN. Kay and her husband Hal were co-recipients of  the Captain C. C. Dudley Award  for “outstanding leadership and dedication in pursuit of excellence in provision of Home Health services in Georgia and unselfish devotion and dedication to GAHHA.” The Smiths have operated Three Rivers Home Health Services, Inc. of Eastman, Georgia since 1979. 

During my keynote, I commented on how a number of physicians, through ignorance, don’t understand the value Homecare can contribute to not only their patients, but to their practice and economic well being. Kay told me when they first started their homecare business in 1979, she met with a group of 30 doctors who were… well, downright hostile. She said when she described what homecare nurses could do for patients, many doctors became very defensive, and “almost attacked us!” One of the physicians in the audience was J. Roy Roland, MD before he ran for congress to become Congressman J. Roy Roland, MD, (D-GA) for 12 years, (1983-1995)

Kay said that physician referrals were few and far between initially until they started to refer patients with fecal impactions when they realized if they sent these patients to homecare, THEY woudn’t have to do the disempaction! (Kay shared with me her “pap” recipe… a bag of dried prunes, a bag of dried peaches, a bag of dried apricots, with water in a crock pot, and cook down…. administer 1/2 cup tid then titrate when results start to flow.) But once physicians recognized that homecare could help them with this particular problem, they found other problems they either didn’t have the time, or desire to personally treat, that homecare could help them with.

The initial hostile relationship, through physician education, gave way to supportive cooperative relationships that have allowed Three Rivers to grow and care for patients in 18 central Georgia counties. Congressman Rowland became a staunch supporter of homecare and helped with legislation that allowed homecare to rise in national prominence and position it as a solution for healthcare in the new millenium. All because homecare took on a shi**y problem no one else wanted to deal with.

Today’s shi**y problems may very well become fertilizer for your future growth and prosperity.