Supplied Photo (Left to Right): CCN Manager of Transportation Bobby-Jo Preston, Northumberland United Way (NUW) Acting Executive Director Maggie Darling, NUW Board President Rick Reilly, CCN Specialized Transportation Lead Driver/Program Assistant Mike Gibson, CCN Manager of In-Home Services Heather Marriot, CCN Director Client Services Leiann Peart, and CCN CEO Trish Baird
(Front – on Stretcher): Selena Forsyth, CCN Volunteer, CCN Board Member and CCN Fundraising Chair
By Cecilia Nasmith
Between the support of community donor Selena Forsyth and Northumberland United Way's Community Impact Funding, Community Care Northumberland says that its Stretcher Transfer Service is proving to be a significant success.
Forsyth's work and United Way's investment funding allowed this service to be launched through the retrofitting of one of the CCN vans – helping to fill a gap in services (at minimal cost to Northumberland residents) by providing a dignified mode of transportation that should lessen the wait time for transport.
In less than six months, 40 such stretcher trips have been provided by CCN – 19 to Ed's House Northumberland Hospice Centre, two to The Bridge Hospice in Warkworth, three to Warkworth Place long-term-care facility and 16 in connection with the CCH Home At Last program that helps people home from the hospital. As well CCN has used the service to provide nine wheelchair transfers to Ed's House.
“With the addition of stretchers to our transportation program, we are able to ensure clients get affordable and timely transfers that honour their wishes,” the press release said, offering an example in the story of a lady they call Jeannie.
Offered a hospice bed, she faced a wait time of more than 36 hours for the transfer from another provider (not to mention more of a cost than her limited resources could cover). CCN was able to schedule and make the transfer within an hour of receiving the request at the much-reduced rate of $75 (saving her several hundred dollars). As as result, she was able to gain immediate access to such hospice services as comfort measures for her pain. And her family is forever grateful she could fulfill her final wish to die at hospice.
“We are very proud to build on our accomplishments so far and grow the stretcher service,” CCN Chief Executive Officer Trish Baird said in the release.
“It is nice to know that we can help lessen wait times and family burden while, at the same time, help individuals in Northumberland County receive this service in a responsive, reliable and affordable manner.”
Baird extended “a huge thank-you” to Forsyth and Northumberland United Way for helping get the service off the ground.
“I am so happy that residents and their loved ones can access the Stretcher Service locally,” Forsyth said.
“When I first heard that CCN would be able to retrofit their vans with a donation, I knew that is where I wanted my donation to go.”
CCN Manager of In-Home Services Heather Marriott added that, when combined with their Home At Last program, “The new service provides a much-needed local and affordable Stretcher Service for Northumberland residents. The major cost savings for our Home At Last program will allow us to service more hospital patients transitioning home safely and in a timely manner.”
“Clients and their families are very appreciative of the service and care that they received, from making their first call to the moment they arrived at their location,” Manager of Transportation Bobby-Jo Preston has found.
For more information, call CCN at 1-866-514-5774, CCN Home At Last at 1-866-991-7497 or CCN Transportation at 1-866-768-7778.