Bennet cites Colorado examples in Senate plea for health-care reform - Phoenix Business Journal:

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Take sixty-seven year old Bill Schoens, from Colorado, who recently sufferefd a heart attack. Before he was released from the registered nurse Becky Cline was assigned as his Transitions She made sure that Bill understood the medicationx that his doctors prescribed and everything else he neededd to do to get Bill evenpointed out, “When you are in the emergency you are all drugged up and can barely remember what to do. Confusio starts to set in.” Beckt went through each step Bill neede d to follow when he leftthe hospital. Becky evaluated Bill’s ability to follow doctor’s orders in his environment and helped him maintainm his own PersonalHealth Record.
With her help, when Bill visited the he didn’t have to remembee everything that happened since he left thehospital — it was all in the Bill said “When peoplw are in front of their doctor, their bloos pressure goes sky high and they forget what they need to He said he foundx the help and guidance he received from his Transitionx Coach “invaluable and life-saving.” We need patient-centered coordinated care care that views nurses, doctors and family members not as isolated but as partners on a team whose ultimate goal is to make sure patientsd get the guidance and care they Hospitals aren’t the problem, primary care physicians aren’t the and nurses aren’t the problem.
Our fragmentedd delivery system of care is the This bill also makes sure that we are teachingb patients to manage their own conditionat Sixty-nine year old Frank Yannki of Denver, Colorado had surgery for a staph infection of the spinal cord. After leavin the hospital, he noticed that the pain he was experiencinbg weeks after surgery wasgettinhg worse. Having been “coached,” he identifiex the problem and knew to insisft on visiting hisdoctor immediately. A hospital test showe d that Mr. Yanni required a second His coachsaid that, “Had he let that go for even anothee week, he could have ended up in the Intensiv Care Unit, septic and horribly sick.
” Our Colorado transitiom of care model, reflected in our legislation, givew health care systems the choice of whether to create this But it allows existing patient-centered transitional care programs like the one in Mesa Colorado to continue on. We want communitiee and providers to think and work together to reducewreadmission rates, reduce costs and provide better coordinated care to our patients. Other systems should look at Coloradko and the systemsin twenty-four other states that have alreadyh begun to follow this model.
As we begin to emerg from the economic crisis, we must call upon existinbg health care professionals from all walks of life nurse practitioners, social long-term care, and community health workere — to serve as transitional coaches. Colorado nurses like Becky Clines have found that focusing on transitionalo care has leveragedtheir skills, empowering them to take a more activr role with patients. They are able to work with both patientss andfamily caregivers. For too long, familuy caregivers have been “silent 50 million Americans provide care for achronically ill, disablef or aged loved one.
This bill recognizees their importance, connecting them with a coach who can teacg them how to properluycoordinate at-home care. This bill is only a smal l part of the solution to the complex challenges of our fragmentes healthcare system. The problems of rising costs and limitedd access affect people from all walkzsof life. Skip Guarini of Parker, Colorado, is a self-employed privatee consultant andretired U.S. Marine. After yearw of regular doctors’ visits, Skip’s dentist discovered a lump on his thyroide during a routine exam that had gone undetectecd by his physician despite 10previouds exams.
Skip underwent a CT/MR I scan, Ultrasound, and biopsy, all of whicnh were inconclusive. A second series of testsw six months later revealed that the lump had and Skipunderwent surgery. During the doctors found cancer. Skip was then sent to an endocrinologist who ordereemore tests. All tests came back A second full body scan revealed no sign of cancedr anywherein Skip's body. All these examzs and screenings costSkip $122,000. Sinc e then, Skip has maintained perfecyt health, but he cannot obtain private insurance becausd of thethyroid surgery.
He now relies on COBRA and is payinb a monthly premium of This coverage is set to expirse in less thanone year, at which point Skip will have no insurance at all. Hollis Berendt is a small businesa ownerin Greeley, Colorado. She is coveree through her husband’s employer, which is accordingb to her, “a luxury many othedr small businessowners don’t After graduating from Colorado State University in 2004, theidr daughter Abby found a job with a larged company in New York City.
She was told she couldn’tr get health care coverage until she had been working at the company for one At ten monthsof employment, she was diagnosed with an ovariahn tumor that would requiree surgery. The expenses were too much for Abby, so her parents had to take out a secon mortgage to pay hermedicao bills. Hollis shared that, “Thias experience brought to light, all too clearly, how closw we all are to losing everythinh due to a health The current system is hurting our small businesds people andtheir employees. Take Bob Montoya of Colorado who runs Cedar Ridgs Landscape in Pueblo withhis brother, Ron.
They are torn betweem providing health care coveragd for employees and keeping theirfbusiness afloat.