Health

H ome health is a growing industry buoyed by the aging population, as well as a transforming health care industry that favors home care over care in medical facilities, such as nursing homes, whenever possible. Julie Boon, clinical manager in VNA Care Network & Hospice's Worcester office, has watched this unfold throughout her career. She entered the field as a nurse in 1998 after earning her bachelor's degree, and eventually moved into administrative roles. She joined VNA's Worcester office as a clinical manager two years ago, and oversees two groups of clinical staff, including nurses and physical, occupational and speech therapists, who provide home care to patients of all ages and needs. In a recent interview, Boon explained how the role of home-based health care professionals is changing, and why it's a particularly rewarding career. Q: What does your job as clinical manager entail? A: Primarily, the role (includes) staff support as well as making sure that any patient-related issues are addressed. The staff support is particularly important because if you're doing what you need to do for them, then they can best take care of our patients. So really, both of those things are key. Q: What is it about home care that draws people to the field? A: You're truly able to get a (bird's-eye) view of what a patient is dealing with at home. There's a lot of things that contribute to why a person may have repeated hospitalizations or why they may have a difficult time returning to a level of wellness, so you get to really see that. Q: How has this field changed during your career? A: The Medicare reimbursement system has changed significantly over the past few years, which causes you to look at (operations) more closely. We also find that the acuity level of patients is different, as people are trying to move towards the home setting. Patients who, 10 years ago, I would not have expected to see … at home, now they're at home. And we're assisting them with (medical) man- agement at home, and we do find that people do quite well. Years ago, I wouldn't have expected that. And what it does is chal- lenge the field staff to develop a skillset to help take care of those people. Q: Can home health services provide an adequate alternative to nursing home care? A: It's going to depend on a lot of things — how sick the patient is but also what kind of support they have at home. Both of those are key and the support at home is particu- larly key … We do find that people want to be at home. Q: What do patients and their families care most about when it comes to home care? A: There's some basic things like reliability, punctuality, but then there's also caring — genuine interest in the wellbeing of their family member, as well as the whole family. Q: What should people look for in a home health agency? A: Flexibility, that's first and foremost … You want to see an overall (technical skillset) but I think that home care demands a flexibility because there's so many variables and things that change. This interview was conducted and edited by Emily Micucci. Clinical manager, VNA Care Network & Hospice Julie Boon { Profile } 34 HEALTH • Spring 2015 P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I

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