Adventist Health Home Care delivers personalized care to patients in their own environment
by Ken Smith
After losing her Paradise home to the Camp Fire in 2017, Sandra Townsend’s son Darrin helped her rebuild the house from the ground up. While the work was in progress, Darrin suffered a heart attack followed by triple-bypass surgery, and initially seemed to be getting better. Alas, Darrin never fully recovered, and passed away in May 2024.
Darrin was the primary source of moral and physical support for his elderly mother—something she’s dearly needed since she herself was recently diagnosed with a heart condition. She is currently awaiting valve replacement surgery and says she’s found invaluable help from the Adventist Health Home Care program and—specifically—her home health care nurse, Jim Robinson.
“Jim is just a wonderful part of this experience,” Townsend says. “When he comes here, he gives me a lot of positive messages and helps keep me from getting too worried or scared about the surgery and the whole process. He’s been amazing.”
“Most of my patients have come out of the hospital, and our mandate is to help them stay out of the hospital and stay home. Many have ongoing diseases that re-hospitalize people a lot, such as COPD, congestive heart failure or diabetes. We go in and we do our interventions, like wound care, but also a big part of the job is education.”
Jim Robinson, RN, Adventist Health Home Care
Robinson is a registered nurse and clinical manager for Adventist Health Home Care (he also does some hospice care) who’s worked for the company for two-and-a-half years. He spends his workdays visiting patients throughout Butte County, including several on the Ridge. He says his caseload of patients in the Paradise-Magalia area fluctuates between two and 10.
Adventist Health Home Care’s services include skilled nursing for wound care, medication management, IV infusions and much more; home health aide support for daily activities like bathing and dressing; and medical social work for counseling, care planning, and help accessing community resources. Care is tailored for each client, and typically covered by Medicare, Medi-Cal, private insurance, or self-pay. The focus is on delivering essential medical care at home—nurses and therapists visit as needed to support recovery, teach patients and families how to manage health conditions, and reduce the need for hospital visits.
“Most of my patients have come out of the hospital, and our mandate is to help them stay out of the hospital and stay home,” Robinson says. “Many have ongoing diseases that re-hospitalize people a lot, such as COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], CHF [congestive heart failure] or diabetes. We go in and we do our interventions. like wound care, but also a big part of the job is education.”
Robinson says he always advises his patients to go to an emergency room if they feel they need immediate help, but that he and his fellow home health care workers are available for special check-ins if patients are uncertain: “They can give us a call and we’ll come out, kick the tires and then either call the doctor, tell them they’re fine, or send them to the ER.”
He says patients are occasionally reluctant when he tells them a hospital visit is necessary, in which case he gives them a gentle push.
“There’s been many times I’ve convinced patients to go to the hospital,” he says. “They’ve called back later on and said, ‘Yeah, I got to the hospital, and they put me in ICU because my blood pressure was so high. You saved my life, Jim.’ That’s why I do what I do.”
Robinson says home care services were impacted by the back-to-back crises of the Camp Fire and the COVID-19 pandemic, but that the program is coming back strong: “In the past two years, we’ve really blown up. Even within our own organization, people are impressed with the success of our office, because we have a good team and really strong management and have come back so strong.
“I’ve worked for several different home health agencies, and I’m really proud to be with this one,” he continues. “I’ve worked at for-profit institutions that have been really fiscally driven, and appreciate that Adventist Health is not-for-profit agency. The main goal is taking care of patients, and that’s why I got into this—to help people.”
For more information about Adventist Health Home Care, visit www.adventisthealth.org/home-care-services/.
