Comfort Keepers® Victoria Partners with Heart Pharmacy

Victoria Senior Home Care  |  October 17, 2019

Join Us in Our Excitement to Introduce Comfort Keepers® Victoria’s Latest Community Partnership

Comfort Keepers® Victoria is excited to announce its partnership with Heart Pharmacy in an exciting new program called Heart@Home.

What is Heart@Home?

Heart@Home is a medication adherence service that aims to ensure great care every day. In this partnership,  Heart@Home sends a Registered Care Aide (RCA) from Comfort Keepers® to our patients’ homes every day to support and assist with medication administration. This program is designed for patients who will benefit from consistent visits to optimize medication adherence.

Many patients are non-adherent to their medications due to physical and cognitive limitations (as opposed to indifference or avoidance). Limitations include dexterity issues, limited sight,  declining memory/cognition, and mental health issues. After careful consultation with patients, caregivers and family members, this program was created to provide the best possible pharmacy care to our community and to enable patients to live healthier lives, at home, for longer.

If a patient is recommended for the program (by their doctor, a family member, a VIHA nurse, etc.) a Heart pharmacist will meet with the patient to conduct an initial medication review and adherence assessment. If the pharmacist feels that the patient is a good candidate for the program, she will confirm with their doctor, request new prescriptions (with the critical instruction: “Daily Dispense” handwritten on each prescription), and schedule a time and date to begin administration.

The results of optimized medication adherence include significant improvements in blood markers (INR, blood glucose, blood pressure), decreased medication side effects (such as dizziness and stomach upset), and stabilized MMSE scores. Since medications are delivered daily, the Heart@Home program is also able to eliminate accidental exposure and repeat dosing.

Daily visits allow our caregivers to provide companionship to patients, many of whom suffer silently from loneliness. Our RCAs are also well-positioned to identify and attend to other areas of concern, such as falls or hygiene issues. In situations where these concerns are identified, the family and care team are immediately informed of findings, and patients are directed to the appropriate care (hospital visit, MD visit, family check-in etc.).

In many instances, patients utilizing our services have also been able to access other personal care services during home visits (including meal preparation, showers, etc.) for a fraction of what this would cost patients who are not in the program.

Together these actions have dramatically reduced current and potential future risks that often result in hospitalizations.

This program will allow you to eliminate the question of whether or not ongoing health issues and/or frequent medication changes are a result of non-adherence.

For example, one patient was seemingly unsuccessful in her warfarin therapy and her practitioner had advised switching to a higher-cost brand alternative to try to protect her from a clotting event. Under the Heart@Home program, it was suggested that daily medication administration be conducted to offer an understanding of whether medication adherence was perhaps the problem, or if metabolic issues necessitated alternative therapy.

After two weeks of daily visits, the patient’s INR was within range, and medication adherence was at 100%. The patient also reported an improvement in overall well-being because the social interaction with the RCA provided her with some respite from her loneliness. The program allowed the healthcare team to ensure that the patient was not only on the right medication at the right dose at the right time, but was also taking the right medication at the right dose and at the right time!

In short, the design of the program is to bring the caregiving and healthcare teams closer together. If a patient has a sudden change in their health status, the doctor is notified right away so that proper care can be coordinated.

At Comfort Keepers® Victoria we feel that home is the best place to be.

If you are concerned about the health and well-being of your aging loved ones we can help with 24-hour care, senior care, companionship care, end-of-life care, post-surgery care, palliative care, personal care, senior living transition services, and much more! 

Comfort Keepers® Victoria Provides In-Home Elderly Care Services

Comfort Keepers® trained caregivers help provide senior clients with the highest quality of life possible to keep them happy and healthy at home. Our Interactive Caregiving™ provides a system of care that addresses safety, nutrition, mind, body, and activities of daily living (ADLs).

Comfort Keepers® Victoria In-Home Caregivers Can Help with Interactive Caregiving™

Our philosophy is to elevate the human spirit and our caregivers will be there every step of the way to ensure your loved one has a better quality of life. Personal and empathetic care is care that starts in the heart, and it allows us to meet our client’s exact needs. Learn more about our unique service which offers personal care, companionship care, palliative care, and end-of-life care by contacting the Comfort Keepers Victoria office.

Comfort Keepers® Victoria is proud to provide senior care and home care services to keep seniors safe in their homes.

If you are searching for home care near me, Comfort Keepers® Victoria can provide home care for the seniors of Victoria and the surrounding areas of Colwood, Saanich, Sidney, James Bay, and Oak Bay. Please call (778) 265-5999 and learn how your loved ones can receive compassionate, professional in-home care.

Comfort Keepers® Victoria has been accredited with Exemplary Standing with Accreditation Canada. Accreditation is an intensive process in which an organization’s processes, policies, and procedures are examined by industry experts against a set of quality standards. To achieve accredited status, Comfort Keepers offices met or exceeded the rigorous standards for Home Care companies, as defined by Accreditation Canada. 

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