REPOST: Caring for the elderly: Faith based nursing facility discovers compassion

In Los Altos, California, representatives from government agencies and medical organizations gathered to discuss how they could improve their delivery of healthcare to their elder patients. This article from The Washington Times has the details:

LOS ALTOS, Ca, October 27, 2013 – The group gathered in the District Attorney’s conference room included representatives from 27 county agencies including Elder Protective Services, the Sheriff’s department, Health and Human Services and the County Coroner, as well as a handful of hospital administrators, doctors and nurses. Collectively they constitute an organization charged with making sure the elderly are well cared for, particularly at the end of their life.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how they might do this better.

The medical examiner spoke first. Her presentation included image after image of those who had suffered severely from bedsores and other preventable conditions at a variety of nursing homes and hospitals. When she came to the last slide she paused and with tears in her eyes she said, “You would never see this at Oak Knoll or at any of its sister facilities around the country,” a reference to a local nursing home she had visited that provides faith-based, non-medical nursing care. (Due to confidentiality requirements, the name of the facility has been changed.)

A skin specialist from one of the state’s largest health care systems spoke next. Three times during her presentation on the treatment of bedsores she referred to the avoidance of this condition and the quality of care provided by the staff at Oak Knoll, noting that this was accomplished “without the use of any medical treatment.”

Finally, it was time to hear from a representative from Oak Knoll.

She began by making it clear that although her facility doesn’t provide medical care in the conventional sense of the term, she has nothing but respect and appreciation for those working in that profession. She went on to explain that her staff had been thoroughly trained in taking care of their patients’ physical needs – feeding, bathing, bandaging, getting in and out of bed and so forth – but that a significant portion of their work focused on maintaining the spiritually uplifted mental environment they knew was conducive to health and healing.

Image Source: washtimes.com

Asked by one of the nurses if those coming to Oak Knoll with pre-existing bedsores had ever recovered and, if so, how this was achieved, she replied, “With prayer and continued proper care.”
She also noted that the treatment provided at Oak Knoll is “patient-assisted,” meaning that not just staff members but the patients themselves are involved with this prayer-based, compassion-centered approach to healing.

Although it’s unlikely any of the doctors or nurses listening to this presentation will be starting their own faith-based nursing facilities (although that would make for a good follow up column), there was broad consensus that compassion is key when it comes to meeting the needs of patients at any age – an aspect of treatment, it was made clear by Oak Knoll’s example, that could be incorporated easily and even immediately into their individual practices.

All too often, though, it would seem that compassion – as willing as we may be to show it and as useful and effective as it can be in treating the sick – is in short supply, especially in light of the limited amount of time most doctors and nurses have to spend with their patients. Here again, though, the folks at Oak Knoll may be onto something with their conviction that compassion – including the time and the energy to express it – isn’t a humanly contrived emotion but a divinely inspired, divinely supported, frame of mind.

They have also figured out that it doesn’t take a lot of compassion to have a huge impact on the mental and physical well-being of everyone around them, including their patients.
Perhaps there’s a lesson in that for all of us.

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REPOST: As critical phase near, Obama stumps for healthcare law

President Obama's healthcare law aims to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance, expand public and private insurance coverage, and lower the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. 

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama visits a local college on Thursday to promote his signature healthcare program as it nears a critical enrollment phase, even as the law faces stiff political opposition and a wary public.

Image Source: www.reutersmedia.com

In remarks at Prince George's Community College in suburban Maryland, Obama will seek to focus attention on the sign-up period for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, popularly called "Obamacare." Starting on Tuesday, Americans who lack insurance will have six months to shop online for health coverage.

The administration's goal is for the registration period to pull in 7 million uninsured people, including 2.7 million adults aged 18 to 35.

Image Source: www.coloradopeakpolitics.com

"President Obama will talk about a key cornerstone of what it means to be middle-class in America: having access to affordable healthcare that you can count on," a White House official said. "The president will cut through all the noise coming out of Washington and speak directly, in plain and honest terms, about what the Affordable Care Act means for consumers."

The president is also facing a Tuesday deadline for Congress to approve a federal budget and avoid a government shutdown and a mid-October date to raise the nation's borrowing cap or face a default.

Republicans have sought to make cutbacks to the health law a condition for both steps, but the president has refused to allow Obamacare to be used as a bargaining chip in fiscal disputes.

Republicans, conservatives and business groups have made delaying or scuttling the health program a top priority. They have launched an aggressive advertising program slamming Obamacare as tantamount to socialized medicine, saying it will raise costs for businesses, eliminate thousands of jobs and make already insured people pay more.

The White House and Democrats in Congress say Obamacare will provide millions of Americans with health insurance that they otherwise could not afford, while potentially pushing down healthcare costs.

The administration is rolling out what it hopes will be a forceful public education campaign, drawing on popular figures such as former President Bill Clinton and social media promotions targeted at young adults.

Image Source: www.okpolicy.org

The administration's efforts coincide with an expected $1 billion marketing initiative from health insurers, hospitals and health systems, as well as public outreach steps by groups ranging from churches, charities and the AARP advocacy group for seniors to the Walgreen and CVS pharmacy chains.
Obama faces an uphill struggle to convince skeptical Americans to use the online tools to sign up for healthcare coverage.

A Real Clear Politics average of polls conducted over three weeks up to Tuesday indicated a 38.7 percent approval rating for Obamacare, versus a 52 percent disapproval rate.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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