Q: What services does HomeRN offer?
A: HomeRN is a concierge nursing service that will offer on-call nursing services, adult sitter services, medication management and even an extra level of expertise that can attend physician appointments with you to make sure that all your needs and concerns are being covered and you and your family have a good understanding of your treatment plan.
Essentially, we are there to do whatever the family needs to fill the gaps: everything from filling a pill planner every week to facilitating communication between the physician, the family and the patient.
Q: Eliza Maxwell, why did you start HomeRN?
A: About a year ago I had a family friend who’s father got very sick. As a nurse practitioner who has worked in home health for many years, my friend turned to me for assistance. My friend asked if I would come over and check on her father after he was discharged from the hospital.
What I thought would be a 30-minute visit turned into a four-hour session. His wife, who had no medical experience, was now the primary caregiver of someone who had a lot of new medication and new medical equipment that she did not know how to administer or utilize. I realized there was a need for someone to fill the gap in care between when someone leaves the hospital and their first follow-up visit.
For many patients, there needs to be someone on call who can answer any questions that may come up.
Q: What type of knowledge and expertise do you provide for patients?
A: I will be working as a nurse in this role, but I will be bringing all the knowledge and experience of a nurse practitioner. I will see every patient and begin with a primary assessment, no matter if they just had surgery or a small change in their condition.
Q: Does the medical knowledge of your staff set HomeRN apart?
A: Absolutely. Unlike many other services, every member of our staff is medically trained. Many of our sitters are nurses, nursing students or Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs).
Q: How has the pandemic affected the demand for home services like your own?
A: I think because of the pandemic, families are leery of assisted living facilities and nursing homes because of the restrictions that have been placed on things like visitation. With HomeRN, the family can have a nurse provide these services in the home, without those restrictions.
Q: Does HomeRN offer a more personalized experience than larger agencies?
A: Yes. We offer more of a concierge service. Rather than just a big home health service coming into your home, you can work with people who live in this community and have that connection with the community like I do. That makes a huge difference when you are making the choice to trust someone in your home.
Q: What impact does this service have on the overall health and well-being of the patients that you work with?
A: Most of the people who are calling on us and need our services are patients who are sick, who have had a change in status or have recently undergone surgery. Often they are feeling very vulnerable at the stage where we come in, and our goal is to provide comfort, education and reassurance to the family as well as care for the patient.
