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Grant to Help Seniors Return Home after Hospital Stays
By Karen Shideler, The Wichita Eagle
September 16, 2008
Four Wichita organizations will use a $1.3 million grant to try to make sure that senior citizens and people with physical challenges can return to their homes after a hospitalization.
Via Christi Health System, Wesley Medical Center, the Independent Living Resource Center and the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging will work over the next three years to develop and test a plan, which eventually could be used by all Kansas hospitals.
Now, patients often are sent to nursing homes once they no longer need hospital care, because they don't have the help they need at home. But "nursing home care is very expensive. It's also not what seniors prefer to choose," said Kathy Greenlee, secretary of the Kansas Department on Aging.
The longer patients stay in a nursing home, she said, the harder it is for them to return to their homes.
The four organizations will spend 18 months evaluating the way hospitals discharge patients and how they interact with community services to "make sure there are good connections between those two systems," Greenlee said.
The second 18 months will be spent testing the model they come up with. If it works as expected, it would be expanded to all hospitals.
"Nursing home placement will continue to be an option," Greenlee said, but most seniors see it as a last resort.
DeAnn Most, senior services director at Wesley, said patients who heal at home tend to remain more independent because they're in a comfortable, familiar place. "There's more of a sense of 'Hey, this is my home, I'm going to get better.' "
The grant comes from the federal government through its Aging and Disability Resource Center program. Kansas was one of seven states sharing more than $8 million to increase awareness of home- and community-based long-term care options.
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