The Help Choose Home podcast recently welcomed Steven Landers, MD, MPH, president and CEO of Visiting Nurse Association Health Group. With a history of bringing care to people for over 100 years, VNA Health Group is the largest nonprofit provider of community home health and hospice services in New Jersey. VNA Health Group also provides in-home care services in Ohio and southeast Florida.
A certified family physician and geriatrician, Dr. Landers brings a unique perspective to his role at VNA Health Group, particularly now, during the pandemic. Dr. Landers is passionate about providing access to high-quality care at home, especially to the elderly, and he has authored several articles in national medical journals on the important role of in-home care.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Client and caregiver safety and training
- The status of the home care industry at this point in the pandemic
- The ongoing demand for home care services in the future
Conversation Highlights:
As a medical doctor with training in public health, it’s easy to imagine that Dr. Landers has had a leg up on others during the pandemic. He says, however, that he has been both humbled and concerned by the situation. With staff going remote in March, he is proud of how quickly they have risen to the challenges and adjusted throughout the ongoing months.
When reflecting on home care pre-pandemic versus home healthcare currently, one of the biggest changes, according to Dr. Landers, is the increased focus on caregiver safety. Although there were certain safety measures in place pre-pandemic, there is now an increased daily focus on caregiver safety, including heightened safety protocols, enhanced safety equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as employee screenings and testing. While these measures add complexity to each caregiver’s day, the measures seem to be working, as VNA Health Group has not seen high rates of infection among staff and is busier than ever before.
To ensure caregiver and client safety, VNA Health Group has implemented free, high-quality polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 testing for staff. In addition, VNA Health Group also performs mandatory, random testing for staff in order to detect COVID-19 cases that are asymptomatic. VNA Health Group is also taking influenza season seriously, ensuring that staff members are vaccinated, thereby reducing the risk of contracting the flu and COVID at the same time.
In looking at home care today, Dr. Landers sees that the public has placed enormous trust in the industry, seeing it as a safe and viable alternative to institutional care. The industry has been able to take on these challenges in growth by embracing technology and preparing a caregiving staff to meet clients’ various needs. Based on demand and public trust, he believes that home care will continue to grow long after the pandemic is under control.
While the potential for continued growth is exciting, Dr. Landers is focused on finding ways to make home care an attractive career for nurses and other caregivers. According to Dr. Landers, many nursing schools across the country are at capacity and must turn away otherwise qualified applicants. Without a continuous pipeline of nurses and other staff who can fill home care staffing roles, there is a concern about keeping up with the demand for home care.
Dr. Landers shares that there is an expected 250,000 vacancies in nursing across all settings in the next decade with only 180,000 newly trained nurses expected to be available to fill the open positions. Dr. Landers is working to explore ways to interest nurses in community-based care and how home care can contribute capacity to nursing education in a way that’s mutually beneficial.
After listening to this episode, you’ll come away with a deeper understanding of the role home care is playing during the pandemic, as well as the role and challenges it will face in the future.
Listen to this episode here, or on Apple Podcasts, Google, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
To learn more about Dr. Landers’ insights on the home care industry, listen to a previous episode of Help Choose Home where he discusses the important steps that seniors can take to remain independent and age in place.
If this episode has been helpful, be sure to leave a five-star review and share the podcast to help us in the national effort to educate about home healthcare options! You can connect with Merrily Orsini on Twitter: @MerrilyO.
Sponsors
The Help Choose Home podcast series is a collaborative effort by Axxess, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) and corecubed to educate the public about the many benefits of the in-home care industry, which includes non-medical home care, private duty nursing care, medical home health, hospice and other in-home health and wellness services.
Access the full Help Choose Home podcast library here.
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