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Show Home nursing care is now-available now-available in Summit County The Summit County public health nurse often meets people who require regular professional medical care but who do not need to be hospitalized. They include senior citizens who need personal care assistance, accident victims who need dressing changes or physical therapy, and the chronically ill who might need help with injections or laboratory samples. Now, those cases can be referred to the Community Nursing Service which has four staff members mem-bers on call to serve Summit County. Community Nursing Service, Ser-vice, which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, was established in 1947. The organization, which is certified certi-fied to receive funds from Medicare and Medicaid and is a member agency of United Way, first offered its services to Summit County care on a daily basis can turn chronic cases around," she said. According to Dodd, all of the staff members have had hospital experience and are qualified to administer IVs and many other services usually performed in a hospital setting. She said that their practice is not limited to geriatrics but often involves newborns, accident victims, and patients pa-tients with neurological dis- last February. In the past seven months it has treated several Park City residents and one visitor who was injured on the first day of her Park City vacation. Community Nursing staff members are qualified RNs, LPNs and physical therapists ther-apists who work under a doctor's orders to perform a wide range of bedside care. "People recover better in their own homes," said Beverly Dodd who is Community Com-munity Nursing Service's . special services coordinator for Summit County. She added that home nursing care is often less expensive than an extended hospital stay, and that it is often far more convenient to the patients than frequent trips to Salt Lake City for followup care. "Professional auuiues. The Service's goal is "to help the patient become independent as soon as possible, not to create a dependency," said Dodd. She added that "no prospective prospec-tive patient will be turned away because of inability to pay." The organization offers of-fers its services on a sliding fee scale. "We are delighted that they are here," said Summit County public health nurse Jane Kimball. "As the cost of health care increases, I think we will see more people seeking these services ser-vices at home," she added. Anyone interested in receiving re-ceiving nursing care at home may contact the Summit Sum-mit County Health Department Depart-ment at 649-9072 or Community Com-munity Nursing Service in Salt Lake City at 1-486-2186. |