By Kaye Spector
Plain Dealer Health and Medical Writer
After a hemorrhagic stroke last fall that paralyzed one side of her body, 72-year-old Trudy Greene came home to a hospital bed set up in the former dining room of her Slavic Village house.
The widow's adult sons moved in to take care of her around the clock: Lee, who works evenings, is there with her in the morning and afternoons; his younger brother Daniel works days and is there with her in the evenings.
Although she was home, Trudy Greene still needed lots of medical attention. But trips to the doctor's office were arduous. For a while, she had a breathing tube in her throat and she needed to bring an oxygen tank with her. The sons called a private ambulance or carried her themselves down the steps leading out of the house and into a car.
But a recent expansion of University Hospitals Case Medical Center's House Calls program to Cleveland's Slavic Village neighborhood means that Greene no longer has to leave home to see her doctor. Instead, the physician comes to her. And, when needed, a nurse, nurse practitioner or social worker can visit as well.
A $1 million gift from the Third Federal Foundation supported the program's growth and its ability to create partnerships with organizations, including Meals on Wheels, the Golden Age Center and churches.
The $55 million foundation, created through the 2007 minority public stock offering of Slavic Village-based Third Federal Savings & Loan, supports charitable organizations in the communities in which it operates.
The foundation is a major supporter of the Cleveland School District, Cleveland Central Catholic High School, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland, University Settlement and Habitat for Humanity and has made numerous grants focused on education and community redevelopment efforts to smaller institutions.
Third Federal spokeswoman Jennifer Rosa said via e-mail that the foundation chose the University Hospitals program because of its good track record in other neighborhoods.
“By investing in this program, we can give back to an elderly population that has given so much to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio,” she said.
Patients in the program are frail and fragile, said Dr. Peter DeGolia, House Calls' medical director. They represent the 15 percent of Medicare recipients who spend 85 percent of Medicare dollars in the last two years of life, he said.
“We work closely with patients and caregivers to help people remain where most people want to be – in their home,” DeGolia said.
Trudy Greene has lived in the Cullen Drive house, its living room adorned with childhood photos of her two sons, since 1996. Her husband died in 1997.
“This has been great for us,” son Lee Greene said as he watched Dr. Karen Parker examine his mother on a recent sunny morning. “She wanted to come home. I felt like we could do it.”
Parker chatted brightly with her patient about how much she was eating, asked about her pain medications and gave her some advice on how to deal with a dry mouth, before taking her vitals.
Bottles of hydrogen peroxide and moisturizing lotions sat behind glass doors on shelves that formerly housed china and tchotchkes. An oxygen tank stood in the corner.
“Seeing the physical environment really shows you where the barriers are,” Parker said. “The information you get on a house visit is astonishingly better.”
The house call visits also last longer than the typical 15-minute office visit. During her morning at the Greene home, Parker had time to troubleshoot problems Lee said he had obtaining a particular pain prescription for his mother and helped him make plans to get his mother a leg brace.
“They take care of me,” Lee Greene said, nodding toward Parker. “I don't know what I would do without them.”
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