Employment Blog: Cardiovascular Home Care, Inc.

The world has changed a lot in the 68 years since Pearl Harbor. It is hard to imagine the achievements, events, inventions, and ups/downs that America’s “greatest generation” has seen.  Even harder to imagine how much we must change in order to meet their needs as they age.

Our current system rewards treating conditions not prevention. Medicare will pay for therapy if a certain number are needed but won’t if less would suffice.  The impact is that preventable treatments may not be received. Insurance companies want patients discharged from the hospitals as soon as possible. In some cases drugs may not be fully regulated. These short-term solutions to save money leave gaps that increase the likelihood of higher long-term costs.

For 15 years, Cardiovascular Home Care has bridged these gaps for our patients. We work to address short-term issues but also see the long-term needs.  Patients receive a therapy and fall-risk evaluation to prevent common injuries. Medication management is given a primary focus so that patients receive the maximum benefit from their drugs. When additional resources are needed our social work team will help locate them.

By focusing on the preventative side we see dramatic decreases in hospitalizations. While you cannot eliminate all hospitalizations for chronic diseases, you can ensure a longer period of time between them.  You can also eliminate the unnecessary, unrelated hospitalizations that often accompany them. By reducing hospitalizations, our patients have a higher quality of life, dramatically lower costs and live longer.

The “greatest generation” deserves the greatest care. They went to war, rebuilt nations, developed our economy, desegregated our communities, and sustained our nation through good times and bad. If each generation’s promise is to do better than the previous then surely we are lacking.

If you are interested in referring a patient to our agency, please call 817.847.8888 or check us out online at www.cardiachomecare.com. We are available on ECIN under Cardiovascular Home Care.

If you are interested in joining our team, you can apply online here at Jobing.Com. For more information about our agency, you can go to www.happynurses.info.

Part of me wants to steal Ted Turner’s thunder and just post line after line of quotes from A Christmas Story. Maybe I don't because I am afraid people would appreciate Andy Kaufman’s humor more than they would my blog. More likely though, it’s the ingrained American cultural work mentality that keeps me from doing it.

You see people in America love to work. The average American worker will spend 70 hours more annual at work than their Japanese counterparts. We will outpace the average Europeans by nearly 350 hours.

This of course has a dramatic impact on our lives. A study by Cornell University shows a correlation between time worked and issues at home. Workers who worked 60+ hours per week were 300 times more likely to report conflicts at home than those working 50 hours per week. So shouldn’t we be doing something we really love to do that doesn’t require us to sacrifice our family?

At Cardiovascular Home Care we have built a business out of caring for people. We do it not only for our patients but for our employees. We understand that in order to take care of others you have to take care of yourself sometimes. We offer a unique opportunity for medical professionals to work in the area they love without sacrificing their own lives.

We offer flexible 8:00 ­– 5:00, Monday – Friday schedules. You can be home in time to do homework, to spend time with your family or to do whatever it is you’re missing working those 12-hour shifts and weekends!

Best of all, you can do it without sacrificing a good income or the skills you have. Our income opportunities compete with most hospital based positions. More importantly, by working outside the hospital environment you learn to take your skills to the next level.

If you are interested in our company or the services we offer, check us out at www.happynurses.info –&– www.cardiachomecare.com. You can also apply through our postings here on Jobing.com.  

Growing old is something we should all look forward to. After all, the available alternative is not too good.  Yet, for many elderly loved ones the medical system is so complicated that it puts them at risk.  For those people, Cardiovascular Home Care offers the "Safe Choices" program.

Safe Choices is designed to address issues specific to elderly populations. Certified Geriatric Care Managers work with various disciplines to:

• Coordinate medical care
• Reduce fall risks
• Improve medication management
• Address hygiene/nutrition issues
• Assist in financial planning
• Identify available resources

All of which greatly reduces the risk of costly hospitalizations. By preventing these problems, patients can have longer, happier lives.  

Safe Choices is a Medicare qualified program but is also available through private pay and major insurance. Patients do not have to have a cardiovascular diagnosis to be accepted into the Safe Choices program.

Caring for an elderly loved one is often an overwhelming issue. You don't know whether to call the doctor, the ER or a nursing home. Our program can help you feel better knowing you have made Safe Choices.

If you feel you would be a good member of the Safe Choices team, please see our ads here on Jobing or at www.happynurses.info.

If you are a caregiver or a discharge planner that would like more information on Safe Choices please call 817.847.8888 x121.

Nothing is more exciting than to see your efforts payoff.  Whether the goal was close at hand or far away, once you meet the test you cannot help but feel it was all worth it. That was the feeling at our agency when the HomeCare Elite rankings were released.

