MAYS HOME CARE OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE SERVICES FOR ALL AGES

By Beth Griswold
Journal Reporter
 

Mays Home Health recently opened up a Vinita location to better serve northeastern Oklahoma. Employees at that location include, front from left, Gaylene Smith RN, Paula Harden RN and case manager, and Laura Perryman, case manager. In back from left are, Jeanne Friend, RN, Teresa Henry LPN, and Britt Babb, regional marketer.


New to the Vinita area is Mays Home Health Care, offering quality health care to those in need. Mays Home Health Care offers services for all ages. The company was formed in 1991 by Lola Mays RN from Antlers, Okla., and now has 34 locations, with 30 in Oklahoma and four in Texas.

When Paula Harden RN, who is a case manager RN from Tahlequah and has been helping get the Vinita office going, was asked why Vinita was chosen as the next office she responded, "We saw a need for quality patient care and our goal is to work closely with the doctors and patients, to give the patients the best care available."

Hired for the Vinita office are Gaylene Smith RN of Wyandotte, who is the case manager, Laura Perryman RN and case manager from Big Cabin; Jeanne Friend of Adair and Teresa Henry of Vinita. Perryman and Friend are both RNs and case managers with Perryman set to transition to branch manager. She will be involved with the various community outreach projects.
They will visit area senior citizen centers to administer blood pressure tests plus other public service opportunities.

Friend who is also an RN will work as a case manager coordinator who will take calls as well as make sure all necessary calls are made. Henry is the field LPN, and will work one-on-one with patients.

The office will cover all the surrounding northeast Oklahoma towns, including, Welch, Pryor, Grove, Vinita, Chelsea, Salina, Locust Grove, Quapaw, Miami, or anywhere covered by Grand Gateway.

Mays Health Care is the only health care service advertisement in the Grand Gateway brochure, according to Harden.

One service Mays Health Care is very proud of is their Low Vision Program.

The program will address the four most common causes of vision loss, including age related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataracts. Mays Home Health Care utilizes a specific care plan that is tailored for each vision program. The care plan describes in detail what each discipline of the health care team will provide as well as education. The basis of this program focuses around individualized patient instruction that relates to disease process and home modifications that will enhance the patient’s life.

According to the program plan, a skilled nurse will usually see patients once a week for nine weeks and an occupational therapist will see patients twice a week for seven weeks. The occupational therapist will focus on activities of daily living. Visit one will deal with cooking with the visually impaired, visit two will deal with labeling equipment such as
ovens, washers, dryers, etc., visit three will deal with operating the telephone, visit four will deal with shopping with the visually impaired, visit five will deal with techniques for handling money and visit six will deal with using a cane and ambulation safety.

The goal of the program is to assist the patients with developing skills, and strategies that will promote and enhance their independence and safety despite vision loss.

According to statistics provided in the program outline, 17% of persons 45 and older report some form of vision impairment representing 16.5 million people. This number is estimated to increase by 20 million by 2010 with aging baby boomers.

Other specialty programs offered by Mays include: pediatrics, wound care, chronic disease management, infusion therapy, total parenteral nutrition, tele-medicine, PICC line management, 24 hour pulse oximetry, home ultrasound and iono/phono pharesis, cardiac specialty program, orthopedic specialty program and anodyne therapy.

Qualifiers for home health include the patient having difficulty living at home, such as "your needs are more than a bandage, but less than the hospital,” if the patient is calling or making frequent trips to a physician’s office, if the patient has recently been released from a hospital, if a patient has wounds that are not healing or are frequently infected, if a patient needs periodic blood work, if the patient is an unstable diabetic, if the patient has been prescribed new medications, if the patient’s blood pressure fluctuates, or if the patient is coming home from a nursing home.

Mays Home Health staff provides skilled nursing, home care aide, physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy in most areas.

If you would like to contact Mays for information about their services, you can call 800-362-4992 and arrange customized home care services.

Mays Home Care is part of a larger family of companies that can meet nearly all of your in-home care needs including live-in companions, the Advantage program in Oklahoma, personal care and Hospice.