1 Call Care Management celebrates first anniversary

WARWICK — Complex medical issues and decisions for the elderly and those who become disabled can often confound and confuse not only the patient but the family caregivers as well.
Barbara Wilhelmy, R.N., founder of 1 Call Care Management, believes her service can resolve that problem.
On Aug. 13, she and her family joined members of the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the firm’s first anniversary, an important milestone and a strong indication of its acceptance and success in the community.
After caring for her ailing grandmother, Wilhelmy was inspired to launch 1 Call Care Management as a resource for other, less-informed, family caregivers.
“Because the American medical system is actually a disconnected collection of medical businesses, elderly and disabled populations are routinely put at unnecessary risk,” said Wilhelmy. “With patients often facing complex, interrelated medical issues and seeing multiple providers, these businesses rarely coordinate their efforts to provide the very best quality of care for their patients.”

Portal

She explained that 1 Call Care Management acts as the portal, through which all of a patient’s medical issues and social needs pass.
Rather than viewing a patient’s situation as independent pieces, 1 Call’s nationally certified case managers, who are registered nurses and licensed social workers, employ a concept known as patient-centered care. Using this model, case managers evaluate the patient’s whole picture, create a comprehensive plan to address interrelated problems, and coordinate services to ensure the best possible outcome and quality of life.
Wilhelmy added that under ideal circumstances, a care manager is involved with a patient before problems arise, but that’s not usually the case.
“We usually get a call from overwhelmed family caregivers dealing with such problems as repeated emergency room visits and hospital admissions, nursing home placement and entitlement coordination, dementia safety concerns, and terminal illnesses,” said Wilhelmy. “Dealing with these problems can consume caregivers’ entire lives and we offer them a way to get their lives back. Once clients realize the tremendous benefit and breadth of our service, the response is always, ‘I wish we found you years ago.”

Essential information

Wilhelmy brings 25 years of professional nursing experience to the company. Her passion for disabled and older adults’ quality of life issues developed during the 19 years she worked as a case manager in diverse settings including a national insurance company, a long-term care facility, and a regional medical center. Most recently she was employed as the Director of Case Management Services for a regional disability company.
1 Call Care Management is the exclusive case management consultant for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of America in Orange and Sullivan Counties. For more information call 544-7561 or visit www.1CallCare.com.

- Roger Gavan