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Medical Group Hits the Road
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CLIFTON PARK - We've all experienced it before. Loud children, long waits, uncomfortable seats and gossip magazines old enough to have stories that feature the couple of Sean "Puffy" Combs and Jennifer Lopez. It is the doctor's waiting room. |
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| It's a minor inconvenience for most, but a major undertaking for quadriplegics, the frail and elderly. And for many of these people, the answer for consistent health care would either be a lengthy stay at the hospital or checking into a nursing home. Not any more. Schenectady-based Homedical Associates is in the business of providing the rarest of health-care birds: the house call. "I think it's great," said Grace Kintner, 95, at her Clifton Park home. Over the summer, Kintner broke both her hip (which had to be replaced) and her pelvis in successive accidents just weeks apart. Combined with being functionally blind, Kintner has become essentially homebound, making the house calls from Homedical Associates a necessity - and a godsend. "They have just been incredible," said Kintner's niece, Eve Kintner, who has moved in to help care for her aunt. "It really takes a lot of planning for us to go out to the doctor's office, so this is great." Established for people with chronic physical, emotional and cognitive disabilities, Homedical Associates offers a full array of care. Grace sees some six or seven health-care workers at her home five days a week. Aside from regular visits from nurse practitioner Loretta Ciraulo, a physical therapist helps Grace through the rigors of rehabilitation and aides assist her with everyday tasks, like dressing and bathing. Regularly conversing with the staff doctors Kevin Costello, David Hornick, Roberta Miller, and Michael Welch, Ciraulo has also been able to administer preventative medicine. While recovering under Ciraulo's watchful eye, the Homedical team was able to catch a case of pneumonia in its early stages, preventing a potentially lengthy hospital stay. "That's the thing about the elderly ... they only seek care if they are very sick," said Ciraulo. "But we caught the pneumonia very early, and (Kintner) was over it in about a week and a half. It really is prevention at its best." Of a potential trip to the hospital, Grace said, "Hospitals are fine, but who really wants to go there?" The reasons for starting such a practice are plentiful. Consider the following: About 1 in 20 persons over the age of 65 is disabled to the extent that office-based medical care is inaccessible. The fastest growing population segment consists of people over the age of 85, of which 40 percent cannot perform at least one activity of daily living. There are approximately 68,000 people over the age of 100. In 40 years, that number is expected to be 1 million. The cost of homecare is significantly lower when compared to the total cost of hospitalization, emergency room visits, and ambulance transportation. Homedical Associates participates with Medicare, Medicaid, and most area health insurers. For more information, contact Homedical Associates at 346-3100 or online at www.homedicalassociates.com. "Sometimes, our patients may have to wait a little while for us," admitted Ciraulo. "But at least they're waiting at home."
©The Record 2005
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© Use of Content by permission of Homedical Associates only |
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