| For Immediate Release | Contact: Joyce Faria Brennan |
| August 11, 2005 | 508-961-5270 |
| brennanj@southcoast.org | |
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| Paula Shiner, Director of Southcoast Home Care, right, receives an award for Improvement in the Management of Oral Medications from Margaret Johnson, MassPro Home Health Quality Improvement Project Team Leader. | |
"Medication reconciliation is very important to patient safety," said Paula Shiner, Director of Southcoast Home Care. "We were very pleased to be recognized for our hard work in this area."
Patients often need assistance managing their medication, especially when they are released from a hospital, Shiner said.
"During a hospital stay, different medications are often taken or medications are taken differently," she said. "Patients need help getting back on track."
There also can be disconnects in medication management when a patient is taking medicine prescribed by more than one doctor or is mixing prescribed medication with over-the-counter drugs. Southcoast Home Care seeks to reduce these problems by reviewing medications upon patient intake and by conducting ongoing reviews.
"When a patient begins receiving services through Southcoast Home Care, it is important for us to pay close attention to what medication they are taking and compare it to what the physician has prescribed," Shiner said. "We also need to check possible interactions with food or other drugs."
MassPRO's home health quality improvement program was created to improve quality of care and patient outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries receiving home health services.
Southcoast Home Care, Hospice & Palliative Care & Infusion Services, located at 200 Mill Road in Fairhaven, is a department of Southcoast Hospitals Group. Southcoast Home Care clinical staff includes 75 nurses, physical, occupational and speech therapy and social workers and employs 37 home health aides. Southcoast Home Care provides comprehensive, preventive and rehabilitative home health care to residents of the Greater New Bedford and Wareham areas and is a preferred HomMed Home Health Care Agency of Choice. For more information visit http://www.southcoast.org/services/home.html or call 508-984-0200.
About Southcoast
Southcoast Health System, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is a community based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes Southcoast Hospitals Group, formed in 1996 from the merger of Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
Southcoast is one of three community hospitals approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty beginning in Spring 2002.
Media Contact
Joyce Faria Brennan
Phone: 508-961-5270
Pager: 508-387-9605
Fax: 508-961-5876
brennanj@southcoast.org
