Offering expert, trusted caregiver services since 1976, Panhandle Home Health is a non-profit agency developed by the community to help friends, neighbors, and families recover and return to their normal lifestyles.
Since its inception, Panhandle Home Health has conducted thousands of daily visits serving the citizens’ of Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan counties home-health needs.
Panhandle Home Health is here to help you. Their dedication to providing the best personalized in-home health care benefits anyone at any age with a medical need — allowing you to focus on your loved one, enriching their recovery with valuable support and comfort that only you can give.
Our nurses provide direct care; manage, observe, and evaluate a patient’s care; and teach the patient and his or her family caregiver. Examples include: giving IV drugs, shots, or tube feedings; changing dressings; and teaching about diabetes care. Any service that could be done safely by a non-medical person (or by yourself) without the supervision of a nurse isn’t skilled nursing care.
Home health nursing is a nursing specialty in which registered nurses provide home care to patients. Home health nurses also supervise our home health aides.
Registered nurses (R.N.s) work to promote health, prevent disease, and help patients cope with illness. They are advocates and health educators for patients, families, and communities. When providing direct patient care, they observe, assess, and record symptoms, reactions, and progress; assist physicians during treatments and examinations; administer medications; and assist in convalescence and rehabilitation. R.N.s also develop and manage nursing care plans; instruct patients and their families in proper care; and help individuals and groups take steps to improve or maintain their health. While State laws govern the tasks R.N.s may perform, it is usually the work setting, which determines their day-to-day job duties.
Home health nurses provide periodic services, prescribed by a physician, to patients at home. After assessing patients’ home environments, they care for and instruct patients and their families. Home health nurses care for a broad range of patients, such as those recovering from illnesses and accidents, cancer, and child birth.
Our licensed Physical Therapists and PT Assistants work with patients to help them regain strength, mobility and stamina after a short or long-term illness, surgery, or disability generally related to muscular, skeletal or neurological illness.
They are trusted health care professionals with extensive clinical experience who examine, diagnose, and then prevent or treat conditions that limit the body’s ability to move and function in daily life.
They may be called upon to improve their gait following a stroke, a total joint replacement or fractures from an accident or fall. They may teach a patient how to traverse stairs and uneven surfaces or how to safely transfer in and out of a car.
Whatever the case, they will develop a plan of care using a variety of treatment techniques that help patients move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability.
They provide training on whatever assistive device is required, for example crutches or walkers. And also develop a home exercise and wellness program for patients tailored to meet the individual patient’s needs
Our Physical Therapists and PTAs are your partners throughout your journey to restoring and maintaining motion so that you can function at your personal best.
Occupational therapy is a skilled treatment that helps improve a patient’s independence after an injury. Our Occupational Therapists take a holistic approach to treatment, in which the focus is on adapting the environment to fit the patient, and the patient is an integral part of the therapy team.
Our therapists assess the patient’s living situation and help create a more conducive environment to healing. They’ll help the patient become more independent by guiding them through daily activities, such as cooking, bathing, getting dressed, and household chores. Our Occupational Therapists can also prescribe assistive devices and/or equipment as necessary.
Occupational therapy could be beneficial for many injuries and illnesses, such as:
During the home health visits, the Occupational Therapist will provide guidance to family members and other caregivers so they can assist in the recovery process.
Our licensed Speech Language Pathologists provide diagnostic and therapeutic speech services to patients throughout the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
They work with patients young and old to develop and restore the speech of individuals with communication disorders or swallowing problems; usually as a result of complications at birth, genetic disorders, and traumas such as surgery, stroke or neurological problems.
Our Speech Therapists work closely with our nurses and other therapists that may be treating the patient to provide treatments to improve communication skills and swallowing disorders. Much of their work involves retraining the muscles used in swallowing or speaking, as well as teaching our patients alternative methods of safely swallowing or communicating.
They work with children and adults who may have speech difficulties resulting from:
Our Speech Therapists also help retrain patients in breathing, swallowing, and muscle control.
Our certified Home Health Aides help with basic daily activities like getting in and out of bed, dressing, bathing, grooming, hair care, nail care, assistance with ambulation, changing position in bed, assistance with transfer from bed to wheelchair, oral hygiene, changing bed linens of an incontinent beneficiary, shaving, skin care with lotions and/or powder, foot care, ear care, feeding/eating, and assistance with ambulation to bathroom.
Home Health Aides may assist with activities that are directly supportive of skilled therapy services but do not require the skills of a therapist to be safely and effectively performed. Examples of such activities include routine maintenance exercises and repetitive speech routines to support speech-language pathology services.
A home health agency without a social worker is at a definite disadvantage. Home health staff often has concerns for a patient’s safety at home. Some patients come home from the hospital and do not have transportation to their upcoming medical appointments. Even worse, some patients cannot afford or physically cannot obtain their medications.
Home health social workers are necessary and very beneficial to patients needing care at home. Our social workers have access to information and resources to help our patients remain safe and cared for in their own homes. They’ll provide education and links to community resources to assist with any medical, psychological or social assistance that may be needed.
Our social workers have great empathy and compassion for others and have a positive attitude in the face of serious and trying situations. They are here to help patients and families deal with difficult and challenging times. They also assist other team members in understanding the significant social and emotional factors related to a patient’s health problems.
They participate with the nurse in the development of the plan of care, prepare clinical and progress notes, use appropriate community resources based on the individual patient’s needs and are responsible for ensuring the patient has everything they need to remain safely at home.
If you speak a language other than English or if you have limited English proficiency, language assistance services are available free of charge to you. Call 304-263-5680 to arrange for this service or notify your primary nurse or therapist seeing you.
Interpretation services are also available to you free of charge, if you are visually or hearing impaired. Please call 304-263-5680 to arrange for this service or notify your primary nurse or therapist seeing you.
We understand that wading through the process of finding healthcare for you or your loved one can be daunting.
We want to make the process as easy as possible and give you peace of mind in your decision.
To protect your privacy, please do not use this contact form for patient issues or concerns regarding patient care.