Penticton Western News
August 6, 2009
Franchise to offset health care strains
by Kristi Patton, Penticton Western News
With a growing senior population, Paul Girard and Carmen Eberle hope to provide a viable alternative to long-term care facilities.
Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services is one of Canada’s fastest growing in-home senior care franchise systems and one has now launched in Penticton.
“With this new Nurse Next Door franchise we are able to help ensure local seniors receive high quality care in their own homes,” said Girard. “We want to take the time to educate families and show them that caring for aging family members can be affordable at home.”
With current resources across Penticton stretched, this new local franchise will help to alleviate the burden placed on existing care options by providing the same or greater level of care from the comforts of the client’s home. Nurse Next Door is dedicated to delivering responsive, caring and high quality home healthcare services.
“It’s pretty clear that our hospitals and care facilities are facing very serious challenges,” said Eberle. “We’re here to help address this issue and improve the level of care local seniors can expect. When you look at Interior Health and the cutbacks that have been recently going around and you when talk to social workers and people who are working for Interior Health their resources are thinly stretched and that is only going to get worse with an aging population.”
They estimate more than 25 per cent of Penticton residents are currently 65 years or older. To address the needs Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services will allow seniors to live comfortably in their own homes and be assisted by certified care aids, Liscenced Practical Nurses and Registered Nurses, depending on what their care level is. The Penticton owners said current nursing homes are proving to be both costly and inefficient and the vital services needed, Nurse Next Door can provide.
“We had a client call about services in Oliver and she just needs someone to come by a couple hours a week to read mail and take her out to appointments because she has lost her eyesight and can’t get out into the community as easily as she use to. The lady doesn’t really qualify for services from Interior Health because she can take care of herself in her own home but getting into the community is a challenge so a companion can come there and help her with that or her meals and housework,” said Eberle.
Nurse Next Door’s Penticton franchise provides a full spectrum of in-home care services ranging from two-hour per week companionship to 24-hour, round-the-clock nursing care. These services help individuals who have a variety of professional care needs live happy, healthy and at home. People interested in Nurse Next Door services simply have to call the toll free number which is open 24-hours a day and seven days a week. From there a care manager will come into the home and do a needs assessment as well as a safety assessment to ensure both the client and the caregiver will be safe in the home.
“It is also affordable. It can be as little as $50 a week to having someone come into your home two hours at a time or for 24-hour care. In comparison to having to pay for assisted living facility or a home, it’s definitely affordable. We try to work with everyone’s budgets,” said Eberle, who added they are also looking for staff for Nurse Next Door in the South Okanagan.
Nurse Next Door is the brainchild of former Penticton resident John DeHart and partner Ken Sim. DeHart is a Penticton Secondary School grad and former member of the Penticton Panthers junior hockey team. Founded in 2001, the company has steadily grown and was recognized in 2006 when the co-founders won the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Pacific Region.
The Penticton franchise owners have been physiotherapists for the last 15 years, working in home health care industry in the United States. The couple moved back to Canada to start their own family when Eberle said they heard about the Nurse Next Door franchise and its great reputation. To find out more about Nurse Next Door visit www.nursenextdoor.com or call 250-488-8586.
Return to Press Room
