Home Health Meeting
Dear Editor: Home Health: the so-called “public meeting” held by SEARHC was a waste of time. SEARHC was not listening, much less listening with “ears and mind open,” to the few people who were allowed to testify. I was astonished at the lack of interest the administration demonstrated in reconsidering its decision to abolish Medicare Certified Home Health Care.
SEARHC’s mission statement asserts “Alaska Native People working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities.” And its story is, it asserts that “SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) is a distinguished non-profit health consortium dedicated to providing comprehensive healthcare services to the residents of Southeast Alaska.”
SEARHC is not fulfilling its mission or living up to its story – it is not working in partnership with its communities, and by ending Medicare Certified Home Health it is not providing the best comprehensive health care. Medicare Certified Home Health Care has been shown to be so very effective in keeping people out of the hospital and at home, allowing patients to continue with at least a modicum of a normal life. And it is clear that the community of Sitka is distressed about its termination.
SEARHC maintains that Medicare Certified Home Health Care is too expensive and that it can provide the same service by disbanding it. Not true. Many letters have explained the patient-care gap between Medicare Certified Home Health Care (coordinated care) and the current single nurse/doctor script plan: therefore, I won’t dwell on the differences and reduction of services.
SEARHC, a non-profit corporation, apparently makes money on end-of-life care in the hospital and in the long-term care facility. It loses money on Medicare Certified Home Health Care. Is that part of the decision to close Medicare Certified Home Health, to make money by referring patients to long-term care? Isn’t it cruel to relegate patients to long-term care when with support they can stay at home?
The elimination of Medicare Certified Home Health Care is making me give some serious thought about where to relocate when/if I need continuous care. Long-term care is not the place I want to spend the last months or years of my life.
Galen Paine, Sitka
Winter Blast Thanks
Dear Editor: Last weekend Sitka Young Life hosted our annual Winter Blast in-town camp event for high school-age kids. We had 41 kids participate in activities like: crazy indoor games, field games, a photo scavenger hunt, thrift shopping, and eating a fancy dinner.
In our 16-hour time together, we ate four meals and piles of snacks, we laughed and played hard, and became better friends as we made wonderful memories! This event could not have happened with out the support of the Sitka community.
I would like to specifically thank the contributions from the Hames Corporation, the Channel Club, the Sitka Assembly of God, Sitka Christian Center, Sitka United Methodist Church, St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, as well as many individual volunteers.
I am so grateful to live in a community where people support the youth so well. Thank you to all who served and contributed to help make this event a success.
Aaron Routon,
Sitka Young Life Area Director
