Old Lyme officials react to Yale New Haven ending visiting nurse services
Old Lyme — Yale New Haven Health will not renew its contract with the Old Lyme Visiting Nurses Association, ending support services for the town and Lyme when the contract expires at the end of June, and leaders are trying to find a replacement.
This means Yale New Haven will no longer support the town's visiting nurse position, which provides services such as home care visits for patients recently discharged from the hospital, blood pressure screenings at the senior center and senior living facilities and foot checks for diabetic patients.
In a recent letter to the VNA and the town, Yale New Haven said it was ending the services so it can focus on caring for patients in their home and the hospital.
Sarah Gleason, the president of the town's VNA, said Thursday Old Lyme is not the only town affected and that the area has a shortage of nurses.
A lot of what we're going to miss is the nonmedical piece, the emotional, psychological support, helping decision making," Gleason said.
"Any decision to change a service that is being provided to the community and involves employees is extremely difficult, but we need to focus on our core mission of caring for our patients in hospital and home settings,' Fiona Phelan, a Yale New Haven Health spokeswoman, said recently. 'We are making the announcement approximately five months prior to the end of the program in order to allow our Human Resources staff to support each of the eight employees impacted in finding a new position within our health system or elsewhere. Providing this amount of time will also allow our communities to develop a plan for the future with as much time as possible.'
The Health at Home wellness program provides nursing services at municipal locations, such as senior centers, in East Lyme, Groton, New London, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Stonington and Waterford, according to Phelan.
Gleason said the VNA has reached out to Hartford Healthcare and other agencies about filling the gap created by Yale New Haven's departure.
"We're doing our very best for the people in our towns," she said.
VNA Executive Director Cynthia Taylor said she's very disappointed in Yale New Haven's decision.
"We're working hard to find a replacement," she said.
Gleason said about a dozen patients receive home visits from the Town Nurse, Denise Piersa, and many receive blood pressure screenings, held daily at the senior center.
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, in a Board of Selectmen meeting last week, said Yale New Haven's departure is a blow for the town.
"This is not good news at all," she said. "It came as quite a shock."
Shoemaker said the town and the VNA will consider their options, which include possible hiring their own nurse, though there would have to be a discussion about how to pay for the position.
She also mentioned beginning a letter-writing campaign to Yale New Haven Health but said she isn't sure who decided to pull the services.
"I think we need to do something, Shoemaker said.
The Old Lyme Visiting Nurse Association was founded in 1922 under the the American Red Cross. At first it focused on high infant mortality, home health care, and hygiene instruction. In the 1940s, following the withdrawal of the Red Cross from public health nursing services, Old Lyme's chapter was incorporated as the Old Lyme Visiting Nurse Association, with its own constitution, bylaws, and membership.
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