“Local services by local people” describes how Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care (VNHC) operates its Solvang office, which serves residents of the Santa Ynez and Lompoc valleys. The Santa Barbara-based organization has provided rehabilitation and home health-care services in the area, but in 2007 also began offering Hospice and Personal Care services and established a “drop location” in Santa Ynez.
In October 2011, this location became a formal branch office when it was licensed by the California Department of Public Health. Though this process was an arduous one and took a year and a half to complete, this new license allows the Santa Ynez office to be recognized separately from the Santa Barbara location.
The nonprofit VNHC was founded as the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) in Santa Barbara in 1908, with nurses serving patients in historical events such as the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, the 1925 earthquake, and 1950 Polio outbreak. The name changed in 2001 to Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care to reflect the addition of hospice programs. The VNA was one of the first programs to participate in the national hospice demonstration project. They have continued to expand their services over the years as times and needs change.
The VNHC office in Solvang provides three different types of services to clients, according to Marion Schoneberger, director of business services for VNHC. The first is home healthcare, which includes short-term skilled nursing care, physical, occupational, and speech therapy to help people recovering from an illness or surgery, or to manage a chronic medical condition, as prescribed by a physician. The second is in-home hospice care, which is for patients near the end of their lives who are no longer seeking treatment. Pain and symptom management are provided by a caring team including a nurse, social worker, and spiritual advisor. VNHC also operates Serenity House, an 18-bed inpatient hospice house in Santa Barbara.
The third type of service offered is personal care service, where a trained caregiver—who is bonded, background-checked, and supervised—helps with such things as bathing, meal preparation, companionship, or even dog walking. These non-medical services are normally paid for privately, or by a person’s long-term health insurance policy.
As a non-profit organization, VNHC is “committed to help people get needed services, even if they can’t pay,” Schoneberger said. While most patients’ treatment is covered by Medicare or MediCal, there are also patients who qualify to receive services but are not covered. In those cases, VNHC is able to provide them with care through the VNHC Foundation. The foundation is the fundraising arm of the nonprofit and has two main fundraising events each year. A Mother’s Day luncheon is held annually at the Coral Casino in Santa Barbara (May 11 this year) and a Charity Regatta is held at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club in September. The Foundation also receives grants, private donations, and bequests from patients and their families.
Approximately 30 employees are working out of the newly licensed office, and all are local employees, including those in management. Since a nurse is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the patients in Santa Ynez and Lompoc valleys, it is important that they live in the area rather than commuting from Santa Barbara. The end result is a local, caring, professional nonprofit approach to health-care needs. Sounds like just what the doctor ordered.
Highlights
• The Automobile Club of Southern California recently announced the 2012 AAA Four Diamond Award winners, with five Santa Ynez Valley hotels and restaurants earning the coveted rating.
The Chumash Casino Resort & Spa and Santa Ynez Inn in Santa Ynez both made the list. In Solvang, the Petersen Village Inn, Ballard Inn, and, for the first time, the Hotel Corque all earned the award. Award-winning restaurants included The Willows at Chumash Casino & Resort and The Ballard Inn Restaurant.
The AAA Four Diamond Award recognizes the top 3.8 percent of 59,000 hotels and restaurants inspected by the AAA and the Auto Club, the nation’s largest AAA affiliate.
For more information, visit aaa-calif.com.
Intern Pamella Wood compiled this week’s Spotlight. Send items for consideration to jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2012.