Connecticut lines up home health aides: Commenter reactions
In conjunction with NPR news, Kaiser Health News reported this week that the state of Connecticut is divvying out a new plan to replace home nurses with hired home health aides, in order to administer medications for patients with chronic illnesses.
Nurses would essentially still assess the health and safety of clients, but they would be clocking less time traveling between each patient.
"The cost of medication administration is a significant barrier to getting people out of nursing homes and keeping people out of nursing homes," said Anne Foley, Gov. Dan Malloy's undersecretary for policy and planning. Foley added that the home health aides would work under a nurses' supervision. These changes, according to Foley, could eventually save the state millions.
NPR commenter @dorjey said this might be an abysmal idea. She explained how her parents used to have home aides. "The problem was they weren't consistent. They were paid so low, that turnover was incredibly high and there might be changes every few weeks," she discussed.
@dorjey continued by saying the idea might work with proper care coordination and supervision, but if the impetus is saving dollars than it could be another source of misery for vulnerable elders who have it hard enough.
The Connecticut state legislature is holding a hearing on the governor's proposal later this week. Although the plan is underway now, training becomes a huge issue for supporters.
"The skill level and degree of effort on the part of aides will necessarily increase," commented @Chazz11 on the NPR news page. "New technologies will continue to add to the complexity of their work, as will other changes in the health care system." @Chazz11 also noted that having a nurse come into one's house quickly only to give out medication is a difficult task when it's a "challenge" for someone to detach themselves like that from a situation.
Along with that notion, it appears that nurses don't feel comfortable changing their daily regime. On the CT Mirror website, @CT199 commented that there is no way she would jeopardize her nursing license by allowing an unlicensed person to administer medications for her patients.
"The minute there is a negative outcome from a medication all responsibility comes back on me. Under this proposal everyone will swear they weren't properly instructed by me," she wrote.
Martin Dayne says we should be taking medication administration very seriously. "The statistics on medication errors resulting in injury or death even in a clinical setting by licensed doctors and nurses is staggering," he remarked. "If a person cannot safely take their own medications at home, what other risks for injury are in the home?"
"The death toll from spontaneous bleeding from improper administration of this medication is documented everywhere," Dayne continued. "This is a bad idea from the side of greed."
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