Knowing how best to care for your child can be challenging and confusing, even more so when your child has special health needs.
“We’re partners to help parents learn how best to help their babies grow and thrive. They are dealt a difficult hand, and there’s so much joy in watching them progress,” says LeAnn Weggen, RN, UnityPoint at Home Nursing Supervisor.
UnityPoint at Home services help kids get the care they need to restore health and independence, all from the comfort of home.
“We offer medication or adjust their medical equipment. There’s no need for their caregiver to bundle up and bring them out, exposing them to new germs. Coming to them reduces the risk for other complications,” says Weggen.
UnityPoint at Home works closely with their other healthcare providers to design and implement a personalized plan of care to achieve the best outcome for every patient, every time.
This award-winning, specialized team of caregivers supports nearly 100 Muscatine families each year. If you think your child may benefit from home care, talk to your provider about a referral.
Care starts by assessing a young patient’s needs, created with the family situation in mind. Experienced providers customize daily activities and therapy to help the child and caregivers learn to do these activities independently. They check equipment including ventilators, feeding tubes, central lines, wheelchairs, and nebulizers.
“We’re working with some very vulnerable patients. Young children don’t always understand what’s happening medically. They are anxious, and, we have the opportunity to make a difference in their life and their health,” says Weggen.
This special team of in-home healthcare providers help with pediatric speech, respiratory, occupational, and physical therapy, communicating back to the child’s primary care provider on their progress.
“One of the strengths of being part of an integrated healthcare system is enhanced communication between care providers,” says Weggen. “Everyone on their care team can monitor them in real time and keep an eye on what’s being done between visits.”
Those visits may include weight checks, adjusting oxygen levels, and assessment or delivering medications and injections.
“More vulnerable children, such as those born prematurely, can receive monthly injections to protect them from contracting RSV, which could be life-threatening combined with other health issues they are facing,” says Weggen.
The drug itself wards off the nasty virus, but offering it in home adds another layer of protection.
UnityPoint at Home is one of the region’s largest integrated home health services providers and has also been ranked nationally for the quality of its service.
The team also offers extended pediatric support in school-based settings to help children with lifelong chronic needs.
“These children may need breathing assistance, have seizures, or other high-level health needs for up to 10 hours a day. A healthcare provider may attend school with them, allowing their caregiver to continue working and the child learning,” says Weggen.
To learn more about the in-home care services provided by UnityPoint at Home, call 309-779-7600.
