The Town Of Greenwich seems to be unaware that the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Southwestern Connecticut plans is shut down and turning over the town patients to a Wallingford Visiting Nurse Service by late November.Greenwich seniors who need home health care will no longer serviced by the Stamford-based agency that has operated in Fairfield County since 1912.
The Visiting Nurse service provided hundreds town seniors with nursing and home health aide services, as well as physical, speech and occupational therapy and social work services.
The Visiting Nurse agency employs more than 130 full-time and per-diem employees, many of whom are dispatched daily to assist Greenwich seniors.
At the very least, the Greenwich Department of Social services should oversee and monitor the transition and transfer of town patients from VNHC's care to Masonicare Home Health of Wallingford,
Or better yet, the Greenwich Department of Social services should locate other local agencies to ensure quality of care is maintained for Greenwich Seniors.
VNHC management and employees seem to be more interested in gaining employment with Wallingford based Masonicare instead of finding Greenwich seniors locally based care.
Some local home health aids have told Greenwich Roundup that Masonicare is a bureaucratic nightmare that employs 2,500 people statewide, including 1,200 in its home care division alone.
A VNHC-Masonicare Advisory Board is being established in the coming weeks to prepare Masonicare for the flood of hundreds of VNHC patients including patients from the Richard C. Rosenthal Hospice for terminally ill patients.
Letters notifying Greenwich patients about the decision were sent out this week.
The letters also provided additional information on making a choice between Masonicare or another health or hospice provider if necessary.
But Greenwich seniors need more information and help in transferring to smaller and more local home health services.
The effect on the great majority of Greenwich VNHC patients who receive home health care and hospice care is expected to be horribly disruptive if they are care for out of Wallingford.
The Town of Greenwich Social Services Department should step in to assist Greenwich seniors in finding a local area health or hospice provider.
Calls from Greenwich Roundup to the state Department of Health regarding the proposed closure were not returned as of press time tonight.
Greenwich VNHC nurses carry a caseload of 20 to 25 patients each week, and are responsible for balancing their group's treatment needs.
Greenwich Roundup believes the arrangement with Masonicare will provide Greenwich seniors less control over the type of care they are given.
Will social workers or family members have to go up to the Wallingford corporate offices to complain?
Just how reliable will home health care be in Greenwich when it is dispatched out of Wallingford?
Greenwich seniors would be served by a local visiting nurse service, but no one in the town seems to be prepared to help them make the transfer.
Greenwich Roundup says, something needs to be done now to help the towns seniors who are being ignored and taken advantage of.
Does the town even maintain a list of local home health agencies?
If anyone knows of a local area home health agency that help Greenwich seniors please send the information to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com
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