Local Healthcare Providers Offer New Senior Services

The healthcare industry has long sought to meet the needs of what is arguably the most vulnerable segment of the population—the elderly.

With the country in a recession, that segment is even more vulnerable, for the elderly are at increased risk of forgoing needed services because they can’t afford them.

To ensure the elderly continue to receive the care they need, Providence Health & Services in California has started a new service for people 50 and older with limited resources. The service will help seniors find programs that will help them pay for prescription drugs, utilities, food and other basic needs, according to Providence.

Four local Providence campuses – St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and the newly acquired Tarzana Medical Center – have launched BenefitsCheckUp at www.Provi-dence.org/Beyond50.

The website guides users to public and private programs flagged by the National Council on Aging. With more than 1,550 public and private benefits programs from across the nation featured on the site, BenefitsCheckUp is said to be the nation’s most comprehensive Web-based tool to identify benefits programs for low-income seniors.

Lifeline for Seniors

Via its Lifeline program, Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster is also reaching out to seniors.

Lifeline is an emergency-alert response service for the elderly, disabled and individuals with medical concerns who live alone.

For 27 years, AVH has provided the Lifeline monitoring system to local residents who pay a bit more than a dollar a day and receive Lifeline Personal Response Service. When a personal alarm is activated, the monitoring system dispatches help in 60 to 90 seconds.

Recently, the local affiliate of the California Highway Patrol Senior Volunteer Program made a financial contribution to the Lifeline program. Kenneth Moeller, administrator of the CHP Senior Volunteer Program, discussed his agency’s involvement in Lifeline.

“People with this service are allowed to safely live independently and with dignity in the comfort of their own home,” he stated. “We support the efforts of the hospital and are glad to be part of this important service for our community.”

The CHP has supported Lifeline for years. The agency’s involvement in the program began with a man named George Lindquist, who volunteered for both the CHP and Antelope Valley Hospital. Lindquist, who has since died, helped form a partnership between the two agencies.

AVH CEO Edward Mirzabegian places a priority on senior outreach.

“To help improve the quality of life for our most valued citizens is an honor, and we do our best to make this service available to those who need it most.”

At present, AVH supports nearly 200 Antelope Valley residents with its Lifeline program.

Fundraising Supports Upgrades

AVH isn’t the only area hospital that has received a financial contribution lately. In December, the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Health Foundation announced that it had received fundraising proceeds from various community organizations that totaled more than $34,000. Raised in October as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the donations will go towards equipment upgrades at the Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center.

“Our Breast Imaging Center is very important to the women of this community,” stated Diana Vose, president of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Health Foundation. “We are very pleased to receive these donations that allow us to continue meeting their needs and ensure we offer the very highest quality and state-of-the-art equipment.”

The center ffers the latest digital technology for mammograms and has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology, according to Henry Mayo.

Contributors include Soroptimist International of Greater Santa Clarita Valley, which raised $5,000; Dianne Crawford and Pink Ribbon Gifts, which donated $25,000; Wayne and Dianne Crawford and Don and Cheri Fleming, who raised $3,500; Greg Amsler of Salt Creek Grille, who raised $1,100; and Vino 100 Valencia, which raised $500.

Rising Interest in Lower-Cost Quick Lift

While Valley hospitals are concerned about providing the care patients need to stay healthy, demand continues for elective procedures, such as plastic surgery.

In the midst of a recession, plastic surgeons like Encino physician Dr. George Sanders are playing up cost-saving procedures.

Sanders has made a specialty out of a technique called the QuickLift, a less invasive version of the facelift which dates back to the 1990s. The QuickLift costs approximately 30 percent less than a traditional lift at Sanders’ office.

“This is a recession facelift,” Sanders joked. Turning serious again, the physician said that the QuickLift has numerous advantages over the traditional facelift.

“One could think of it as the facelift of the 21st century,” Sanders suggested. “There’s less in the way of recovery, less anesthesia and fewer complications. Nowadays less is more. If patients could do everything with ‘injectibles,’ they would, or if they could do everything with a laser, they would.”

But Sanders stressed that the QuickLift is still an operation, albeit one that doesn’t require much surgery.

While Sanders attributes the present state of the economy to interest in the QuickLift, he stressed that the procedure has been building a following for a decade.

“This type of procedure has been growing in popularity over nine or 10 years,” he explained. “People were asking for this kind of thing even before the recession began just because it has a shorter recovery and less cost.”