Revisit Decision
Dear Editor: Last week I received a survey from Medicare, asking for evaluation of Home Health services which I received here in Sitka in June and July 2023 following a fall and then surgery for a broken kneecap. I quickly filled out and returned the survey. The process was bittersweet, though my evaluation was strongly positive, because Dr. Bruhl announced that Home Health Services in Sitka were canceled by SEARHC as of Sept. 1. OT and PT staff were reassigned, nursing staff was eliminated. The justification given for cancellation was financial. I know, as an emerita professor and associate dean of the School of Medicine at University of California, Davis, that dollars are fungible, and no critical medical service should be based on budget. Dr. Bruhl knows that as well.
For the past 25 years my husband, David, and I have been ‘‘aging in place’’ in our home on Thimbleberry Bay. We have had our share of excellent primary medicare, emergent care, and when needed swift movement through the emergency room to surgery. However, it is clear to us as elders in our mid-’80s that our ‘‘shelf life’’ is limited and we anticipate the need for palliative care as we face end-of-life health challenges in Sitka.
The World Health Organization describes palliative care as ‘‘an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.’’ Some communities offer hospice services, the working definition of palliative care. Sitka has NO hospice service. Home Health Care served that role.
I add my voice to Cindy Litman, Dr. Coruzzi and Bitsy Mosher in requesting that the decision to cancel Home Health Care be re-visited! Dr. Bruhl, don’t let the ‘‘bean counters’’ win!
Margaret Steward, PhD, Sitka
