Van Nuys : McKeon Boosts Home Health Care at Rally

With the dignity it offers patients as well as its cost-effectiveness, home care is the vanguard of health care, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon and local nurses said at a Valley College rally Friday.

From blood transfusions to dressing changes, more and more care for terminal and chronic illness is given in patients’ residence, said Gina Aguirre, chairwoman of Valley College’s health sciences department.

The 30-person rally, which marked the close of National Home Health Care Week, was staged to draw attention to the viability of home care as Congress prepares to tackle health reform. “What we are doing in Congress is working hard to ensure that personal choice in health care continues through tax incentives to plan and set aside for our own health care needs,” said McKeon, a Santa Clarita Republican. “Home care should be a consideration in making those choices.”

It is estimated that only 20% of health care will take place in hospitals by the year 2000, according to Aguirre.

“Five years ago, someone with a terminal illness would spend her last days in a hospital,” Aguirre said. “Now we provide that care in a person’s own home. . . . It gives the patient and the family a sense of power over their own health.”

Studies suggest that patients prefer the personal attention and dignity that comes with home care, Aguirre said.

“In some terminal cases, the nurse becomes the patient’s best friend.”

The relative cost-effectiveness of home care dovetails with the Republican goals of eliminating the federal budget deficit and overhauling health care, McKeon said.

The congressman own father, stricken by terminal Parkinson’s disease, spent his last days at home.

“It was important to him and it was important to us to have him at home,” McKeon said. “I’ve seen the success of [home care], and I’m a strong believer in it.”