Cardiovascular Home Care has been ranked in the HomeCare Elite for the second consecutive year. HomeCare Elite places Cardiovascular Home Care among the top 25% of agencies in the United States.

HomeCare Elite is a compilation of the top-performing Medicare-certified home health care agencies in the United States. Winners are ranked by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, quality improvement, and financial performance.  Only the top 25% are given the coveted HomeCare Elite ranking.

The HomeCare Elite rankings are issued annually by OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth.  The 2009 reviews marks the fourth year of publication and the second ranking for Cardiovascular.

2008 and 2009 HomeCare Elite rankings add to a string of achievements in the last 24 months. In 2008, the agency earned Joint Commission accreditation. 2009 also marks our 15th anniversary of patient focused care.

Cardiovascular Home Care is a nurse owned/operated home care agency based in Fort Worth, TX.  We offer specialized home care for a variety of cardiac based diseases.

Cardiovascular Home Care also offers home care for orthopedic patients and hard to discharge patients with a history of frequent hospitalization.  

For more information, on our agency or how you can join it contact 817-847-8888 x121.

So with those accomplishments behind us, it's time to get to work on our next mountain: Helping Rosanne's Horned Frogs get into the BCS! Riff, Ram, Bah Zoo...!

I thought about using a quote from Groundhog Day to start this off. You remember, the movie where Bill Murray is a weatherman that finds himself living the same day over and over again.  Do you ever get that feeling when you are dealing with the same patients that come back for the same issues? Over and over again.

So you stabilize them and before they go you try to teach them. You hope the teaching sinks in and takes hold. Maybe they won’t come back – again.

The reality is it takes more time. In the hospital diet is controlled; in the home the fridge is always open. In the hospital it’s the right patient, right medicine, right dose, right time; at home two out of five ain’t bad.  In other words, it is takes more time and exposure to make changes in lifestyles.

So what if you had the chance to make a difference in whether that person came back or not? Would that be more rewarding than treating them? Prevention is the key to making a difference in today’s community.

Our agency offers a 3-1 solution focused on preventing hospitalizations. We offer cutting edge care in the home setting. Medicine management and keen diagnostic skills help us prevent signs from becoming symptoms.

We offer programs for a variety of patients, including:

• Cardiovascular Home Care - Patients with COPD/CHF/and other heart diseases
• Orthopedic Home Care - Orthopedic patients
• Safe Choices - Hard to discharge patients or patients w/ frequent rehospitalizations

For more information on our services, please contact us at 817-847-8888 x121.

If you are a nurse, therapist or home health aide that is looking for the opportunity to join a progressive company that makes a difference in the patient’s disease process please click on the links below to submit your resume/application. 

Security is important, especially long-term security such as retirement. Yet, work is also about enjoying the opportunity to build memories.  Security means saving some for tomorrow but also making sure you take time to enjoy today.

That is hard to do when you are working while everyone else is at home. This is the dilemma faced by many nurses working in the hospital. Twelve-hour shifts are a killer for nurses who want to enjoy life.

Long shifts take their toll physically and mentally. The nurses I interview frequently complain about the impact of lifting and standing for long hours. The constant stress of high patient loads has them mentally exhausted too. The bottom line is they spend so much time recovering that the extra day off is lost.

Long shifts also impact their ability to enjoy family time. They complain about leaving before kids get up for school only to get home close to bedtime. Forget about being there for homework. Many say they try to make it up by working weekend shifts. Is it really better to be gone when the kids are actually home?

The answer might be “yes” if there was no other option. Fortunately, there is:

Cardiovascular Home Care offers a unique opportunity to have the best of all worlds. Our nurses have a job where they work 8-5 Monday-Friday. They get to take their skills to the next level in order to prevent costly hospitalizations. They have the opportunity to focus on patient care and make a difference. Best of all, they have a job that allows them to continue making a hospital level income.

If you are tired of living to work, try joining Cardiovascular Home Care and start working to live.

"There will be days you don't think you can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime of knowing you have." -Unknown

I can’t remember the last time my legs didn’t hurt. I have been working up my mileage to run my first marathon this year. Every day of my running schedule I remind myself that I am working towards a goal few in life will achieve. It has been a good lesson for life: Are the things you are doing today preparing you for tomorrow?

At Cardiovascular Home Care we are constantly thinking of new and inventive ways to provide the services that patients, doctors and insurers need. We’ve been doing this for 15 years; it is what sets us apart from other home care agencies.

We were the first cardiac specialized home care in the United States. When our owners saw people being discharged earlier but still needing high level care, they created Cardiovascular Home Care. Our nurses utilize their prior experience to ensure a higher quality of life, reduce hospitalizations and lower medical costs.

