By LYNDON ZAITZ of the Keizertimes
As society continues to age, health care is vitally important. Home care is a fast growing segment of the health industry in the country.
Answering that need are Jennifer Giese and Viki Fort, who have opened a local franchise of Synergy HomeCare in Keizer. The company provides non-medical in-home services including personal care, companion care, memory care and specialized care for those living with physical disabilities.
A ribbon cutting for the Keizer location will be held at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8. Synergy HomeCare is located at 3855 River Road N.
Giese and Fort have worked together for years, including at another in-home care agency.
Each of them is licensed with the Oregon Health Authority and, they plan to upgrade so they can accept Medicaid and Medicare. Until that happens the staff of 13 care-givers will help their clients with the tasks of daily living.
Synergy HomeCare provides no medical care.
The typical client, said Giese, is someone over the age of 50, typically elderly people, but they will take on clients of any age.
Giese and Fort said that their care givers have the training they need.
“We do have them do more (training) than what the state requires,” Giese said.
Oregon requires eight hours of training and, Synergy trains its staff for 14 hours.
When does a person realize home care is needed?
“Gosh, sometimes they don’t realize it,” answered Giese. “There’s different situations where people need it. Like the situations where an elderly person will go into the hospital and then they’re going to be discharged and they have to go home alone.”
Hospital discharge planners reach out to in-home care agencies to arrange support at home. That includes helping clients keep up with day-to-day tasks.
Giese said such in-home care provides peace of mind for clients and their families.
“Families just want to make sure that their loved one is checked on, even if it’s just a couple times a week. Sometimes it’s just a short thing and sometimes it’s people that need 24 hour care,” she said.
Medicaid will pay for such care, which is why Giese and Fort are working to take Medicaid.
“There are a lot of elderly that have long-term care insurance,” Giese said. “Now, people are getting to cash in on that.”
Fort has been in health care since she was young.
“I remember going to work with my grandma and my aunts. They worked in facilities and my grandmother worked at Fairview,” said Fort.
She worked in the real estate industry for years before returning to school to become a medical assistant.
Giese started in the field at 17, when she received her certified nursing assistant license. She worked in assisted living and nursing home facilities. After that, she worked in assisted living.
“It was a little more upbeat and there were a lot of seniors there. It was like having like 50 grandmas and grandpas,” she said.
Her background includes working in an emergency room and managing a pain clinic.
Giese enjoys home care.
“All the assisted living and nursing homes keeping people in their homes is like where people are happiest, where they’re the most comfortable, where people just do better in general,” she said.
Synergy doesn’t have service contracts but instead provides a pay-by-service model. Synergy HomeCare charges hourly.
Fort and Giese say potential clients should ask questions of an home-care provider, such as whether they are licensed and insured.
People should ask how they assess that the caregiver sent is going to be a good fit. Giese herself meets with potential clients for an home visit.
“Doing orientations and meeting the caregivers, you get an idea of who might be a good fit,” she said.
The pricing is different than other providers, Giese said.
“We do kind of have a fee schedule that if it were four hours or greater, it’s $38 an hour. If you want a three-hour shift, then it’s $48 an hour. And if you just want a two-hour shift, then it’s $58,” Giese said.
