Executive Report
It was a year of new beginnings and validation for Visiting Nurse Home Care. We looked at our existing programs and processes and used the creative talent of our staff to consider better ways of delivering services and information.
One of the most noticeable changes was our name change. After twenty years as Visiting Nurse Personal Services, we made the switch of name and logo to Visiting Nurse Home Care to more accurately describe the breadth of our services. The other obvious change was to the location of our Mount Vernon office. Late in the year, we moved to a new building located on Commercial Street. It was quite an involved and lengthy process and the staff rose in their typical fashion to meet and beat all the challenges that arose.
We successfully concluded our collective bargaining with OPEIU Local 8 and celebrated our achievement on International Workers' Day, May 1. Over 150 Home Care Aides received wage and benefit increases and all of our employees were then able to obtain improved health insurance through a Taft-Hartley multi-employer trust. Our organization was honored later that year with a Peace Builder Award from Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center for our commitment to interest-based bargaining. We also negotiated changes to our payroll process, notified clients, and began using an automated telephony system January 1, 2007.
Though some activities might be considered mundane, they add to improving the whole organ- ization. We reviewed and revised our entire policy and procedures manual to update, simplify, and consolidate them. We success- fully bid, through Whatcom County's Request for Proposal process, for a renewed contract to provide nursing services for Whatcom County Jail. We also renewed our contracts with the state and its agents to provide services for COPES, MPC, Respite, Personal Emergency Response Systems (Health Watch), COPES nursing, and Caregiver Training. The Washington State Department of Health conducted their biannual survey where they inspect policies, review client records, assure regulatory compliance, and interview clients and found zero deficiencies in our practices.
Visiting Nurse Home Care continued to grow in our outreach, fundraising and marketing efforts. We continued to use in-house talent to design informational materials. We made lemonade from lemons when an organization with a similar name ceased doing business in one of our service areas and we used this as an opportunity to receive television and press coverage saying we were alive and well. We continued our tribal outreach by providing nursing level of foot care for Lummi Nation. We grew in our employee participation with United Way of Whatcom County fundraising and continue to be a part of the State Combined Fund. We also formed a team for The Human Race to raise funds, both for our local Volunteer Center and for Visiting Nurse Home Care. We joined Sustainable Connections to support the "Buy Local" movement, joined the Small Business Development Center's Nonprofit RoundTable, and became actively involved in the re-creation of the Whatcom Council of Nonprofits.
We continued to participate in community service efforts such as Long Term Care Ombudsman Advisory Council, Elder and Vulnerable Adult Abuse Network, Elder Service Providers, and Regional Tribal Home Care Outreach. We also were active in legislative outreach in order to educate our elected officials on the issues of Family Support, Respite, and vendor rate equity. We maintained connections with home care agencies throughout the state and participated in Home Care Coalition meetings in Long Beach, Olympia, and Leavenworth.
Our clinical staff revamped our annual flu shot program and focused on providing shots in the most efficient manner, usually through our region's senior centers. While the supply of vaccine was adequate this year, the advent of new Medicare Advantage plans made reimbursement problematic and we will need to assess whether we will be able to continue to offer this service to our community.
Our continuing education in-services focused on end-of-life issues of communication and grief, dementia from the caregiver's perspective, oral care, infection control, and homemaking tips on cleaning, food safety, and meal preparation.
Every hour of service you see in this annual report represents the work of a real person - our staff caring for people in need in Whatcom, Skagit and Island Counties. Because our focus is on service over profits, we devote most our resources to caring for low-income elderly and disabled people. Your financial support will help Visiting Nurse Home Care bridge service gaps and allow us to continue to help frail, vulnerable, elderly, or disabled loved ones stay in their own homes.
Terri Briant Booth, Executive Director
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