2007 Annual Report - Town of Wilton

that included screenings, health classes andcase conferences – accounted for a total of136,994 school health visits. The primaryreasons that students visited the school healthoffices were for treatment of acute illness andthe administration of medications.This was a highly active year for Nursing &Home Care in helping to maintain Wiltonresidents’ health, prevent illness and detecthealth problems at an early stage. Healthpromotion visits numbered 346. The Agencyprovided 498 blood pressure screenings andadministered more than 2,089 flu shots and74 pneumonia vaccines to Wilton residents.Nursing & Home Care provided 563 preschoolscreening visits in Wilton and a total of549 seniors were served at the Ogden Housesenior clinic.With the significant federally-imposedreductions in Medicare, more of our frailelderly are increasingly at risk. This isparticularly true for those with long-termchronic illnesses. Not surprisingly therefore,there has been a continued need for theAgency’s Health Supervision services inconjunction with the Department of SocialServices, which provides care to this mostunder-served sector of patients who needcare but are without insurance or theresources to pay for essential care.Nursing & Home Care expanded its HomeTeleHealth program this year. Using the latesttelecommunications technologies, HomeTeleHealth is an innovative method by whichNursing & Home Care is able to provide care,monitoring and education to patients in theirhomes. With Home TeleHealth, nurses areable to make “personal” visits to patientswithout leaving the Agency. This has becomeparticularly important in inclement winterweather when the roads are impassable.The nurse and patient are able to engage inpersonal, live, two-way interaction with clear,complete, visual and verbal communication.Accurate measurement and assessmentis made possible with digital, telephonicperipheral equipment such as glucose meters,IV pumps, pulse oximeters and stethoscopes.With Home TeleHealth, our nurses are able tocare for more patients and clinical outcomesare improved.Once again this year, Nursing & Home Careand its affiliates achieved accreditation fromthe Community Health Accreditation Program(CHAP). Nursing & Home Care participatesin nationally established patient satisfactionand clinical outcome benchmarking projects.The Agency has met or exceeded the nationalthreshold in critical patient care outcomeindications, determined by the federalgovernment as a measure of high quality care.Nursing & Home Care has been selectedto participate in a national demonstrationproject on home health pay-for-performanceto be conducted by the Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS). The project isdesigned to determine the impact of incentivepayments to home health agencies for improvingthe quality of care of Medicare beneficiaries whoreceive home health services.In spite of diminishing State and Federalfunding support for home health care, and costPublic Safety & Welfare24