Affinity Home Care and Private Duty offers a variety of services. On staff, we have our own Medical Social Worker and Patient Care Coordinator, Autumn, who has worked at Affinity for three and a half years.
As Affinity’s Medical Social Worker, Autumn has a wide range of areas to evaluate and situations to navigate. She assesses the patient for immediate and long-term needs on various levels including their family availability, community within which they live, then state and/or federal regulations. Autumn offers mental health and financial counseling to the patient and their family and also handles numerous referrals to outside assistance for long-term needs. She provides and researches any paperwork, literature, or other information that can benefit the patient and their family. With permission from the patient, Autumn invites the family to be involved with the appointments or calls requested family members to help be involved in the patient’s care. She helps her patients by assessing how not only how they are coping, but also how their family is coping with the health diagnosis and process. She needs to evaluate each situation in regard to how the home environment and social aspects are contributing to their quality of life.
As Affinity’s Patient Care Coordinator, Autumn helps track referrals for our patients in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. She travels to numerous rehab facilities and Huron Valley Hospital in order to meet patients that will be under our care. She also communicates with case managers, social workers, patients and families regarding Affinity Home Care services and obtaining any helpful information regarding the patient’s care. Autumn calls every patient to check in on how they are doing, how they feel they are progressing with our services and their satisfaction with our home care. She writes up a patient report for every client’s primary care physician so they can have a snap-shot of how we are helping their patients. Lastly, Autumn attends home health care meetings at Huron Valley Hospital, along with another home health care group that meets at different HHC agency locations.
Autumn manages the roles of a Medical Social Worker and Patient Care Coordinator by coordinating care services and keeping track of each patient. As a social worker, she utilizes various services and professionals, creating documents with specific information for the patient and family, plus implementing a personalized plan of action. This includes all individuals who will assist in the patient’s care after they have been discharged from our home care services. As a care coordinator, she must make contact via phone or in-person with case managers, social workers, and discharge planners. Autumn must keep track of each patient. “I track our hospital and rehab patient referrals by visiting the patient, talking to their family members, and communicating with social workers/case managers via phone, email, or in person. I also document and briefly note what transpired with each call”. Autumn even follows up with patients and doctors on a daily basis!
Autumn says her typical day and/or week is, “visiting our patient referrals at Huron Valley hospital, going to any rehabs in order to visit patient/family and speak to the social worker, going back to the office to make quality assurance phone calls, writing up patient reports, calling the appropriate contact to track patient status, and mapping out my drop-off of reports to physicians offices. I see my social work patients for evaluations and follow-up appointments in between these duties or late afternoon”. Autumn is a busy person who is great at what she does. Affinity is lucky to have her! Like any job, it comes with its highs and lows. Autumn says what she loves most about her job is, “how both of my positions require a variety of duties and aspects. They keep me on the go and that is how I work the best”, however, the biggest challenge for her is, “having a social work patient who could use a lot of help and get the help they need, but chooses not to take it or their family does not follow through with the plan of action. That is always very tough”.
We are constantly amazed at how Autumn manages all aspects of her job in a seemingly effortless fashion. She cares very deeply for each of the families she assists. Autumn is just one of the team members at Affinity that helps us assist patients like family caring for family. Her compassion and knowledge of the various pathways of medical care and services is a unique combination of talents.
To learn more about the unique care options Affinity Home Care offers, call us at 888-806-8773, follow us on Facebook and check out our website!
