Patients don`t have to be in hospital to get IV`s
by Anne Kelly, KFYR-TV
Posted on 3/4/2009
Home Infusion Services |
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No one wants to be stuck in the hospital, especially if they don`t need to be there. That`s why a lot of hospitals offer home infusion services. They allow patients on IVs to hook themselves up to their medications in the comfort of their own living rooms. Patients like Joyce Barkie.
Joyce has been dehydrated countless times. She has a syndrome that causes her body to clear liquids far faster than normal. The only solution is to infuse herself with saline. So for the past four years that`s what she`s been doing every other day in the privacy of her own home.
Natalie Koch works in the Home Infusion Services at St. Alexius Medical Center. She says most home infusion patients are hooking themselves up to antibiotics. And unlike Joyce, most only need to do it for several weeks.
“They would either have to say in the hospital longer to receive their treatment or they could come to the ER everyday if they need it. So it saves them time and it saves them money,” Koch says.
For Joyce, home infusion just make sense, especially since she`ll need hydration help the rest of her life. “If I didn`t have it, oh, it would be such a blessing. But I mean, two hours isn`t much,” she says.
That`s how long the process takes start to finish. Joyce likes to hook herself up at night. The lulling of the machine puts her to sleep. And while she admits hours of medications are not the most convenient part of her day, she says she views infusing herself as a normal part of her day, as routine as eating and sleeping.
The young and the old can be set up with home infusion services if it works with their situation. The only problem is, Medicare won`t cover most home infusion setups.