Around the Clock: Care for loved ones

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

When it comes to the health of family members, you can’t always know what’s ahead.
Patti Abercrombie, RN, knows this better than most.
It was a few years ago while living overseas that Abercrombie got the dreaded call.
Dad has cancer.
With a husband who was finance director for a large global company, Abercrombie had the luxury of hopping onto a plane and coming back to Chickasha to be with her family.
She put her nursing skills to work, pouring into her family for her father’s remaining few months.
After the dust had settled she realized that virtually every family gets one or two of those phone calls at some point.
But how many are able to hop on a plane and rush right home?
“I came back to take care of him. Most people just aren’t able to do that,” she said. “I was very fortunate.
“I thought ‘what if I hadn’t been able to get here.’”
Abercrombie came back to take care of her father, a Marine of 42 years, while he was battling bone cancer.
Out of that situation eventually led to Around the Clock Home Care in Chickasha.
“That was one thing that really bothered me. What about the people that don’t have anybody?” Abercrombie said.
“We’re there to stay,” Abercrombie says. “We’re not popping in and out every two or three days and moving on to the next patient. We really get attached and we see what’s going on.”
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
“I think it brings comfort for the families,” Abercrombie says of her company. “If they live in New York and have a loved one here that wants to stay in their house and they need someone to help them … I would be much more comfortable knowing there was a nurse there to oversee what is going on.”
Around the Clock Provides a fully customized care plan for families. With services ranging from three-hour visits to to 24/7 around-the-clock care, the company can meet most needs.
All care plans are customized specifically for family needs and visits can be planned for any time of the day or night and designed with daily or weekly visits.
Abercrombie is a dedicated RN with nearly 30 years supervisory experience in Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant, Pain Management, Hematology, Home Health, and Hospice. She’s provided quality patient care, as a supervisor at a 700 bed hospital and brings her commitment to clinical excellence into the home setting.
She offers free in-home consultation with her or one of her nurses.
Long Term Care Insurance accepted as well as all major credit cards. Assistance with VA Aid and Attendance is also provided.
Around the Clock services Central Oklahoma and south.
One thing that makes Abercrombie’s staff very unique is their combined life history.
“I would say nearly every one of our staff members have gone through this with their own family member,” Abercrombie said. “They’ve taken care of their grandmother or were the only caregiver for their mother or father. They’ll tell me the stories.”
It’s one of the qualities she looks for when hiring staff. Those life experiences translate into the type of care she ensures.
Abercrombie utilizes RNs, LPNs, certified nursing assistants and sitters to accomplish the mission of helping people not only stay but thrive in their homes.
Coming back to Chickasha from Saudi Arabia Abercrombie felt at peace.
“Chickasha is so comforting. It was like Chickasha had stood still in time,” she said.
Those family values were still there.
Around the Clock is moving into its fifth year serving the surrounding counties and Abercrombie says the need grows every passing day.
GROWING NEED
About 1 in 3 people caring for someone at home (as opposed to a nursing home), said they had hired paid help in the past year, according to a survey by the AARP Public Policy Institute and National Alliance for Caregiving. The median cost nationwide for either homemaker or home health aide services is upward of $125 a day, assuming 44 hours of care per week.
When someone calls with questions Abercrombie will not let them off the phone without a solution – whether it be Around the Clock or another resource.
“All of these scenarios could be me and I’m not going to do anything to anyone I would not do to myself or my parents,” she said. “I’m not a bottom line person.”