Home infusion services
Going home with IVs can be very scary, but it doesn’t have to be. At Community Home Health, our specially trained team of pharmacists and infusion nurses coordinate a comprehensive home infusion therapy service, which includes education, delivery and safe administration of intravenous medications. Our team works closely with the patient’s physician to find the easiest and most effective way for the patient to receive home treatment.
Our onsite pharmacy staff is trained to support most patient infusion needs, all in the comfort of home. Our pharmacists follow up with patients to assure compliance with the prescribed therapy and for potential drug interactions.
State-of-the-art equipment affords patients the freedom and mobility to enjoy daily activities and improve their quality of life. Many of the devices we use to administer different infusion therapies do not have to be programmed or hung from a pole.
The goal of home infusion is to train the patient and caregiver how to independently administer their infusion therapy. A home infusion nurse and pharmacists are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to any questions, problems or needs of the patient.
Below are just a few of the home infusion services we offer:
- Pain management
- IV antibiotics
- Intravenous chemotherapy
- Hematopoietic factors
- Immunomodulating agents
- Enterals
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- TPN (parenteral feedings)
- Hydration
- Antifungals
- IV catheter maintenance
- IVIG
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If you or a loved one could benefit from home infusion services, please call Community Home Health at 317-621-4800 or 800-404-4852 (toll-free), 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Spotlight: A personal house call nets Andrea Smith the Hot Shot award
For Andrea Smith, RPh, the patient comes first—even when it means providing care on her time off.
In her capacity as a home care infusion pharmacist for Community Home Health Services in Fishers, Smith calculates the dosage of nutrition, antibiotics, steroids, pain and other medications that must be administered intravenously when the patient goes home.
“Andrea recently went to a patient’s home over the weekend to make an adjustment on her pump due to her concern about the patient tolerating this new therapy,” her nominator says. “Andrea always is thorough, kind and caring at work, but gave from her personal time to ensure this patient’s comfort.”
Visiting patients in their homes falls outside Smith’s responsibilities as a registered pharmacist, but Smith says she just decided to adjust the patient’s dosage herself, since she lives only 20 minutes from her.
The patient had terminal cancer and was at the point where she couldn’t eat. She had just been started on TPN, total nutrition through an IV. “I was worried about her,” Smith says of the patient. “She was not very responsive and she was bed-bound. I called the family and asked how she was doing, and I went out to see her.“
“I enjoy being a home infusion pharmacist and like working with the patients and the different departments at CHHS—infusion nurses, hospice, maternal/child and HME (Home Medical Equipment),” says Smith. “Many patients are scared to do an IV at home. We answer a lot of their questions and help ease their minds. It feels good to know you are helping someone transition from the hospital to home.”
Smith was inspired to get into pharmacy by her high school chemistry teacher and received her bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from Purdue in 1989. “I really like math and chemistry, so it seemed like a really good fit,” she says. “Some people aren’t sure what they want to do their freshman year, but I knew, and I liked it right off the bat.”
After graduation Smith spent five years in the niche field of nuclear pharmacy before switching to home care. She joined Community in 1999.