Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 87 Navigating Senior Care: A Holistic Approach with Heidy Delaosa
The moment arrives without warning – a parent falls, becomes ill, or simply can't manage independently anymore. Suddenly you're thrown into navigating a fragmented healthcare system, complicated insurance policies, and life-altering decisions without preparation. This challenging scenario is where Heidy Delaosa of Healthcare Solutions steps in, offering a lifeline to families caught in the aging care maze.
Heidy brings her registered nursing expertise to create a holistic approach uniquely tailored to each aging adult's journey. Rather than applying cookie-cutter solutions, she assesses immediate needs while developing sustainable short and long-term plans. What makes her approach powerful is the comprehensive advocacy she provides – from coordinating communication between multiple specialists who never speak to each other, to creating detailed medication management systems that prevent dangerous drug interactions.
Perhaps most remarkable is how Healthcare Solutions serves as an extension of the family, especially for adult children living at a distance from their parents. Heidy shared moving examples of rushing to emergency rooms when distant family members call frantically about a parent admitted alone, ensuring proper care and communication throughout the healthcare journey. This hands-on advocacy extends to insurance matters too, including helping families recover thousands in benefits they didn't realize they were entitled to receive.
Whether you're currently caring for an aging parent or simply planning ahead, this episode offers invaluable insights into navigating senior care with dignity and thoroughness. Discover how professional care management can transform the aging journey from overwhelming to manageable.
Healthcare Solutions NY, LLC
Heidy Delaosa
917-999-8657
heidyhealthcaresolutions@gmail.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Rohan.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. Today we have with us Heidi Delaosa from the Healthcare Solutions Company, based in New York, in Rockland County, but serving Bergen County as well. And Heidy, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Jeff.
Speaker 2:We were talking before we went on air, so to speak, about what you do and the value that you provide and how. A lot of times in the senior care space we'll call them caregivers, so children of people who are seniors, which you know. I don't know what a senior is today because you know, 65 doesn't seem that old anymore when you're, you know, turn 60, it's like 65, I can't be a senior. But my point is that a lot of the health issues that our parents face when we're older, we don't think about until it's thrust upon us and now we don't know anything. And who's going to help me? And that's kind of like where you come in, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, in right, yeah, absolutely. We are an aging care life kind of platform that encompasses all of all of those situations that you come across as an aging older adult yourself and you have older parents start whose health and independence starts to fail and independence starts to fail.
Speaker 2:So normally, if you know, you have somebody, say they're 80-something years old and they've fallen down and they need some help, and then maybe you've decided as a family that they need to go into a, you know, either have home care service or they're going to go to an assisted living. You know community, why do I need you, like, why don't I? You know? Now, of course I have to look into Medicaid or what we can afford, what my insurance is going to. You know when I say my, my parents' insurance is going to cover. You know what services are available. Okay, we're going to stay at home, but I, you know, we need some social interaction. I don't want my mom being home alone all day. You know, where do I find this? Where do I find that Like, why don't I just do this all myself? Why do I need you so?
Speaker 3:that's an excellent, excellent example of what what it looks like. Most of the time when I get the phone call, what I try to do is offer a more holistic approach to the family, very tailored to every individual in their aging journey and the family. So it's not a cut kind of a system. Every person is completely a whole world. So some people who some aging patients that I have want to stay at home and we respect that. So what I come in and do?
Speaker 3:I help the families find the resources in their community, assist with insurance and the resources and put together a kind of a plan of what is available to them, what they could tap into. For example, some people have long-term care insurance and they don't even know they have it. It's a rider in some sort of a policy they bought. In the 80s and this is a personal example I had a long-term care small policy that was something I purchased that I didn't even know I had purchased 20 years ago. Being that I'm in the field, I kind of read that policy approach. I help the families to really put together a plan and really focus on the needs of the aging person but take it into consideration what is available to them what the family can do and able to do.
