THE home care team at Hua Mei Mobile Clinic (HMMC) gives more than practical medical care to its homebound elderly patients: their regular visits provide disadvantaged seniors with much needed emotional support and reassure them that they have not been forgotten by the community.
HMMC has been bringing medical care into the homes of homebound seniors who are 65 and above since 1993. Our dedicated team of geriatric specialists - doctors, nurses and social workers – provide seniors who have great difficulty getting out of their homes for medical treatment with ongoing nursing and medical care through regular home visits.
A dedicated care plan for each patient
We assess, plan and implement care for our homebound patients using a systematic care management approach:
Our doctor, nurse and social worker will first conduct an in-home geriatric assessment of the patient’s needs. Speaking in the dialect or language the patient understands, our home care team will assess the patient’s medical, financial, social and emotional health. The team will then draw up a care plan after having identified the patient’s specific needs, and the plan will be discussed with the patient’s family caregivers.
The team assessment approach ensures that no area of patient care will be neglected.
While the physician and nurse are responsible in managing the older patients’ illness, the social worker in the team helps the patients identify community resources that will help them continue living in their own homes.
For instance, patients may need home delivered meals or transportation service - or they may need help with household chores.
Our homebound patients, many of whom are illiterate also need help to navigate the community services available, and our social worker helps to arrange these services for them.
When the need arises, our home care team also arranges for hospital admissions and nursing home placements, and prepares patients and their families for hospital discharge. Family caregivers are counselled and given information about the patient’s condition, and patient care is monitored throughout.
