In April 1991, Holland Hospital responded to a growing need for home health care by launching Home Health Services. The program hit the ground running with 20 registered nurses and home health aides visiting patients on weekdays. Since then, demand for the high-quality home services has fueled a steady growth in patients, staff and services.

“When we started, eight new patients per week was a busy week,” Jan Langeland recalls. “Now we provide services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and average eight new patients per day.”

Ten years later Home Health Services celebrated its 20^th anniversary with a staff of over 150 that now includes medical social workers, nutrition consultants, physical, occupational and speech therapists, and other specialists. In one year they completed more than 44,500 home visits.

Home Health staff works in close coordination with the area’s primary care physicians to deliver a wide range of specialized services, including:

• Short- and long-term care for elderly, disabled and chronically ill patients
• Care for cardiac, diabetes, lymphedema, and cancer patients
• Infusion therapy
• Psychiatric nursing care
• Wound and ostomy care
• Telemonitoring, in which selected patients use a simple device to transmit their daily health data to a central station for monitoring between home visits.

In addition, personal care services are offered for people who need assistance with daily tasks in order to live independently. This is a growing field in the home care industry as the boomer population ages, notes Langeland. In 2010, Holland Hospital nurses and aides provided 54,000 hours of personal care services.

For more information about Home Health Services, please call (616) 394-3346.