MorrisviEle and Preston Progress. Thursday. March 26. 1998 - 5
Morrisville’s visiting nurses help patients throughout Wake
By Mary Beth Phillips
Recent federal legislation which
allows non-skilled workers to draw
blood and eliminates the need for
visiting nurses has resulted in the
loss of Medicare for many patients,
said Lillian Flynn, Regional Vice
President of Operations for the
Visiting Nurse Association of North
Carolina, headquartered in
Perimeter Park in Morrisville.
Because the funding is gone, the
service is unlikely to be performed
at all, she said, and the patient can
destabilize and go back into the hos
pital.
It costs less to send a nurse to a
home once a month to draw blood
than to pay for hospital stays, she
said. “That was a very short-sighted
piece of legislation.”
The Visiting Nurse Association
(VNA), a non-profit corporation,
was able to serve all of the Medicare
patients who lost funding under the
new legislation by switching them to
Medicaid or to a grant received this
year, if they qualified.
“We kept a few patients with no
funding source,” she added. At a sis
ter corporation in Atlanta, however,
they lost 40,000 visits per year.
Indigent patients are financed
through fundraisers—i.e. car raf
fles, a golf tournament—and dona-
tions.s.
Home care financing used to be
three percent of the Medicare bud-
‘You are dealing with the
patient in a more holistic
manner. You can’t sepa
rate him from his home,
his family, and the things
he needs. ’
—Lillian Flynn,
Regional Vice President of
Operations for the Visiting Nurse
Association of North Carolina, head
quartered in Morrisville.
get, Mrs. Flynn said. But as the pop
ulation became older, and more peo
ple were on Medicare, the home
care portion rose to about 4 to 5 per
cent. Legislators noticed and conse
quently passed the legislation.
Fortunately, the legislators are
reconsidering, Mrs. Flynn said. The
medical community is beginning to
see that home health care is a more
effective way to care for patients. At
a maximum of $110 per visit, and
usually more like $70 per visit ver
sus upwards to $1,000 a day in the
hospital, it is more cost effective as
well.
“You are dealing with the patient
in a more holistic manner. You can’t
separate him from his home, his
family, and the things he needs,”
Mrs. Flynn said.
The local organization employs
about 100 nurses and assistants.
Each employee makes between five
and six visits a day in Wake County
and seven surrounding counties.
Most of the patients are elderly and
disabled and on Medicare and
Medicaid. Many have been released
from the hospital much earlier than
they would have 10 years ago.
“We say they let them go quicker
and sicker than they used to,” Mrs.
Flynn said.
VNA relies on the federal agencies
for its funding. Under a mountain of
government red tape, the organiza
tion is paid about two years after the
service is performed.
Among the staff are certified nurs
ing assistants, physical therapists,
occupational therapists, speech ther
apists, social workers and nutrition
ists. About 400 to 500 patients arc
served at a time.
The nurses take turns being on call.
Board adds special hearing
to zoning, developer protests
By Mary Beth Phiilips
Special hearings will now have to
be held in Morrisville for any site or
subdivision plans that total more
than five units per acre, after the
board passed its long-awaited
amendment to the zoning code on
March 9.
Developer Tom Adams spoke
against the amendment during the
public comment portion of the meet
ing, saying he missed the public
hearing at the last meeting because
of business conflicts.
Adams said much of the land
around the airport is more suited to
multi-family development because
although people don’t really mind
the noise, they worry about the
resale value of single-family homes
in the flight path. He added that
multi-family development pays its
way better in terms of providing
town services. He also said high
density development in Morrisville
will cut down on traffic because of
the proximity to Research Triangle
Park.
Only one developer had spoken at
the public hearing at the previous
meeting, and he had urged the board
to raise the density from four units
per acre to five units.
On March 9, Adams’ advice went
unheeded as the board voted unani
mously to adopt the amendment.
