Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

You know, spring break can be a nice break if it is planned out. With having two kids in elementary school we always seem to have a tight schedule and be on the go here and there. Whether it be running my son to basketball or Cub Scouts or running my daughter to gymnastics or swimming, oh and don’t forget all the play dates with their friends…who’s house will they be at today and when do we need to pick them up?

You always feel like you are on the go and our house always seems like Grand Central Station. Spring break was a welcome vacation from all that.

We recently made a week long trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico over spring break with the kids. It was our first time going on this long distance of a trip and taking them out of the country, so we were always thinking of how things will go or ‘what if’ scenarios that might come up and detour our travel plans. But nothing major happened and it was a great time and experience for all of us.

However, the questions that came to my mind surrounding the kids and traveling are the same ones that could be asked and applied to our parents or someone else, anyone else for that matter that needs the supervision and care of another person.

I will say, it was enlightening and encouraging to see the number of people traveling in the care of others. I mean, not just people like us with kids but, elderly folks traveling and sight seeing on a charter of some kind with a group leader, a disabled person in a wheelchair being chauffeured around the hotel campus to and from the beach, young adults with someone on their arm directing them around the downtown streets through all the endless shops, and etc.

The point of this being the fact that people of all ages and of all places can be in need of personal care assistants. Whether in Mexico or Minnesota, our personal needs are the same.

One of the first steps you can take is to call upon a strong home care provider in your time of transition that can be there to answer your questions. It’s nice to know, Aspirience is here for you.

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

Having an elderly or ailing parent move in with you and your family rather than shuttling between two homes might make sense, but this is not the kind of move to make on a whim. Some due diligence and solid thought process must be done beforehand.

Consider these five tips that could help you address some important issues before you bring your parent under your roof and into your daily life:

- Get your legal ducks in a row. To protect your parent’s legal rights, be sure to have in place a will, an advance health-care directive or living will, a financial power of attorney, and a health care power of attorney. Also, decide before the move how much you and your siblings will each pay toward the cost of extra food, utilities, home retrofitting and nursing or other care. An attorney should draw up an agreement that spells out all the details; you can alter the document later if your parent’s medical or care expenses change.

- Understand the finances. If you pay for at least 50 percent of your parents’ expenses, you can claim them as dependents on your tax return. That means you’ll be able to deduct related medical expenses like doctor’s visits, dental care, insurance premiums, medical equipment and home care that exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. Modifications that you make to your house to accommodate your parent’s health care needs such as installing handrails, putting in a ramp, or widening doorways are also considered medical expenses.

- Retrofit your home. You will want your parent to feel as comfortable as possible in your home. Ideally, that means providing a separate bedroom and bathroom. If you don’t have a spare room, consider closing off a dining or living room with a wall or even just a curtain for privacy. Make sure that the rest of your home is safe and accessible: Install bright lighting in hallways, tuck electrical cords away from walkways, and replace door knobs with easier-to-open levers. Also, if your parent is disabled, lay down commercial grade rather than plush carpeting, which makes it easier to maneuver wheelchairs and walkers.

- Arrange for services. If you are not sure what health care services your parent will need, talk to his doctor or consult a geriatric care manager. If you need to hire a home care agency to assist your parent with basic activities, stress that it will allow him or her to remain more independent in the long run. Set ground rules for the aide in order to maintain some privacy for your own family. A paid caregiver needs to know that there may be some areas in your home that are just for you, your spouse and kids unless there is an emergency.

- Don’t overlook your family’s needs. Bringing a parent to live with you will affect your family’s lifestyle and emotions significantly. Be sure to take time for yourself and exercise, eat healthfully and keep up your social contacts as best you can. Explain to your kids that they may not be able to have friends over as much, or will need to be quiet after a certain time of the evening. Spend time just with your spouse or kids, even if that means asking someone to stay with your parent while your family has a special outing.

One of the best steps one can take is to partner with a strong home care provider in your time of transition and need. It can make a world of a difference in moving a parent.

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

Imagine this; your elderly mom was in and out of the hospital three times last summer. First with a serious liver ailment, then to treat an infection related to the liver problem and then finally to have her ‘angry’ gall bladder removed.

But as agonizing as those medical complications were, her doctors then decided it was time to leave the hospital. Mom hadn’t felt ready to go home, especially without the information and support she needed to properly heal.

