PeaceHealth Ketchikan Home Health and Hospice

Hours of operation
As noted above in "Operating hours" section, except for holidays.

Patient populations served
PeaceHealth Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Home Health provide short-term, intermittent skilled nursing and therapy services to patients in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough area, and in specified communities of Prince of Wales Island. Home Health patients must meet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Conditions of Participation. Home Health is a provider-driven service that focuses on developing an individualized plan of care to improve a patient's functional mobility, health status, and ability to manage their disease process, medications, etc.

Types of patients include, but are not limited to:

• Chronic disease management
• Aftercare of acute hospitalization for joint/orthopedic procedures
• Aftercare of acute hospitalization for cardiac/neurological events such as stroke or MI
• Medication management
• Dementia/mentally challenged patients
• IV antibiotic therapy
• Total parental nutrition
• Anticoagulation therapy
• Medical and post-surgical nursing
• Wound care/assessment
• Management of central catheter IV lines

Geographic area served
In Ketchikan, the patient must reside on the road system on Revillagigedo Island. On Prince of Wales Island, the patient must reside on a maintained road system in the communities of Craig, Klawock, Coffman Cove, Naukati Bay, Thorne Bay, Hydaburg, or Hollis. Both Ketchikan and Prince of Wales are accessible only by boat or airplane.

Services offered and skill mix of staff

• Skilled Nursing services provided by Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses:
  • Wound and ostomy care
• Physical Therapy in partnership with Physical Therapy Assistants
• Speech Language Pathology
• Medical Social Work
• Basic Life Support (BLS) certification is required for all clinical staff.
• Nurse triage is available via phone when outside of business hours.

Service limitations (service not provided, or offered at reduced capacity)

• Skilled nursing provided by Registered Nurses is the only service offered on Price of Wales Island.
• Occupational Therapy and Home Health Aide services are currently unavailable, but are actively being recruited.
• Specialty Services: Maternity and behavioral health services are not offered
• Service Duration: none
• Service Frequency: Weekend and holiday visits are available when pre-arranged.

Staffing
Home Health care is provided in a case management style, with an interdisciplinary team assigned to each patient. Patients receive visits at the frequency required by their condition and ordered by their provider.

Assessment and reassessment

• A registered nurse (or appropriate skilled professional) is required to conduct an initial assessment visit within 48 hours of referral, or within 48 hours of the patient's return home, or on the medical provider ordered start of care date.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) develop the regulatory admission criteria for home health. These Conditions of Participation (CoPs) include the following:
  1. Patient must be homebound
  2. Patient must be safe for intermittent care from a skilled clinician including a registered nurse and/or therapist
  3. A face-to-face encounter with a medical provider is required, either 90 days prior or 30 days after the first day of HH service
  4. Medical provider must sign the HH Certification attesting to the patient's homebound status, approving the Plan of Care and attesting to the face-to-face encounter.
  5. Care must be provided by a Medicare-certified HH agency.
• All services provided under the Medicare  home health benefit must be ordered by a medical provider.