Health Care at Home, India conducts first workshop on ‘innovations in hi-tech homecare’ for nurses in Gurgaon

• Over 150 nurses from 25 eminent hospitals, including Fortis, Medanta, Max Super Specialty Hospital, Rockland Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Apollo Hospital, BLK Super Specialty Hospital participate in the event
• The workshop aimed at raising awareness about innovations in homecare delivery and the prominence of nurses in creating sound homecare model

Gurgaon, July 09, 2014: Health Care at Home (HCAH), India’s first hi-tech, documented, quality home-care service provider, today conducted first-of-its-kind workshop for nursing leaders and nursing professionals of Delhi-NCR, discussing “innovations in hi-tech homecare” and underlining benefits of homecare not just for patients, but also for them and hospitals.

Bridget Harrison, Head Clinical Excellence, HCAH and Inspector – Care Quality Commission, the UK; and Usha Prabhakar, Nursing Director, HCAH, conducted the workshop. It dwelled upon the role of nurses in providing high-end quality care to patients at home post-hospital release, as also save them from travelling to hospitals for repetitive and routine treatments like physiotherapy, dressings and daily injections.

In recent times, healthcare has evolved in India with new concepts and technologies making possible headways. Among such concepts, homecare services, which have been quite popular in the West, have become a buzz and gained ground in the backdrop of ageing population, cost-affordability, comfort and convenience.

“Health Care at Home, which made a foray in the homecare space last year, is a nursing-led company, committed to providing quality treatments to patients at home through its technologically-advanced platform. The company ensures that the consulting doctors are kept in the loop while HCAH’s nurses administer treatments as suggested by them. By delegating their routine treatment tasks to us, they have more time in hand to devote to critical patients. Our company’s aim is to ease their burden as well as that of the patients. We plan to aggressively work alongside doctors to be able to provide cohesive and cost-effective treatments to patients,” said Vivek Srivastava, CEO, HCAH.

During the three-hour workshop, Ms Harrison and Ms Prabhakar, outlined, in four sessions, the benefits of homecare to patients, doctors and nurses; clinical autonomy in oncology nursing and scope of specialist oncology nurse at home; homecare ICU set-up, challenges in managing critical care patients; day in the life of a homecare nurse and assessments and documented home-visit reports.

“Homecare is a niche area in India, so the opportunities for nurses in the space are huge. Nurses are the backbone of our company. Upon joining the organization, they are made to undergo six-week specialized training in homecare, particularly to provide counseling and support to the patients that help boost their morale, resulting into their quicker recovery. We have strict training procedure in place and it is simulation-based, providing nurses hands-on training on critical aspects,” said Gaurav Thukral, Head Medical Services, HCAH.

Ms Prabhakar stated various benefits homecare services offer to nurses, who until now viewed hospitals only as the ultimate professional destination.

• Patient-centric nursing and professional satisfaction: Homecare service providers usually assign one-two patients to their nurses with a view to ensuring maximum and undivided attention to those in need. This helps the nurses concentrate better on treatments as also impart health education to patients, inform them about the treatment being followed and do their counseling.
• Autonomous working & decision-making: Irrespective of treatments led by doctors’ prescription, nurses have to deal with the patients alone at home. So, all the decisions that have to be taken in the event of any problem that arise while administering the treatment is solely on the shoulders of the nurse. When such a situation is dealt with successfully, the outcome is increased self confidence. It not only sharpens their decision-making skills, but also clinical skills.
• Learning, training and high exposure: After recruitment, nurses at HCAH go through a six-week scenario-based homecare training, including IT training, which is provided in partnership with Berkley HealthEDU. Apart from it, nurses also get exposed to all kinds of patients ranging from cancer (oncology), heart (cardiology), orthopedics, critical care, bariatric, post-operative, mother and child care to elderly care, home pulmonolgy, IVF, infertility, home dialysis and diabetic (VAC dressing).
• Financial satisfaction and growth prospects: At HCAH, additional incentives like insurance, pension and provident fund are offered to nurses. If there is any overtime, nurses are compensated for it monetarily. The salary also is better than what is offered elsewhere. On employee and patient referrals too, they are rewarded. Also, if a nurse holds extra qualification, then on every extra degree or diploma, incentive is paid to them. Besides, there is a policy in place for permanent promotions. Hierarchy wise, nurses can become nursing director and they can even get elevated to the level of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) due to the availability of cross-sectional opportunities.

The personalized care offered through homecare addresses the unique needs of every patient. Longer stay at hospitals lead to huge medical bills, thereby putting enormous pressure on family members. Compared to hospital stay, home care is cost effective as it cuts the indirect expenditures.

It also helps the treating doctors of the patients to constantly monitor their patients’ condition. By keeping the doctors concerned always in the loop, HCAH ensures constant medical intervention and supervision to the patient without any interruption.

Homecare services become the extended reach for doctors, compensating for the limited availability of premier healthcare institutes. In Delhi, HCAH provides treatments prescribed by doctors sitting even as good in Mumbai. By treating patients at home, homecare service providers create capacities for doctors and hospitals alike.

The workshop saw participation of over 150 nurses from 32 eminent hospitals of Delhi-NCR. Among those who attended the event were Ms Sarabjeet, Chief Nursing Officer, Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket; Ms Ajitha, Chief Nursing Officer, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgoan; Ms Jyoti Gussain, Nursing Superintendent, Paras Hospital, Gurgaon; Ms Krishna Bhatt, Nursing Superintendent, Action Cancer Hospital; Ms Kathleen, Chief Nursing Officer, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre; and Ms Bimla Kapoor- Professor, IGNOU and Former Director, School Of Health Sciences.

A similar event was organized by the company in Jaipur on July 3, in which over 150 nursing leaders and professionals and key doctors from 10 renowned hospitals had taken part. CCI Newswire