This is a common scenario and one that too often leads to extended nursing home care, re-admittance to the hospital or even premature death in some cases. It just doesn’t seem right.

Hospitalization can be a turning point for older people and their caregivers, and all too often, they are the recipients of fragmented care. Problems moving patients from the hospital back home or into skilled nursing facilities have received increasing attention from senior and health care advocates in the past couple of years.

Strained budgets, weak state statutes, overwhelmed hospital discharge planners and Medicare’s failure to pay for better coordination of post hospital care have stifled efforts to fully address the problems.

That’s because people 65 and older are the fastest growing portion of the U.S. population. By 2050, the number of seniors is expected to more than double to 87 million.

It’s apparent that transitional care is rarely coordinated, leaving patients to fend for themselves as they move from hospital to nursing home or back home. Although state law requires hospitals to give patients telephone numbers of local senior agencies, they are not required to assess a patient’s home to see if it’s safe or to line up in home services for care.

Time and time again, we hear that people have been told it’s time to go home and they don’t feel ready. They are still recuperating, or the care instructions are too complicated. We know dozens who wind up back in the hospital because they were sent home too soon.

Another issue is that hospital discharge planners are overwhelmed and that hospitals do not invest enough in making sure they can adequately do their jobs for their patients. In part, because hospitals can’t bill Medicare for preparing a patient for discharge, so that process often gets cut short. Instead, because of the way hospitals are reimbursed for Medicare patient care, they are financially motivated to send patients home as soon as possible, even if it means the patient is likely to return with the same diagnosis for another costly hospital stay.

One of the best steps one can take is to partner with a strong home care provider in your time of transition and need. It can mean the difference between recovering well or not.

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

It’s not news to anyone that Walgreens, the general neighborhood pharmacy acquired OptionCare last year, making the 20-year-old division of Walgreen Corporation available nationwide in nearly every state.

Walgreens-OptionCare provides home care medical equipment and supplies for families referred by physicians, clinics, county healthcare workers, hospitals or walk-ins.

Their equipment includes respiratory and infusion equipment and services, wheelchairs, hospital beds, walkers, canes, lifts, crutches and custom orders.

I was talking with the General Manager of a local Minnesota Walgreens and he said eighty percent of their business is custom orders: everything from compression hose for circulatory problems to adaptive equipment for eating to custom bathroom accessories.

Some of the stores offer people an opportunity to try out equipment before acquiring it. Just like buying a car, take it for a test drive if you like it, buy it.

Essentially, a customer comes in and says, ‘I’m bringing mom home from the hospital and I don’t know what I need.’ They inquire as to what their home situation is, the caregiver they are working with and the status of mom’s needs.

Until a person is in that situation, you literally have no idea what you might need. Now things have changed for better when you need medical supplies accompanied with home care services.

What does this mean for the home care services world?

This is a great partnership in the making for us to be able to provide a reliable source for medical supplies with convenient locations at affordable prices. It’s a complimentary match for both of us.

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

PRESS RELEASE – Shakopee, Minnesota, February 11, 2008 – Aspirience Home Care to sponsor The Alzheimer’s Association and Mayo Clinic’s A Meeting of the Minds, The Dementia Conference.

A Meeting of the Minds: The Dementia Conference 2008 is the most comprehensive and prestigious dementia conference in the upper Midwest. The Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota Chapter and Mayo Clinic are excited to hold this day of inspiration and information.

This annual conference, being held March 29^th, 2008 at the St. Paul RiverCentre, St. Paul, Minnesota brings together national and local experts for a full day of education, information and support.

The event is designed to equip families, professionals and people with early Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias with the skills to understand and address issues throughout the continuum of the disease.

The conference includes an exhibit area, where sponsors, such as Aspirience Home Care, and exhibitors can have face-to-face conversations with event attendees and volunteers.

Other conference features:

Three keynote addresses by national experts.
Three breakout sessions led by dementia professionals.
Exhibitors on hand to provide information on services available.
Continuing education for health care professionals.

In 2007, the conference attracted nearly 750 attendees, approximately 50% of whom were people with dementia or their family members. This year the expected turnout will be even higher. A copy of the conference brochure can be found at www.alzmndak.org.