It’s a tradition that continues. By applying our knowledge of anti-coagulation therapies, we provided doctors with a source for orthopedic patients. We developed a specialized Social Work program to address "frequent fliers" with high hospitalization rates.

Janis Joplin once said, "Tomorrow never comes" but she was wrong. It will and before you know it tomorrow will be today. My tomorrow is November 15 in San Antonio. What is yours and what are you doing to prepare for it?

The future of healthcare in America requires you to understand two basic facts:

1. There is a growing number of Americans over the age of 65; and
2. Advances in medicine mean Americans are living longer.

These two facts translate into a growing demand for healthcare for the foreseeable future. To sustain this growth healthcare must be delivered in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible. The answer is: home care.

The number of Americans age 65 or older is growing dramatically. In 2010--when the first baby boomers will reach 65--there will be 39.4 million Americans age 65+. By 2020 that number will be 53.2 million. Census figures from 2008 show individuals 85+ already total 4.2 million, roughly 33 times larger than the same age group in 1900.

These factors will continue to place pressure on our healthcare infrastructure and the American economy. One study estimated that demographic changes alone would require 46 percent more acute care beds between 2002 and 2027. Yet, America currently spends over 16 percent of our GDP on healthcare. The result will be a need for affordable healthcare that does not sacrifice patient outcomes.

This makes home care the obvious choice. A 2000 study from Canada showed homecare patients saved 25% to 60% (depending on the level of care) over those treated in institutional programs. The cost of oxygen in the home is less than $7 per day under Medicare compared to approximately $200 for a nursing facility and over $5,000 per day for a hospital.

At Cardiovascular Home Care we create the future for ourselves. Fifteen years ago we saw the growing need for highly skilled care in the home and started America’s first cardiac specialty home care agency. We created our Safe Choices program to address frequent hospitalizations patients our referral sources were seeing from other home care agencies.

If you want to be part of the future today, we encourage you to check us out. Take your skills to the next level with a patient focused agency – Cardiovascular Home Care.

www.happynurses.info

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a numbers guy.  Numbers are like two-year olds...they don’t lie.  You can get a lot from the numbers if you read them correctly. 

Let’s look at some numbers from a recent study by the American Nursing Association:

• 46.8 years is the average age of RN's 
• 70.5 percent of RNs are married
• 28.3 percent have children under age 6 at home
• 65.2 percent have children 6 to 18 at home

What do these numbers tell us about about nurses working a rotation of 12-hour shifts? They are missing out daily on quality family time by working long shifts, holidays and weekends. Surely that is not a positive message.

Financial payoffs cannot replace important family time. This is especially true when the financial and professional rewards are available without the negative impact on your family.

Nurses at Cardiovascular Home Care will tell you they get the best of both worlds! Flexible, family oriented schedules and financially rewarding income.

Find out how you can make school meetings, help with homework and be there for the important things in life.  And you can do all that without sacrificing your income or professional growth.

www.happynurses.info

www.happynurses.info.

In case you were too busy tweeting, updating your Facebook, or working your umpteenth 12-hour shift, there was some fascinating news last month.

Les Paul, the originator of the solid body electric guitar, passed away in late September at the age of 94. Les Paul's instrument changed the history of music; without it we wouldn't have Rock-n-Roll (with capital R's.) Guitarists as diverse as Chet Atkins and Billie Joe Armstrong (Greenday) struck chords on Les Paul guitars. As one writer put it, "like Levi Strauss, Jack Daniel's and John Deere, it became more a symbol than a mere brand name."

Another story highlighted Jack Borden, a 101 year-old practicing lawyer, who was recognized as the oldest working American. As someone that always reads the comments people leave after the story, I found the following to be most revealing:

Mr. Borden was as fair an attorney as I have ever encountered. He actually said, "If this isn't a good deal for you and for me, then how can it be a good deal?"

Did you just do a double take on that lawyer joke you were about to make?

The reality is few of us will ever have as big of an impact on the world as Les Paul…but we can all be Jack Bordens if we love what we're doing.

So do you love your job? I mean we all have good days and bad days but...do you love your job? Do you love the type of work you do but wish you had a better place to do it? Life is too short to spend it doing something you don't love.

Our team members will tell you they love their jobs. They work for a nurse-owned and operated agency where their skills are appreciated. They work "real hours" so they get to see their families at night, on weekends and even holidays. Best of all, they enjoy getting to truly know their patients and seeing how they make a difference in their patients’ lives.

If you are ready for a change and are a registered nurse, occupational therapist, or physical therapist, then come get happy with us. You can check out our job listings here on jobing.com or check us out at www.happynurses.info.