Congressman Michael Arcuri Makes a House Call
Story Created:
Aug 31, 2009 at 3:52 PM EST
Story Updated:
Aug 31, 2009 at 5:13 PM EST
(WKTV) -Congressman Michael Arcuri is getting some input on healthcare in a bit of a different way. Monday morning he went to the home of 85 year old Francis Pusateri of Oneonta who suffers from severe breathing problems and heart failure. Fran's wife Jennie is his caretaker, and she has had to call 911 to get him to a hospital numerous times over the past three years.
Congressman Arcuri says anything that can be done to keep seniors like Fran at home, is better for them, health-wise, and financially better for the Government. He says "You don't have to spend money on ambulances, going back and forth to the hospital, the inconvenience to the family."
Now at the Pusateri home, with a click of a button, Fran's vital signs are sent over a phone line to a nurse inside the Oneonta headquarters of At Home Care. Fran gets in person visits from nurses on certain days, but in between, his blood pressure reading, oxygen level, and even the the sound of his heart and lungs are looked at and listened to numerous times by a nurse...over the phone.
At Home Care's C.E.O. Laurie Neander says "If I'm a nurse and I'm in the home Monday and Thursday, something can come up on Wednesday, that I may never catch , and by that time, they have already gone back to the emergency room." She says that's where heath care costs dramatically increase.
Arcuri says if the device proves to save money it should be covered by Medicare. Right now it isn't. After his visit, he told News Channel Two, "I have to say, to hear about, to read about it, but to see it in action, and what it does for people for a husband and wife keeping them in their home, and saving a lot of money in the process, this is what really the direction I think we need to be headed as a country."
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