Speaker 2:So does that entail, like, I realize that we need an estate attorney. Can you help me with that? Or I realize we need to go visit a bunch of different uh communities, you know, and uh, can you put me in touch with somebody who can help me with that? Um, you know, we need to go my my mother might have diabetes or whatever. Um, I guess I to go to the doctor and get tested for that. Do you have any advice as to you know, like, are those the kinds of things that you help with?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Unfortunately, medicine has become extremely fragmented so you don't get an hour and a half with your primary care doctor and they spell it out and write it all out with your primary care doctor and they spell it out and write it all out. So I often find myself with clients who has four different doctors and they don't know all talk to each other. As an RN by trade, I have a high understanding of the medical diagnosis of every patient and I kind of help them navigate through all of the disease process and have all the doctors kind of get themselves to communicate with each other to come up with a complete holistic approach to medicine.
Speaker 3:That is no longer something that's happening in the world of healthcare, something that's happening in the world of healthcare. So, for example, if your mom has diabetes, I make sure she sees the endocrinologist, who's a specialist. Have the endocrinologist speak to the primary care doctor and make sure we have her in the correct medications. I also put them in touch with a nutritionist that takes Medicare in the area. And that brings me to the fact that I have a vast network of professionals in the aging care life that are very much available to my phone calls to say, well, this person needs help, and that's what you do, so please can you get in touch with them as soon as possible, obtaining appointments, instead of having to wait four months for a doctor? I'm helping them find the correct doctors in the area that their deficit is.
Speaker 2:And I think I don't know if you told me the story, but I know my father has an example of when you have different doctors, they're prescribing different drugs and sometimes there might be a contraindicated prescription that if you took both of them, you might have some serious issues. Yet the one doctor maybe didn't look on the charts and notice that. Okay, because we know that there's more than one way of treating somebody, like I'm allergic to penicillin, so rather than giving me penicillin, they'll give me some alternative antibiotic. Right, right, so, but sometimes they're. You know, dr A is not talking to Dr B and my dad's pharmacist flagged it before he filled it out, because he said oh, wait a second, you're taking this. You can't take this. Have you ever run like I know you, probably prohibited by some regulations or whatever, not to, you can't prescribe.
Speaker 3:but you can certainly look at what all their prescriptions are and maybe raise some flags, or do you Absolutely? I think I told you the story that I had a client that was taking a blood thinner and another doctor order a different blood thinner, so he was on two blood thinners. So that's a very easy flag, like you know, it was just a matter of one doctor didn't discontinue with the pharmacy, so I'm able to take I. One of the things that I do is I create a medical, a medications a binder that includes medication lists, include all the advanced directives, medication pictures of what the pills look like. So this binder is very sort of a go-to for caregivers that may become involved, to take to the doctor's office. And when I encourage the clients, once they're established and once I'm comfortable with a doctor, that they could go on their own with their caregiver, and I make the caregiver show the doctor the list and if there's any questions, I'll say well, is this comfortable, is this appropriate for the patient to continue taking?
Speaker 3:So it forces the medical community to really be more aware of what they're prescribing patients or what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you're like an advocate, I guess, in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Without you. You know some people are left to their own devices and so let's go through like how the process works. So your services are. Somebody calls you and in most cases is it. We'll call them the caregiver, the child of the senior, or is it the senior themselves calling you, or is it a mix of both?
Speaker 3:It's a very I have resource referrals from vast resources. A lot of times I work with elder care attorneys that identify some issues in the community with the patient, the caregivers. They're overwhelmed. They come to the attorneys sometimes very overwhelmed so I get that phone call or an assisted living actually could call me for a patient who needs an extra layer of management. There's some independent livings that call me as well for pre-pour medications. I work with some primary care doctors who really have noticed the difference in having someone in the community really bring them the feedback they need to diagnose and treat with the most amount of information given to them.
Speaker 2:Got it so. So the way it works is so, but eventually it's. It's the family that's calling you right. So initially you do some sort of consultation, I guess, assessment.
Speaker 3:I do. I do a 20 minute consultation, I guess. Assessment I do. I do a 20-minute at no cost telephonic evaluation of the situation so I get an idea from the family of what's going on and then I focus on kind of doing an approach of assess what's going on and what's the immediate need. Most of the time there's an immediate need. We work on the immediate need and then I move on to a short-term plan and a long-term plan. I make an evaluation over the phone and then I have a personal head to toe evaluation with with the patient themselves and interview with the caregivers and identify the need.
