Mahaska Hospice’s Transition Care program helps those who need supportive home-care but are not ready for hospice care, and staffers say they are now the busiest they have ever been.

“It’s a short-term program, a 90-day program,” said Kim Lambert, RN and PCC for Mahaska Hospice. “It started in 2005. There’s not many hospices that have this kind of program.”

Lambert said that as of July 31, the Transition Care program has assisted 15 patients. That compares to six patients for 2007 and 13 in 2006.

Lambert said that Mahaska Hospice started the program, but the United Way of Mahaska County totally funds the program.

“They’ve funded us since 2005,” Lambert said. “We’re excited to be involved with them.”

Lambert said they receive a $25,000 grant each year from United Way. So, patients are not charged for Transition Care services.

“It’s all basically a free service to the patient,” Lambert said. “We’ve been out there talking to physicians” about the program.

The Transition Care program has a staff of 12 to serve patients. There are nurses and home health aides who come to people’s homes to assist them.

The staffers provide skilled nursing visits, home health aide visits, durable medical equipment and social worker visits. They do in-home visits, provide information on disease, discuss quality-of-life issues, symptom control, support to patients and their families, and 24-hour on-call nursing, according to a program fact sheet.

The program does not cover thing such as medications, treatments, emergency room or doctor visits, or hospitalizations, according to the fact sheet.

Lambert said that program patients are people who “fall through the cracks” of the health care system.

“It helps them stay out of the hospital,” she said. “We even go into the nursing homes with this program.”

Jackie Minter has been a home health aide for four years.

“I really like my job — interacting with people and getting to know their families,” she said.

Minter said there’s a lot of travel involved with her job.