40 and 30 Years of Serving Compassionate Care

November is National Care at Home Month, and Brookings Health System is celebrating accordingly, making their home health and hospice services known. 

It is Brookings Health System’s mission to provide high quality, compassionate and personalized health care, and these services have done just that. 

For 40 years, home health services have offered a wide variety of health care and supportive services wherever patients need them. Meanwhile, hospice care services have supported individuals and families enjoy more moments of lifefor 30 years.

Having both services under one agency allows patients to transition smoothly from home health to hospice if needed, giving families within the area stability. 

Both support teams are composed of members from Brookings and the surrounding communities. They are neighbors who live right down the road from those they serve, all while delivering tender care and Brookings Health System’s mission.

Providing local health care, the two services serve Brookings County plus surrounding areas up to 35-mile radius from Brookings.

“When you have local people seeing local patients, we have more of a connection to the community,” said Home Health and Hospice Director Lynne Kaufmann.

Since its birth in 1985, the home health services team has successfully provided health care into the comfort of patients’ homes. This form of care allows patients to be comfortable while recovering from illness, injury or surgery recovery. If someone has a knee replacement and can’t drive themselves in for appointments, the home health team can come to them, taking off the stress of finding transportation. Or, if someone is chronically ill, the team will be there to provide care all while being in the comfort zone of the patients’ own home.

While home health services with Brookings Health have been around for 40 years, the service continues to see growth and change, adapting to whatever the community needs. Regardless of growth and change, the patient is always at the center of service. Therapists, physicians, and other medical professionals collaborate to make the patients’ recovery happen in a timely and safe manner.

“We’re all working together to try and help that person be as good as they can be by the time we discharge them,” said Kaufmann. “There are phases of their recovery, and we are just one phase. We want to make sure they’re safe and doing what they need to do.”

Home Health nurses are there for check-ups, like vitals or wound care changes, and the aides offer personal care like showering or dressing. Not only are nurses and aides available with home health services, speech, occupational and physical therapy are also. 

Occupational therapists teach and help patients find new strategies that are safe and easier for everyday tasks. Some patients may need occupational therapy (OT) after a trauma or injury, or the treatment can help manage symptoms from a chronic condition as well. For example, if a patient has a stroke, they may need an OT plan to regain the skills needed for managing day-to-day needs in their home, such as bathing, dressing, cooking and cleaning independently.

Physical therapy (PT) is treatment that helps build or regain strength needed after an injury, illness or surgery. Not only does PT help with strength, it also helps with mobility, balance and flexibility. After hip surgery, a patient may need a PT plan to get strength back and restore hip function.

Speech therapy is a therapeutic treatment that helps individuals with speech, language, cognitive, voice and swallowing impairments or disorders. An individual may need speech therapy after experiencing a stroke, dementia and various neurological disorders. 

Ten years after the home health services started, hospice care made its mark in Brookings Health System. Since its beginning in 1995, the hospice team has served with the highest form of end-of-life comfort, quality of life and spiritual support when cures or other treatments are not an option. 

“Giving up” may be a common misconception of hospice care, but the service aims to support patients live the best life possible with the time that is left, while focusing on comfort.

Hospice represents care focused on hope, connection and comfort. The hospice care team implements compassion and personalization, making sure the patient’s goals are fulfilled.

“We can be there as much or as little as they want us to be, but sometimes it’s nice just to have somebody to call and ask a question to,” Kaufmann said. 

Not only is hospice care about questions or home visits, sometimes it is all about what is most important to the patient, like making the granddaughter’s wedding day or playing golf a few more times with friends mentioned Kaufmann. 

Brookings Health System offers many hospice care services, but just a few include nursing services regularly and on an on-call basis, spiritual care, social work, aide services for personal cares, home management, medical equipment, supplies and medication for symptom management. Hospice services can be provided wherever home is for the patient, whether that is the patient’s home, a family member’s home, nursing home or assisted living facility.

Hospice volunteers are also a part of the hospice care team, and it is something individuals from Brookings and the surrounding areas enjoy taking part in. 

“When I retired as a nurse practitioner, I still wanted to be doing something to help people and to be in healthcare,” said hospice volunteer Carrie Hagberg. 

Anyone can become a hospice volunteer and help the transition from life on Earth to the next stage. While stepping into a role as such may not seem easy, Brookings Health System offers training to ensure the volunteers are comfortable before starting.

“We’re there to make their life as good as you can,” says Hagberg. 

Brookings Health offers the Veteran-to-Veteran program as well, part of We Honor Veterans. A veteran volunteer pairs with a veteran patient in hospice care, offering a unique ability to relate with life experiences or military values, morals and culture. This connection can help both parties heal from difficult memories, moments or conversations. 

“I think we have a great team here. All of them are very dedicated to what they do. They are caring and compassionate individuals,” Kaufmann added.

Life is fleeting, but the support a patient and their family receives doesn’t have to be. Brookings Health System’s Home Health and Hospice care teams make comfort and compassion possible, focusing on quality of life for all patients. 

About Brookings Health System

Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed The Neighborhoods at Brookview nursing home, Brookhaven Estates senior living apartments, Yorkshire Eye Clinic & Optical, and medical clinics in Arlington, White and Volga, South Dakota. It is a non-profit, municipal health system that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, emergency and extended care services. Brookings Hospital provides local access to doctors in Brookings and offers robotic da Vinci surgery and Mako robotic-arm assisted procedures, making it one of the premier rural community hospitals in South Dakota. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at brookingshealth.org.