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8/9/2005 - New Therapy in Etowah County Improves Swallowing Ability
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Richard Nieves or Nancy Kucik Alacare Home Health & Hospice 4752 Highway 280 East Birmingham, AL 35242 Phone: 205.981.8000 or 800.852.4724 Fax : 205.981.8743 E-mail: Richard.Nieves@alacare.com New Therapy in Etowah County Improves Swallowing Ability Home Health Patients Get Results After Stroke Gadsden, Alabama—People who have suffered strokes often have lingering side effects that can require extensive rehabilitation. One of those long-lasting effects can be the inability to eat and swallow. That’s not only devastating from a nutritional standpoint, but it can also severely decrease that person’s quality of life. Now there’s a new kind of therapy just introduced in Etowah County to help homebound stroke victims overcome that swallowing difficulty, known as dysphagia. “This new technology involves electrical stimulation of the motor nerves in the throat, which causes the muscles responsible for swallowing to contract,” said Tara Bryant, MD, Corporate Medical Director of Alacare Home Health & Hospice, the agency that is providing the therapy. “Repeated sessions allow the muscles to re-learn how to work after a stroke, improving the patient’s ability to swallow.” The electrical stimulation is always done in conjunction with a complete speech therapy exercise program. This therapy works for patients who have recently had strokes, but it also works well for those people who have had strokes as long as two years ago. After a thorough assessment and appropriate tests to evaluate the patient, the speech therapist places electrodes on the patient’s neck. The painless treatment lasts about 60 minutes, and the typical patient receives between 10 and 14 treatments during home health visits. “Since Alacare began using it last year, almost everyone who has been treated with this technology has shown some improvement in swallowing function,” says Dr. Bryant. “Some have experienced minor improvements, but many patients have made substantial gains in their ability to swallow.” About Alacare Alacare Home Health & Hospice is Alabama's oldest and largest privately owned, Medicare-certified home health agency. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alacare is dedicated to providing patients the highest level of skilled nursing, rehabilitative, palliative and hospice care available in the most cost-effective environment—the patient's own home. Since 1970, Alacare has provided patients with quality home healthcare throughout Alabama. Medicare’s new Home Health Care data reflect that Alacare’s patient-care outcomes in 11 essential areas are among the best when compared to both National and Alabama averages. Interested persons can obtain this data online at http://cms.hhs.gov/quality/hhqi/ or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. Services provided include: diabetes education, enterostomal therapy, homecare aides, home medical equipment, hospice/palliative care, infusion therapy, medical nutrition therapy, medical social services, mental health nursing, occupational therapy, pain management, physical therapy, skilled nursing, and speech language pathology. For more information, visit the Company's corporate Web site: www.alacare.com.