Speaker 2:So right? So first it's more of an immediate need. You put together, you know, an assessment, but then it's ongoing care management, right? So it's not like, okay, here's your plan, god bless. As we said, you're an advocate, you're advocating for them, and so what does it mean if you're advocating for them in the hospital or with the doctors? Are you physically going with them or you're just you're calling these, these facilities up on their behalf? Is it a combination of both?
Speaker 3:It's a combination of both, but most the typical situation is I'm away. I get the phone call, I'm away. My father was taken to the hospital for shortness of breath. I don't know what's wrong. They're alone in the emergency room. Can you come and help them?
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:So I come in. It's just. This happened six times. I've had three patients at the same time in the emergency room this over the winter. Someone had a fall, someone had a stroke. So I advocate, with the doctors, give them a good history with the binder and also historically, of what this patient's like and what's been going on, and kind of make sure that the proper testing is being done, the proper doctors are being called in, and sometimes there's a push for either a longer stay in the hospital because they need to sort all these things out instead of doing this drive-through medicine that we do, and sometimes, from the hospital, they have to go to a short-term span at a rehab facility or families. At that point it depends on the situation. That's when they decide I think mom needs to go to an assisted living or I think mom needs a 24-hour aid at home, and one thing spins into the other got it, it Got it.
Speaker 2:So your plan, as you said, is ongoing care management. It's interesting. I know you have a service where you might escort clients to the doctor's apartments. I actually got to introduce you to a husband and wife just over the border in Rivervale, new Jersey who started a senior concierge business that you might want to meet up with because they will do those escorting to doctor's appointments and things like that, because I'm sure you can't be everywhere at once.
Speaker 3:Right. So it depends on the level of. So my husband and I also work together. That's interesting. So he drives the clients and, based on the knowledge that he has gained throughout you know my journey with in this business for the past eight years, he's able to escort the patients himself also to the doctor's appointments and he goes in with the patient, with a doctor, and at times what we have done is that I speak to the doctor while he has them on the phone. Some of my patients don't have cell phones, so you know, and so he helps kind of put that together. So I do offer. I also have a social worker that works with me, that does some of those duties, works with me, that does some of those duties and I have some presence in Manhattan. There's another RN that will take care of doing those things in New York, in New York city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you said you're a registered nurse. So how did you go from you know, being a registered nurse and I imagine you worked in hospitals and maybe in private practice but how did you go from that to starting your own business and what has that been like?
Speaker 3:So I've always been in. I was in the hospital a very short period of time. I felt I wasn't serving to best of my abilities as a medical surgical nurse. Then I became a cardiac ICU nurse and I enjoyed that for about a year and a half. I wanted to experience more and see where my where my calling really was more and see where my calling really was. So I started working for a staffing agency and I went to every hospital that had contracts with the staffing agency and I worked in about 15, 20 hospitals in 15, 20 different settings. So I learned a lot of different aspects of medical medicine. I worked in wound clinics, substance abuse, which is something that it's been very underserved in the elderly community, so I noticed that a lot during my time in the different hospitals. So I decided after you know, working at the last hospital, st Vincent's, which is no longer there I decided I want to do home care. This is where my calling is.
Speaker 3:I worked for Visiting Nurse Service of New York as an RN in Manhattan. Then I became a care field manager for the same company and then I went to work for a very interesting model um, it's called a pace and this pace was an all-inclusive sort of facility where your doctors are there. It's a social day program and basically they took the patients from the community, brought them there for the day and all of their needs were met. I found that very interesting and all inclusive and sort of holistic. So that's where I became more interested in how to serve the aging population in a better way. I unfortunately I was the director of that program in the medical department, but it was too far department but it was too far. So I decided to go work from home and also maintain a care management practice with a well-known aged care life expert and I took patients with her in New York City and that's how I started doing case management.
