The Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association, or “RVNA,” as it is known today, has grown — in the number of communities it serves, the breadth of services it provides, the sheer size of its operations.
But for all the services offered, and the nurses and health aides who’ll be operating next year out of the new building under construction on Governor Street, the mission is the same in its essence: to provide care for those in need, and support for the professionals who work caring for people who are coping with medical problems.
Today the RVNA has 130 employees: 93 in the “caregiving staff” of nurses, health aides and paraprofessionals and 37 working in support at headquarters.
There are also some 300 volunteers who work at the RVNA offices in the south end of the Venus Municipal Building on East Ridge.
While it’s still based on Connecticut’s western border, in Ridgefield — the town that put the “R” in RVNA — the organization now serves 27 Connecticut communities, going as far north as Washington, as far south as Greenwich and as far east as Oxford.
“The growth has really been organic,” said RVNA President and CEO Theresa Santoro, “in that doctors, hospitals — referral sources — are asking for the RVNA to care for their patients.”
The RVNA’s leaders also feel the growth reflects the quality and variety of services the RVNA offers.
“It’s a care continuum, and we touch people at different points in their health and life,” Santoro said, “whether we’re helping them recover from an acute situation, or maintain health practicing prevention from a chronic condition.”
“The clinical ‘out in the field’ is up 16% versus a year ago. The support staff is only up 8%,” said Lili Schroppe of the RVNA’s communications office.
The RVNA’s growth over the last five years — since 2010 — is evident in several of the numbers it tracks from year to year. The RVNA now serves 1,200 patients a year, up 55% over the last five years. It receives 2,300 referrals, an increase of 81% since 2010, and its nurses and health aides made some 51,000 visits in 2015, up 98% from 2010.
Business, as measured by the budget, of more than $7.3 million for the 2014-15 fiscal year, is up 133% since 2010.
The RVNA’s work force, as measured in employees or “full time equivalents,” is up 67% over those same five years.
People of all kinds are served.
“It could be a sick or well newborn baby. It could be a teenager who’s had a skiing accident,” Santoro said. “It could be the 50-year-old who’s had a heart attack and could benefit from our cardiac disease management program — diet, exercise, managing your medications.
“Then there’s the aging population, and chronic conditions,” she said. “Diabetes, congenital heart failure, dementia-related conditions, respiratory conditions — COPD. All of these conditions require attention to a specific plan of care.
“People are having their hips and knees replaced at younger and younger ages,” she said.
“We serve them in their homes across a broad spectrum of disciplines.”
The RVNA’s services fall into four broad categories: professional support, public health, at-home health, and community health and wellness.
A major effort in the community health and wellness area is the annual health fair. The 2015 fair filled the ground floor of East RIdge Middle School, drew 521 people and provided some 927 free health screenings.
Other community health wellness services include CPR classes, the staff nutritionist’s teaching to people with diet-related conditions, and the “well child clinics” at which “underinsured” children can receive vaccinations on a sliding pay scale that goes down to zero — free.
New building
The RVNA’s array of programs is expected to benefit greatly from the move to the new building, a $10-million project — including land acquisition and construction — expected to be open before spring next year.
The three-story, 22,000-square-foot building is going up on an acre and a quarter off Governor Street, between the Boys & Girls Club and the Donnelly shopping center. There will be parking spaces for 66 cars.
The RVNA’s nutritionist’s education programs are but one service expected to see a substantial improvement in what can be offered. The new building’s facilities will include a “teaching kitchen” at one end of a large space that can be easily subdivided into smaller sections or opened up, as needed, with built-in room dividers.
“We really need some space for her to do really hands-on education,” Schroppe said.
“Nutrition is the foundation of most chronic conditions,” said Santoro. “We’re finding more and more people reach out for access to our nutritionist.
“We have a ‘healthy food’ pantry where we collect low-sodium and low-sugar foods, healthy food items.”
The food is available to a worker going to visit someone with a chronic diet-related condition such as diabetes, or heart disease.
“A home health aide can fill up,” Santoro said.
“Sometimes it comes down to someone paying for medications, or the healthier food items,” she said.
To serve people who plan to travel, the RNVA’s immunization center is staffed by an advanced practice registered nurse who is credentialed in travel health.
“She specializes in what you need to know to travel safely,” Santoro said. “What to do if you’re bit in the ankle by a dog in Peru.”
Health emergencies
If public health emergencies arise — such as disease outbreaks, major power outages that require the opening of shelters — the RVNA works with town officials including First Selectman Rudy Marconi, health director Ed Briggs and emergency management coordinator Richard Aarons.
“We’re the public health nursing arm for the town of Ridgefield,” Santoro said.
“In the event of someone diagnosed with a communicable disease such as tuberculosis, in the event of any outbreak, or emergency issue, we’re a member of the emergency management team with Ed Briggs and Dick Aarons and Rudy. We work in partnership, and provide the public health aspect.”
The RVNA’s growth isn’t confined to one or two fields of service.
“We’ve seen significant growth across nearly every data point,” Santoro said.
“Our home care visits are up 20% over last year,” said Schroppe.
Part of it is an aging population that has more need of health care services. And that’s a trend that is expected to continue.
By 2025, the 65-and-older population is projected to be about 18% of the total U.S. population, according to Schroppe.
“We talk about the U.S. looking like Florida,” she said.
For an organization in the health care field, that’s a growing challenge.
“We need to bring the best and brightest clinicians to serve with quality care the onslaught of patients in the landscape of the aging population,” Santoro said.
With its move, the RVNA will be leaving space rented from the town in the Venus Municipal Building — “the old high school,” as some call it. It will be moving to the new building under construction on Governor Street, which will have about 22,000 square feet of space — on three floors.
Builder Gerald Roche, who is heading the project, expects it to be finished fairly early next year.
“The goal is, sometime in February we’ll start the move,” he said.
Among the significant benefits the new building will have — in addition to more space, designed to fit the organization’s needs — will be a generator to assure continuous cold storage of vaccines right through power outages.
There’ll be offices, a volunteer resource room, and outpatient therapy area with shower and changing room, a big multi-purpose space with movable walls that will have a teaching kitchen and also space that can serve as a boardroom. There’ll be a competency lab for training clinicians — the RVNA’s nurses and health aides — and also a space they can work out of.
“We’ll have a room where a clinician can come in, power up their laptop, call a doctor,” said Santoro. “They live on the road — they’re independent practitioners.”
“It’ll be accessible for all ages, all conditions,” Santoro said of the new facility. “It’ll really be a user-friendly health center for the community.”
Looking ahead, the RNVA has left about 4,000 square feet of the space that does not have an immediate use.
“There’s space that isn’t planned,” Santoro said, “room to grow.”
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