July is Eye Injury Prevention Month. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, nearly 27 percent of eye injuries occur in those ages 46 and older. Falls in the home are a significant cause of these injuries. Educate seniors about the importance of preventing falls, which can prevent eye injuries, broken bones and many other problems.
- Host a free class on fall prevention at a local library or senior center. Find a ready-made class at www.tagwebstore.com/healthmatters-education-series.php.
- Show physicians that you’re serious about keeping their patients safe with your comprehensive fall prevention efforts. Patient education guides show you are empowering patients to take an active role in their care. Improve your outcomes in the process. Find the guides at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-education-guides.php.
- Speaking of outcomes … Use your own outcomes scores to demonstrate why your agency should be trusted to assist a patient at increased risk of a fall. Our Patient Outcomes Brochures for Physicians highlight the work you do to prevent client falls and include eye-catching graphs that display how your agency compares to the state and national averages. Use these along with our Patient Outcomes Brochures for Seniors, which provide useful information to potential clients about how you can help them prevent falls. Find both brochures at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-physicians.php and www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-senior.php.
Sandwich Generation Month takes place this July. Join thousands of organizations and communities around the country in recognizing and raising awareness about the sandwich generation – the generation of adults who are caring for their children as well as their aging parents. Learn more about it at the sponsor organization’s website www.sandwichgenerationmonth.com/.
- Take part in community health fairs this month and stress the importance of supporting these caregivers. Have plenty of agency marketing brochures on hand. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/marketing-brochures.php and www.tagwebstore.com/faq-brochures.php.
- Sign up to speak about the sandwich generation at the community meetings of various local elected officials and local community groups. Educate them about how your agency can help those with a variety of conditions and ease the burden on their caregivers. Find disease-specific flyers at www.tagwebstore.com/health-care-flyers.php.
- Visit with your referral sources and stress the assistance your agency can provide family caregivers when a loved one has a serious illness or injury. Show them that one of the tools in your caregiving arsenal is zone flyers, which help improve positive outcomes. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/zone-flyer.php.
Happy birthday to you! Medicare turns 49 years old this July 30. Take part in the celebration of the national social insurance program for older adults. More than 48 million Americans were covered by Medicare in 2010, and the figure is expected to rise as Baby Boomers continue reaching retirement age.
- Offer your patients a tool that will go everywhere they do. Give them a protective sleeve for their Medicare card that already includes a card with your agency’s name and contact information. It will keep their Medicare card safe and make it easy to refer to you when it’s time for home care. Find it at www.tagwebstore.com/medicare-sleeve.php/.
- Host a class at your local library to help acquaint people in your community with Medicare. Be sure to also tell them about Medicare’s covered home care or hospice benefits and how your agency can help. Find a ready-made class at www.tagwebstore.com/healthmatters-education-series.php.
- Make sure your physician referral sources have an easy way to know what Medicare-covered services are available to their patients and Medicare’s conditions for payment. The physician pocket guide to Medicare tells them at a glance the services your agency provides and includes your telephone number for easy referral. Find it at www.tagwebstore.com/pocket-guide-to-medicare.php.