Often times people have health care concerns and questions, but do not know where to seek the information they need to make an informed decision. This is especially true in the elderly population. For this reason, the Miami Jewish Home & Hospital at Douglas Gardens established its Health Resource Center.
The HRC is a call center designed to help seniors in the community and their loved ones be directed to the appropriate resources for their health questions.
This innovative program is the brainchild of Fred Stock, the chief operating officer of MJHHA.
After noticing many calls to the nursing home from people seeking information about the resources available to the community, Stock saw the need for something more. He wanted to establish a centralized service where people could be advised on issues that affect many seniors such as memory problems, needing personal care assistance at home or not knowing whether or when nursing home care is appropriate.
“We want to do more in the community for the community,” Stock said. “The center is one avenue in which we can provide better care.”
With a myriad of services available at the Miami Jewish Home including nursing care and supervision at home, ambulatory health services, Alzheimers disease care and geriatric mental health, it is easy to see why a call center would be in such demand. MJHHA has grown by leaps and bounds from its original purpose of caring for elderly widows and widowers within the Jewish community of Miami.
“Over the years, the Homes commitment to the elderly of Miami-Dade and Broward counties has expanded significantly,” said Larry Lentz, director of marketing. “We are open to people of all faiths, ethnic backgrounds and income levels.”
In fact, the MJHHA system is the largest provider of geriatric healthcare in the Southeast United States and the largest nursing home in Florida.
Even with the widespread help available through MJHHA, there are times where they cant meet the needs of a caller. In these cases, call center staffers reach out to the network of professionals that MJHHA has developed with other healthcare providers throughout South Florida, thus illustrating their goal of providing the best care possible for the regions senior population.
“We dont expect the vast majority of the callers to become a client or a patient here,” Stock said. “The resource center is truly a community service designed to expedite the flow of information and to help people make better choices.”
One of the many benefits to the Health Resource Center is that the staff member will attempt to connect the caller directly with the suggested service. Also, staff members follow up with the caller to ensure that caller received the necessary information. All this is done free of charge.
Future plans for the Center include building additional relationships with healthcare decision members such as hospital social workers who could offer the Health Resource Center as a way for patients to begin researching geriatric healthcare options.
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