There are numerous advantages for assisted living communities to partner with a primary care provider like South Carolina & Georgia House Calls (SC & GA HC). The key to a successful program is seeing the residents regularly and addressing issues before developing into more severe conditions.

The South Carolina summer is upon us, and we have already experienced several days in June where the temperature has hit triple digits. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods get a lot of media attention as significant destructive weather, but excessive heat causes more yearly fatalities than any other type of weather.

With a broad array of commonly prescribed medications, action kits are now carried by South Carolina & Georgia House Calls Nurse Practitioners (SC & Ga HC). This proactive step is similar to a clinical visit where a doctor prescribes a medication and then gives the patient a starter supply until the prescription can be filled.

Studies have confirmed that primary care's consistent management of chronic conditions helps prevent hospitalizations. A report published by the Primary Care Collaborative in December of 2020 states that primary care spending in the US was only 4.67% of total healthcare spending.

Assisted Living Communities have specific needs for providing medication management for their residents. With decades of experience serving senior living communities, SC Home Rx has developed a pharmacy partnership program specifically tailored to meet those varied needs.

Big Data, smart-home technologies, and telemedicine are converging to provide more accessible, intelligent healthcare that promises better patient outcomes. Innovations fueled by health-related data collected through wearables like smartwatches and remote patient monitoring translate into trillions of data points—Big Data, through analysis, can identify trends that provide medical and pharmaceutical companies information for developing solutions.

A few days ago, Jamie Preston, the host of the LTC University Podcast, sat down with Dr. Sharon Jones, the manager of SC Home RX, to talk about how the pharmacy simplifies medication management for their patients.

Life is busy; why wait for your prescriptions when they can be delivered right to your door? Simplifying pharmacy services through the successful implementation of technology and automation is one of the main goals of SC Home Rx.

SC Home Rx (SCHRx) is currently in the training phase of implementing its new automated medication dispensing system from Synergy Medical.

Ask any Doctor or Nurse Practitioner who provides care for older adults, and they will tell you the number one reason patients get into trouble is through medication non-adherence. Taking multiple medications, each with different dosing requirements, is daunting for anyone and especially challenging for seniors.

Last week in (Part 1) of proactive patient-centered care, we explored a trend in healthcare spurred on by the pandemic that has moved the needle from a reactive care model toward a more proactive patient-centered model. This week we are looking at some of the components South Carolina & Georgia House Calls (SC & GA HC) utilizes in their proactive care model.

Proactive healthcare is defined as an ongoing patient-provider conversation and active monitoring of conditions to help prevent life-threatening emergencies.

Like most people, you probably have applications on your phone that you seldom or never use. However, there is one app available through SC & GA House Calls and Main Street Physicians that I highly recommend if you want to save both time and money.

With short notice from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), healthcare providers are scrambling to adapt to the new CMS 2021 fee-for-service schedule. Undoubtedly, the adjustments stemming from lessons learned during the Pandemic, where telehealth visits increased significantly, impacted the CMS decisions.

SC House Calls (SCHC) have aggressive plans to expand the number of Medical Assistants (MAs) and their role in telehealth and in-home care market. According to Frost & Sullivan, a leader in information and growth consulting, telehealth services are projected to see a sevenfold increase in the next five years, equating to an annual growth rate of 38.2%.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) telehealth changes for 2021 have recently been reviewed in an article published on healthcaredive.com. The report shows that the Public Health Emergency (PHE) has had a significant effect on expanding services now eligible to be provided through telehealth.

Last Sunday afternoon, 67-year-old Joe was working in his garden with his wife, Diane. Joe is highly allergic to bees and always takes the necessary precautions, until Sunday, when a bee stung him on the hand. Diane immediately called her daughter, Beth, who’s a nurse.

With many states struggling to meet minimum vaccine roll-out goals, governments should seek creative solutions and partner with companies that are already in the field providing healthcare.

South Carolina House Calls (SCHC) encourages all eligible residents to get vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as practicable and continue social distancing and wearing masks in public.