Full-Service Assisted Living
Nursing & Health Care Coordination Services
The Herrick House sets itself apart from other assisted living communities by offering a variety of nursing and health care coordination services. The Herrick House has a minimum of one licensed nurse in the facility 24-hours a day. While The Herrick House provides a full array of social, educational, and spiritual wellness programs, our 24-hour onsite licensed nursing staff allows The Herrick House to offer services very unique from those offered in other traditional “Social Model” settings.
24-Hour On-Site Licensed Nursing
It may not be every day that you need a nurse, but it’s certainly nice to know that when you do, there will be one available, any time of the day or night! While The Herrick House may be best known for having nurses who administer medications to residents, our nursing staff provides a full range of additional invaluable services for our residents.
Medication Management
Residents at The Herrick House have three options to choose from as it pertains to the management of their medications. These options include: Independent Medication Management (resident/family is solely responsible for the resident’s medications); Self-Administered Medication Management or SAMM (medications overseen by The Herrick House resident care aides); and, Limited Medication Administration or LMA (medications administered by a licensed nurse).
Health Care Coordination
Managing the medical condition of a loved one can often be very time consuming and somewhat overwhelming when one has work or other family commitments. The Herrick House is staffed with licensed nurses and we can assist the family with setting up medical appointments, scheduling car/van transportation, coordinating ancillary services (radiology, laboratory, PT, OT, VNA and podiatry), accepting and transcribing physician orders and ordering medical supplies. Medical Coordination may also include the following services:
Weekly Blood Pressure and Weight Checks
As a part of our Wellness Program, weekly blood pressure and weight checks are available to all residents, and can be provided more often as necessary or as requested by a resident’s physician. Results of these “checks” are logged in the resident’s chart in our Wellness Center and are made available to the resident’s physician as appropriate.
On-Site Laboratory Services
Because of our affiliation with Beverly Hospital, The Herrick House can arrange for laboratory staff to come to The Herrick House to provide these services to our residents in the privacy of their own apartment. This is a wonderful convenience for residents who would otherwise be required to make a weekly visit to the Lab or their physician’s office to obtain such services.
Coordination of VNA (Visiting Nurse), PT (Physical Therapy), or Geri-Psych (Geriatric Psychiatric) Services
If the resident has selected our medical coordination option, and our nursing staff determines that a resident could benefit from VNA, PT or Geri-Psych services, we will then contact the resident’s primary care physician to get a referral for the appropriate services. Once a referral is generated, services are coordinated by our nursing staff with local agencies (VNA and PT) that are able to provide such services at The Herrick House. In the case of Geri-Psych services, a social worker, in conjunction with the nursing staff, will make the appropriate geri-psych arrangements. This could include making an appointment with the geriatric psychiatric nurse practitioner or social worker from the Center for Healthy Aging or an inpatient stay, if needed, at one of the area psychiatric units.
Coordination of Physician Appointments
As necessary, The Herrick House nursing staff will call and coordinate physician appointments for residents. For many residents, this will include coordinating the appointments at a time when The Herrick House car or van is available to provide transportation for the appointment. When residents go to a physician appointment, a blank Physician Order’s Sheet as well as a copy of their Medication/Treatment Record will be sent with them. The physician can make changes, as appropriate and send new “Orders” back with the resident so that our nursing staff can implement any changes required immediately.
Facilitation of Filling and Re-filling Prescriptions
The Herrick House nursing staff can facilitate the filling and re-filling of prescriptions from physician orders. The resident no longer needs to worry about running out of medication or getting new medication when their physician makes a change to a medication or a dosage. Our nurses will handle it for them. Medications are ordered in unit-dose packaging from the resident’s pharmacy. While a resident may choose to use any pharmacy, The Herrick House has an existing relationship with a pharmacy to provide medications in unit-dose packaging who will deliver them to our Wellness Center at a very reasonable cost.
Acceptance and Transcription of Physician Orders
As a part of our move-in process, The Herrick House requires physician orders as well as a history and physical from the primary care physician. (As long as the resident has an existing relationship with their physician, these forms can typically be filled out very easily by the physician without having to see the resident.) These forms become part of the resident’s chart in the Wellness Center and contain the historical information that our nurses need to understand the resident’s medical background as well as “current orders” for our nurses to follow pertaining to medications, treatments, laboratory (and other) orders, allergies and special diets.
Wireless Emergency Response System
The Herrick House has a state-of-the-art wireless Emergency Response System, which, when activated by a pull station in a bathroom or a personal emergency wrist or pendant device, will instantly set off a silent alarm, paging all of the nursing and resident care staff to the resident in need of help.
VoiceFriend System
You’ve got a friend at The Herrick House! We have a communication service for residents and their families that sends recorded messages with important timely information directly to our resident’s phone. This would include special events and entertainment and activities of specific interest to the resident such as exercise and outings.
Location on Beverly Hospital Campus
The Herrick House’s location on the upper campus of Beverly Hospital has proved to be invaluable to our residents, providing easy access to Emergency Services, Physician Offices and a full continuum of care under the umbrella of Beth Israel Lahey Health. Its location on the campus is unique in that all of these services are within walking distance and yet the view from The Herrick House is tranquil, picturesque and wooded, providing no visual reminders of the services that are just “down the hill.”