Speaker 3:Then COVID came. I no longer wanted to go to Manhattan. I lost so many patients during COVID. It was no longer wanted to go to Manhattan. I lost so many patients during COVID. It was very traumatic the commute to Manhattan. And then I had a phone call from my first client. I didn't start the business until I got that phone call and they said I'm in Rockland County, there are no services for my aging parents here. I'm in Colorado and I need help. And that's where the light bulb went and it started extremely organic with that one patient.
Speaker 2:So I'd imagine going off on your own, though you know you had a steady paycheck you had, you know this corporate job and now you're like, yeah, I think I can serve people a better way, that they're being overlooked or underserved. So you know, that's one of the things. The common commonality between everybody I interview on this show is they are risk takers. They decided to go off on their own and start a business and for the most part and you know it's, it's I heard somebody describe it in one word is being an entrepreneur is one word's rollercoaster, and certainly learning curves and learning you know things that you you have a passion in what you will have to do. But then how do you monetize that and how do people find you? And and you know there's so much more that goes into it that you weren't taught being a, you know, when you went to medical school.
Speaker 2:So I think the commonality through a lot of the guests on my show is that you know going into business and you know whatever, whatever industry it is, it's definitely it has, it's has its moments of greatness and moments of doubt, and you know what am I doing and how do I keep doing this. So I think you know what I see in you is, I'm sure, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but the joy and the fulfillment you get from helping people. And if I look at some of your testimonials, you know, like the story you just told, you know somebody's living in a different state and they just found out that their mother, you know, needs help and they're not there and you know you're there to help them. It is, I mean, I don't know correct me if I'm wrong, but is it your passion for what you do and the feedback you get? Is that what drives you to continue?
Speaker 3:Every day is the one thing that keeps me going, and this one day is never the same as the previous day. So from that testimonial to I'm also involved in helping people tap into their long-term care policies become a passion of mine. Of course, the insurance companies are so focused on keeping their money that the elderly patients who have been paying for this long-term care insurance for many, many years they make a phone call and they don't know how to deal with it.
Speaker 3:There's an accent in some of the workers they can't hear and immediately they're turned down for something that belongs to them. So I've become sort of an advocate in the long-term insurance world. So that's an example of how my day is never the same. So today's passion might be that I beat them. I had a one quick story where a patient passed away and I was able to have the family in a system in having the case reopened. There was a clause in the contract that they never saw, that they were supposed to be in reimburse the first day that they have care.
Speaker 3:So, there was 120 days of care that they didn't pay for and, of course, everyone told them you cannot reopen a policy. Well, they reopened the policy and the family got back all of those thousands of dollars that they were being cheated by the insurance company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing, that's great. So how do you charge for your services, like, how does it work?
Speaker 3:So there's an hourly rate that I mostly follow. So, whether I come and do an assessment and it takes me I'm very conscious of timing, but it, you know, I really have to take my time and every situation is different. I could do an assessment where we're focused on placement. That could take me two hours, right. So it's basically on an hourly rate basis.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I mean it's it's you rate basis, okay, okay, I mean it's it's uh, you know, as you said it, it's a service that, um, people don't realize that they need until they need it, but it, you know, in a lot of ways, thankfully you are there and, um, so how would people reach you? Like, what's the best way to find you, to reach you?
Speaker 3:The best way to reach me is either emailing me at Heidi H-E-I-D-Y healthcaresolutions at gmailcom, going on my website. There's also a contact on my website at wwwhealthcaresolutionsnewyorkorg. Or you could simply just contact me via cell phone 917-999-8657.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. Well, heidi, from Healthcare Solutions now your company says Healthcare Solutions New York, but you help people across the border and on both sides of the border. So, yeah, it's important that people understand that. Considering the name of this podcast is Good Neighbor Podcast, bergen. So, heidi, this has been great. I really appreciate you sharing your story with us and helping us better understand what you do and how you can help. And again, if you want to reach Heidi, let's go through that one more time. It's going to be in the bottom of this podcast on the screen, but the phone number is 917-999-8657. And the email is Heidi with a Y healthcaresolutions at gmailcom. Heidi, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you Doug.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is great, and you and I will be right back.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergenc. om. That's gnpbergen. com, that's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.