Community Care for Seniors

Bonita Shelton: My name is Bonita Shelton, I am the oldest daughter of 10 children. My mother is 81 years old. I had to make the decision to put her in a nursing home, and that was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my entire life. This program here through Optum has proved to be a source of comfort for me, because I can be assured that my mother is being taken care of.

One of the things that I appreciate is the communication between the nurse practitioner and myself.

Kathy Robinson-Waits: The greatest impact that we have as a group is the knowledge that we provide family members in order to make effective, realistic decisions regarding their families care.

 Well, I love my patients. And you have to be their advocate. When they say that their sick, then I need to communicate to the staff that they're actually sick. What it is that we're going to do for this patient, right now, to make them feel better.

Dianne Patterson:  With the Optum program, communication is at the heart of it. The communication between the staff and the nurse practitioner. The communication between the nurse practitioner and the physician. And then of course, the communication between the resident and/or their family.

Gretchen Black: I think the biggest benefit for having Optum in a nursing facility is they bridge the gap between the nursing staff and your medical director and his staff. They are there for extra help and extra support.

Kristin Quiles: The nurse practitioner is so involved, and that's one of the things we love about the Optum program, is that they initiate phone calls to the family. And they initiate phone calls to other physicians and consulting physicians. And then follow up with the family to let them know, which gives them peace of mind.

                                                            We take care of a lot of people here, and she takes care of one person at a time, and lets us know everything that they need. It helps tremendously.

Dr. Bruce Lee:Optum really, really ministers to the resident or the family members that need a lot of assurance, that have a lot of questions. Those residents have a tremendous ease, and you can just see the level of anxiety diminish.

Patty Brennen: It really is a care agenda, and our goal is to provide the best care for the resident. There are so many values that it brings, that extra set of eyes, someone that's going to be in the facility that can see their loved one. Someone that they'll have a relationship with. I think that the nurse practitioner brings a different relationship to families that we talk to them about some different things that are more in depth, life and death, and disease trajectory, that the doctor doesn't always sit down and have those conversation with families.

Dianne:   With having a nurse practitioner in the building from Optum, then you're getting a better response to anything that is urgently going on with a resident. It's not that we can't call a physician on the phone, because we certainly can. But we're going to be talking to him, and he may be involved with other residents, he may be on the road. But he's not here to lay eyes on that resident, whereas with the nurse practitioner, even if she's not in the building, she will come, and she will lay eyes on that resident. And there is nothing that takes the place of actually seeing, touching the resident, to know what's going on with them.

So, that is a fantastic thing to have.

Bonita: When you have a nurse practitioner who's going to pass on the information better than you can, it makes sure that it's taking care off ... that makes such a big difference. The nurse practitioner is not just a caregiver for my mom, but it's a caregiver for me. She's caring for me, and for my feelings. It's been really a blessing.