By Laura Walter

Older adults seem less likely to live near their children, especially as younger people move to new cities, or older people retire to the Delmarva Peninsula.

“So that’s where I step in,” said Suzanne Lenhard RN, BSN. She’s an in-home nurse and owner of CALM Care Navigation and Private Nursing Service, LLC.

Her team is often hired by families that live far away. She’s a liaison between the client, their doctors and/or their families. “I keep constant communication with my clients’ loved ones if they’re not in the home, which most of them aren’t,” she said.

“Having a knowledgeable, professional Registered Nurse care for you, be your advocate and guide your healthcare journey will provide you with the support needed to remain independent in the home you love,” her website explains.

Founded in 2022, “CALM” stands for Caring Advocacy Local Mobile. Their in-home nursing services include medication management, wound management, central line maintenance, infusion therapy, catheter care and more. Clients include anyone needing medical-level help in the home, like seniors, anyone recently discharged from a hospital or people experiencing dementia.

Coordination is a big specialty, especially for all the medications, appointments and doctors that a person might have. Lenhard will review all medicines and medical records, to ensure that a person’s medications aren’t at odds with each other.

With several nurses on staff, CALM is a private-pay service that does not accept insurance—which means they are also not beholden to insurance company whims. They are based in Delaware and looking to expand.

As a nurse, Lenhard was inspired to start this business after a personal experience navigating her mother’s illness. “I started really digging into her charts” after her mother suffered both missed warning signs and then misdiagnosis. “That was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, as a nurse, and as a patient and caregiver, we need to pay attention to what’s going on.’” That means advocacy.

Much of her goal is to maintain a concise treatment plan as the patient goes from doctor to doctor.

She tells a similar story of a man whose balance issues seemed to indicate a deeper health problems. Different doctors’ offices were running tests, but not comparing the results to previous tests. When one physician basically said, ‘Your MRI is fine,’ Lenhard responded, “‘But did you see scan from two weeks ago?’ If I didn’t know any better, we would have walked away from this neurologist thinking everything was fine,” instead of getting needed treatment.

Lenhard is not knocking the doctors themselves—but patients need to pay attention to their records and advocate for themselves.

“I try to encourage everybody—even if they don’t know what they’re doing or what they’re looking at—to check your records because there are so many issues. I don’t blame anyone—I think it’s just a huge issue with our healthcare system. We have a lot of residents [on Delmarva], we don’t have enough doctors, insurance keeps people limited to short visits, and nobody has time to review anything, so that’s where I come in—part of it! … I think everyone needs an advocate.”

And patients also forget to share important information. Accompanying clients to their appointments, Lenhard explains what’s happening, advocates for their interests, and helps keep the physician up to date on recent developments. Clients might tell the doctor, “I’m fine,” and then Lenhard has to remind them of recent back pain or shortness of breath. “Oh yeah!”

“And then my next step when we leave is to make sure they understand what they need,” she said.

“It’s an asset to physicians’ offices because CALM helps decrease office visits and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations” by helping clients follow medical instructions, watch for side effects and be informed.

This is concierge nursing. “I coordinate the care. I do not provide what you’d think of as typical ‘aide’ services.” But she can assess non-medical needs, connecting clients to housekeeping, personal grooming or meal services, as needed.

CALM both advises and is hands-on—so Lenhard takes patient trust seriously. “I build a relationship where they know they can count on me.”

In-home nurses can check vital signs, take blood samples, deliver specimens to local labs and more. “I’ve done telehealth appointments by helping them pull up their phone and being the eyes and ears for the doctor on the other line, and I was doing the physical assessments.”

One client had a 30-day antibiotic regimen that required specific IV prep and cleaning twice daily. The octogenarian instead hired Lenhard to ensure this was done correctly—since insurance wasn’t going to cover such assistance anyway.

“Those are the kind of services I provide, but I work alongside other home healthcare agencies.” That includes hospice and end-of-life care. Again, Lenhard can help with logistics and medication.

After hospitalization or surgery, people can also hire CALM to help them transition immediately to home care. In fact, Lenhard can drive them home from the hospital or rehab, if desired. She’ll explain—or just personally administer—the paperwork, medicine changes, wound care and follow-up instructions. “I will meet them at the house when they get home and go through all that, and make sure they’re following orders.”

This helps avoid transitional errors, including if multiple doctors accidentally prescribed medicines that interact poorly.

“I always do a thorough reconciliation … For one of my first patients, I said, ‘Did you know you were on two different blood thinners?’ I called the cardiologist right away.”

Working in both a hands-on and advisory capacity, Lenhard’s role is “anything that’s going to help keep [clients] healthy and happy.” She helps create a healthcare team. “I work closely with other healthcare providers and agencies, and I love when we’re all able to come together and provide the service that the client needs.”

CALM recently partnered with the Innovative Healthcare Group and Innovative Driving Solutions, two services that assess a person’s home environment or driving skills/situation, and then recommend adaptive adjustments as needed.

Lenhard loves her job. As a longtime nurse in the Emergency Department, in hospice, and now in people’s homes, “I feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives.”

As for senior citizens, “They are my favorite population to work with—ever!” she emphasized. “I enjoy their company, I enjoy their stories. They’re not just this elderly person, they’ve had a whole life … that was the guy who took the secret documents and flew in World War II. One woman was a professional dancer.”

What should a person look for when hiring home care?

“I would want somebody compassionate, someone who knows how to advocate and can be that liaison,” Lenhard said. “And experience—because I lot of what I do is just innate because I’ve been a nurse for so long. But compassion is a big one, and the ability to listen and support the patient in whatever it is they want.”

CALM Care Navigation and Private Nursing Service can be reached at (302) 313-1116 and calmcarenursing.com.