Isoken Ogbomo, is the founder of Complete Health Services, a company born out of Ogbomo’s concern for the geriatric population in nursing homes, where she worked as a nurse practitioner. She wanted to provide the elderly with a better quality of life and the ability to age in place with dignity.
Isoken was born in Nigeria and originally came to the United States with her husband 22 years ago. She earned a bachelor’s degree but went back to school to become a Family Nurse Practitioner.
She has achieved the ‘American Dream.’ Being an immigrant in a new country, she first became educated and then grew a successful business, all the while helping older Americans receive the higher standard of care they deserve.
She wanted the focus of her new endeavor to help the elderly keep their dignity and maintain a high standard of life. Something that was not happening in many retirement and nursing homes.
In-Home Caregivers, the DBA for her company Complete Health Services, was born to provide in-home caregiving in Illinois. Isoken is very proud of what her company has been able to provide for our aging population and especially happy with the company’s geriatric scientific care post-hospital rehabilitation program.
Due to shortened stays (demanded by insurance companies) in an expensive hospital a study completed in 2020 showed that 41.4 percent of elderly Americans discharged from a hospital, required readmittance for further treatment within seven days.
“That is a significantly high number. I know there are multiple reasons why people return to the hospital, but specifically for the geriatric population, there is fragmentation in the healthcare system.”
In most instances when an older person is discharged from the hospital, they are passed over to Medicare therapy. Medicare therapists will only be in the home for a few sessions over a four to six weeks period following a hospital stay. There are one hundred and sixty hours in a week and the Medicare therapist will spend less than one percent of the time with the patient. They instruct the patient about what exercises they need to be doing and then leave them alone to do the therapy on their own. There is no way the patient can recover in a timely manner through “in home care therapy” alone so the patient will medically decline and get readmitted to the hospital while the family caregiver is stressed, losing time from work, and getting ill from the stress of caregiving.
“Medicare therapy at home is more of an educational meeting, not really a therapy session. Normally the recommended exercises are painful for the patient, and they become reluctant to perform them on their own. Plus, 70 percent of older people have some type of memory impairment, so they may not even remember to do the required exercises if no one is there to guide them. This is exactly why I created and designed our geriatric functional wellness program.”
Isoken’s program is focused on improving overall health and managing symptoms to avoid a return trip to the emergency room, or hospital. It is designed specifically for the aging population. It offers transitional care management, post hospital post rehab care, chronic illness management and disease specific caregiving at home. The program helps chronically ill patients to get home, stay home, stay out of the emergency room, manage their chronic symptoms, feel better faster, age in place and thrive regardless of any life limiting conditions.
Many of Isoken’s clients are business owners, or busy executives who have become caregivers with parents in need of in-home care.
“They want their aging parents to receive the best in-home care, so they can continue with their career, care for their own children and have less interruption to their own lives.”
It’s become clear that there is an ‘Elder Care Crisis’ in this country. With better living conditions and advancements in medical science, people are living longer, but may not be able to live on their own unattended. This creates a tremendous strain on the caregiver, especially if it is a child with a family of their own and career demands.
By the year 2030, the ‘Baby Boomer Generation,’ will total 71 million. Over 20% of the American population will all be over the age of 65, which will require even more family caregivers.
“Caregiving not only affects the family that is attending to an aging family member, but it also negatively impacts the caregiver’s employer.”
Time necessary to be at home caring for the parent or taking their loved one to a doctor’s appointment leads to lost work hours for the employer. Even if the caregiver is at work their thoughts may be with the parent, wondering if they took their medication, did their rehabilitation exercises, or had their meals. This leads to less productive work hours and loss of productivity for the employer.
“My company has collaborated with Stella Nsong’s efforts to reach out to businesses to bring awareness to these critical work issues. We can help corporate America handle the upcoming increase in their employees dealing with an aging parent at home with our platform, careworklearn.com.”
Our program helps businesses help their employees better handle aging family members which improves productivity of the caregiver, while they are on the job.
“I am really excited about this aspect of our business. The average family caregiver can still be productive and have a stress-free caregiving experience.”
Right now, many companies try to help by simply providing their employee a list of resources and agencies that could provide some help to the caregiver. Very often, the employee will spend hours on the phone or online looking for help and many hire the wrong and inappropriate type of a caregiver because they do not know the kind and level of care that their loved one is supposed to have.
“If you are a new caregiver, you have no clue, you don’t know where to turn first, or the correct questions to ask. It’s very confusing. The eldercare system is very fragmented and complex. We can help educate the caregiver and provide the resources necessary to help them plan ahead and find the right services and situation for their aging family member. This program will help managers provide support to their employees dealing with the added burden of being a family caregiver.”
Planning ahead can make all the difference. Knowing what to do ahead of the time, when mom, or dad can no longer live alone, or has fallen and requires an extended in-home rehabilitation.
“My company, In-Home Caregivers along with careworklearn.com wants to make an impact. Employers and employees will have access to accredited services and resources to plan for care and relieve the stress of caring for family member to make life easier for the employee, as well as the employer.”
Isoken found that she was devoting so much of her time to her business that she was neglecting herself. Her mentor suggested that she should find a hobby that would allow her to de-stress and have fun. Hobby?? Isoken couldn’t think of a single hobby.
“I decided to join a gym and become more active. When I found a ping pong table in the facility, a “light bulb went off in my head” . I played Table Tennis as a child with my brothers and neighbors which brought me feelings of joy, this was a defining moment for me knowing that I found my hobby after all. Now, I challenge myself to spend a minimum of 90 minutes every week just devoted to table tennis regardless of my busy schedule. I have made new friends playing ping pong, even got a new client on one of those occasion.
Complete Health Services and In-Home Caregivers of Illinois are committed to provide home health care and supportive living services that enhance the health, dignity and wholeness of our clients. They are dedicated to building long term relationships with those they serve via quality training, superior customer service and collaborative care systems.
We enjoyed our interview with Isoken. You can listen to it on iTunes or watch on YouTube.
To learn more about Complete Health Services and how they can help you, or your company defeat the ‘Elder Care Crisis,’ visit their Facebook page, or website.
Contact Isoken Ogbomo at 630-300-0446, or email her at info@in-homecaregivers.com.
