CHRISTUS Home Care offers specialized team services for clients' convenience

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SALT LAKE CITY – CHRISTUS HomeCare offers services to clients in the home following illness or injury, surgery, chronic illness such as heart disease, wound care, recent falls or other needs, which benefit patients to better health and wellness.

“Many people don’t know we exist as a separate entity from CHRISTUS Saint Joseph Villa, said Silvia Lopez-Buhl, HomeCare account executive and member of Saint Thomas More Parish.

CHRISTUS HomeCare is a non-profit health provider whose mission is to reach out into the Salt Lake Catholic community and community at large.

The home care mission started in 1866, when the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word arrived in Galveston, Texas, from Lyons, France. At the urging of Bishop Claude Dubuis, the sisters began extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, serving the sick and infirm from the yellow fever epidemic. Since then their ministry has grown throughout Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Utah, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Mexico.

Ranked among the 10 largest Catholic health systems in the United States, CHRISTUS Health is headquartered in Irving, Texas. HomeCare in Utah started two years ago.

“We fulfill our healing ministry mission through dignity, integrity, compassion and stewardship. Additionally, we reach out into the Salt Lake community to help sponsor senior programs such as vestibular and balance clinics,” said Lopez-Buhl.

“We provide quality home care with a specially trained medical team and support staff through a holistic approach in assessing the patients’ needs,” said Lopez-Buhl. “What sets us apart from other home health agencies is that we consider the physical, social and spiritual needs of patients. To maintain high accountability for patient care and the work we do, we work with regulatory agencies such as the Community Health Accreditation Program.”

The specialized team helps patients recover from injuries, surgery or other health problems utilizing nursing, physical or occupational and/or speech therapies, home health aides and social workers, Lopez-Buhl said.

“The team will educate a client about his or her disease such as diabetes, manage medications, change catheters, service wound care and IV therapy, help identify community resources, and help with grooming, bathing and personal care,” she said. “Patients have regularly scheduled visits in the privacy of their home. Home health care is usually less expensive compared to a long-term hospital or nursing home stay and is a covered benefit under Medicare.”

Clients must meet requirements to be treated by the team, which is under a physician’s direction, she said.

“For Medicare beneficiaries and for certain insurance plans, patients must be homebound to qualify for home care services. This means that because of a physical condition or limitation, the patient cannot leave home without extreme difficulty or hardship,” she said.

Sharing a common heritage and ministry, the sisters’ mission, now the Mission of CHRISTUS Health, to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, flows from the founding call and vision of Bishop Dubuis.