Rural Healthcare Centers
Caring for our patients in their own Homes
Another component of FNS in-home care is through home visits by a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) at one of our District Centers.
Sarah Noggle, FNP, has worked at Beech Fork Healthcare Center since 2005. One of Sarah’s roles at the Center is to make monthly home visits to some of her elderly patients. Many of these patients do not drive, so seeking regular medical care may be a difficult task if it were not for Sarah’s visit. She makes home visits every month and sees each patient once every three months.
Currently, all of Sarah’s home visit patients are elderly women who are on fixed incomes and only travel “in to town” when absolutely necessary. Rising transportation costs and limited public transportation seem to make a visit to the District Nursing Center a low priority. By bringing care directly to her patients, Sarah actually helps to ensure that they are able to continue safely living at home as long as possible.
Despite the incredible improvements in infrastructure and accessibility in our mountain homes, conditions encountered by Mrs. Breckinridge do still exist today in parts of our service area.
Sarah recalls one patient whose home lacked running water and indoor plumbing. This served only as mere inconvenience to her patient who remarked that to change “would not seem right”. It is for these patients that home visits are the most critical. It is as a result of these home visits that a recent report by the Kentucky Institute of Medicine showed that Leslie Countians have immunization coverage and access to quality pre-natal care that exceeds both state and national averages; facts that, despite their importance, would not have surprised Mary Breckinridge. Indeed, Mrs. Breckinridge as much as predicted them when she described the work of the FNS by saying, “The Glorious thing about it is that it has worked.”
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