Download Visiting Angels Nursing Agency

VISITING
ANGELS
NURSING
AGENCY LTD.,
KENYA
ANGELIC NURSING
INTRODUCTION
A
private limited company incorporated
in 2012
 Not a franchise
 Motivated mainly by the passion to start
a business in nursing practice, with a
previous experience of home-based care
as a young girl growing up in the
countryside.
Our Vision, Mission, Values
Our Vision
 To be a centre of
excellence for
provision of high
level nursing and
auxilliary homebased care
services.
Our Values
 Empathy
 Respect
 Integrity
 Compassion
 Responsiveness
 Friendliness
Our Mission
 To
provide exceptional, full range, high
quality, cost effective care to patients of
all ages in the comfort of their homes or in
the hospital, allowing them to experience
compassion, empathy, respect and
dignity, as they receive one-to-one
individualized nursing care and auxilliary
service provided by caring professionals.
Our Services
 Home
Based Care
 Palliative care
 Disease management programs for the
elderly
 Training of in-service nurses and patient
attendants
 Managing retirement homes
Trends of engagement

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Practice of HBC in Kenya- close to 30 years, by
individual nurses with no registered businesses.
Noted progress in the last 15 years - nurses
registering business entities for HBC.
Expected in future - More registered HBC business
entities, as nurses aspire to start formal businesses
and the HBC industry gains popularity and
structure.
Resistance to the practice- By family members
and doctors and no consideration by insurance
companies. To-date, many family members will
not allow our staff to wear uniform while in the
homes, for own reasons
Trends....
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On numbers, at inception, we had only about five
(5) HBC enquiries per month on care of older
persons but currently we get more than 30 similar
enquiries from families, hospitals, individuals . This
may be due to increased awareness on HBC and
increased marketing on our part
Increased Hospital requests for patient attendantsto supplement staff shortages, as opposed to the
past where this was not considered an option.
Insurance companies have softened their position
on HBC but depending on member’s policy
Challenges

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Lack of recognition as partners in the continuum of care to
the Older persons
Lack of licencing specifically as HBC providers in the
industry
No professional indemnity policies by insurance companies
No regulation and /or standardisation of our practice
No recognition of caregivers/ patient attendants as a key
resource for HBC
Patient attendants – no recognition by Nursing Council of
Kenya as providers of HBC and their curriculum / training
institutions too
There is no standard curriculum for training patient
attendants
Challenges



HBC in the private sector adopts a fee-forservice financing model as we have no
financial support from donors or governments.
Businesses require frequent capitalisation
when some clients default on their payments.
Unaffordability - As a result of the above,
many older persons cannot access the HBC
even on a high need basis due to
unaffordability.
Who is family?
Challenges….


No specialised geriatric resources- Currently, there are no
Geriatric trained doctors and nurses in the country, for
consultation and referral purposes.
 Needed are Courses to be introduced in the respective
curriculi and develop specialised programs at the
universities and the medical colleges.
The cost of running the HBC business, which are SMEs is very
high.
 Government to consider subsidizing the cost of HBC to the
elderly; tax-exempt legislation on all medication and
supplies to older persons,
Opportunities

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Integration with other private health care
instituitions to compliment each other; in areas of
research, capacity building, partnership in training
the patient attendants. Such as AKUHN,
KNH,KMTC, KEMRI etc
Develop partnerships with health providers
(private or public) that allow the older persons
under our care to access specialised medical
attention such as emergency services, diagnostics
etc
Adopt legislation that will markedly subsidise the
cost of medical supplies and equipment for older
persons
Opportunities…..

More aggressive government involvement
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Evident is the Health and Ageing Unit in the
MOH, Ministry of EA Community, Labour &
social protection, NHIF benefits for the elderly
Provide free NHIF coverage for all older
persons over 60 years . Currently the premiums
are kshs. 500 per month which is unaffordable.
Include a home-based care benefit in the
NHIF policy and private health policies
Opportunities…..
 Cultural
considerations- retirement
homes are not yet culturally acceptable.
Need to create awareness for and
develop community geriatric centres.
 Spearhead health promotion and
preventive programs to cut on costs spent
on curative
Opportunities…
Corporate organisations invest in home- based care;
sponsorships to conferences, scholarships, research, projects,
donations of supplies and /or medication , direct investment
etc to build capacity and sustainability of the industry and
increase reachability to the older persons.
 Technology -coordinating activities, tracking clients’
progress, documentation, submitting reports to the office
and the doctor, staff management ( clocking in and out,)
leave, shifts , staff availability, emergencies, quality
assurance,
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Adopt-an-older person for healthcare- AHN ( Angels
Healthcare Network) project in Embu County. AHN is a nonprofit organisation for healthcare programs for the elderly.
Opportunities- Participating in
the national agenda
Opportunities- Creating
awareness through
Participation
Opportunities- Education,
Empowerment
Opportunities…
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Develop systems that will support family caregivers
as they take care of their elders in their homes. At
AHN, we are developing geriatric centres in the
various communities, to cover predetermined
catchment area
Empower older persons - on self-care- encourage
financial management, education in younger
people on old age issues, create older persons
friendly communities
Encourage the growth of the home-based care
sector as a major player in the mainstream
healthcare system, to attract youth
ASANTE SANA
THANK YOU