Edgerton Home Health to stop services
EDGERTON — Declining patient loads and reimbursement rates have combined to spell the end of Edgerton Home Health, a branch of Edgerton Care Center.
The program is serving 34 patients, about half of what it needs to sustain a healthy organization, said Marilynn Perry, Edgerton Care Center administrator.
Edgerton Home Health sends nurses to patients' homes for short-term care, such as recovery from illness or hospitalization.
The program will end service Dec. 31. It is helping current patients find care through other organizations, including Home Health United of Madison, Stoughton Hospital Home Health Services, Mercy Home Health and Fort HealthCare Home Health, Perry said.
"We are offering every single patient on the caseload a list of available agencies in the area," she said.
Perry is confident every patient will find service through another organization, she said.
Patients choose which agency they transfer to, but Edgerton Home Health is working with Home Health United to ease the transition for patients, Perry said. The Madison organization has a Janesville office.
Home Health United can serve all 34 Edgerton patients if they choose to come there, spokeswoman Nancy Hoffman said.
"We certainly are gearing up and taking measures so we can accommodate them," she said.
Ten employees—four full-time and six part-time—will lose their jobs when Edgerton Home Health closes, Perry said.
"The number of people affected is very small, but for them it is very major," she said.
Edgerton Home Health has been part of Edgerton Care Center, the nursing home at Edgerton Hospital and Health Services, since 2007. The hospital and care center officially split in 2008, though both are planning new facilities for the hospital's new campus on Highway 59.
After Edgerton Home Health closes, patient records will be available through Edgerton Care Center.
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Dec 12, 2009 at 5:03 p.m.
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The public should know that the care center and home health did not separate from the hospital voluntarily. The hospital wanted to do this so that they had a better chance to get funding. So now, they've just lost part of their healthy village.
Dec 10, 2009 at 3:47 p.m.
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The number of patients listed in these articles is misleading. Home health services are often provided to people as a Medicare benefit for a month or two after a hospitalization. They may have 34 patients on their books one week and twice that a couple weeks later. The real question is, how many people were helped during the past year. My guess is that the number is in the hundreds.
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