However, plans which had already
been submitted to the town prior to
March 9 will fall under the old reg
ulations, which allowed up to 12
units per acre.
Later in the meeting, the board
Morrisville
Rotary to
paint park
gazebo
Morrisville’s Rotary Club will do
its first service project this
Saturday, painting the gazebo at the
town park near Fire Station Number
1.
The club’s 10 official members
will meet from 9 a.m. to noon to do
the project, which will benefit the
town. Prospective members or oth
ers who would like to help are invit
ed to join them.
The new club has changed its
meeting time to Tuesdays at noon. It
will meet in the Fellowship Hal! of
Sorrel’s Grove Baptist Church and a
meal will be catered. The club had
been meeting for about a month at 5
p.m. on Tuesdays.
Current members are hoping that
the new time will boost member
ship. Twenty charter members are
needed before the club can receive
its official charter.
For more information about the
Rotary Club call Ray Lech at the
Morrisville Chamber of Commerce
at 380-9026 or Margaret Broadwell,
the club’s president, at 467-1623.
tabled all of the multi-family site
plans and most of the other site
plans that came before it.
Petra On the Green Phase II, which
is 10 townhouse units to be located
on the west side of Crabtree
Crossing Parkway across from
Hamptons at Preston on 2.03 acres
was tabled, after a lengthy discus
sion of whether to widen the
entrance road. The overall density
for the development is 4.93 units per
acre.
Preston Creekside, a 136-condo
minium development to be located
on 12.37 acres south of Morrisville
Carpenter Road and east of Davis
Drive, was also tabled. The overall
density for that development is
10.99 units per acre.
Even the industrial plans were
mostly tabled.
Plans for phase 2 of Mr. Stor-It
were tabled after a lengthy discus
sion about a fence that was required
in the first phase of the project but is
not feasible because of the proximi
ty of the building to the street. The
development is located on the north
side of Morrisville Parkway west of
ORTHODONTIST
Announcing The Opening
Of Our
New Orthodontic Office
Larry J. Moray, D.D.S., M.S.
150 Preston Or., Suite 101 • Cary
Dr. Moray ha© an extensive bac!0round in aentistry
and orthodon-tice. and -therefore knows about the
latest in esthetic braces and orthodontic treatment.
Call 469-6653 for your consultation.
• Taking New F^tients • Free Introductory Exam
Caring For Children & Adults
m
Paintless Dent Removal
• Tree Nut Damage
• Parking Lot Dents
Hail damage erased
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PDR
6200 C. Daimler Way, Raleigh
919-859-5225
"The AREA’S only locally owned and
operated P.D.R. Business.”
To Furgrounds
Elie Medlin of Morrisville receives
Lore Oswald tends to his medical
because they must be available to
patients 24 hours a day. They usual
ly respond to calls overnight from
two to three times a week, Mrs.
Flynn said.
The needs of the patients are var
ied. Some need to be seen every 12
hours to change an IV. Others only
need to be seen once a month for a
Kroto Dy Mary tsein Kniiiips
a visit once a month from a nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association,
needs. Nurses usually see their patients more frequently.
checkup.
Elie Medlin of Davis Drive in
Morrisville at the edge of Preston
Village is one of those latter cases.
Medlin is recovering from a dis
abling stroke which left him unable
to walk. He has a home health aide
which spends six hours a day with
him, but a nurse from the VNA
Chapel Hill Road.
The board also tabled plans for
Pope Motor Freight Terminal #3, a
truck terminal to be located in Cedar
Fork Business Park on 3.54 acres.
An earlier approval of the same plan
had expired.
The only plan approved by the
board was a 20,000 square foot
office and showroom building locat
ed in Cedar Fork Business Park on
2.78 acres owned by Fred Adams
Paving Company.
In order for a project to be allowed
to have a density greater than five
units per acre under the amended
ordinance, if Mist'rfte^ tRS' follow-®
ing standards:
It must maintain or enhance the
value of neighboring properties; it
must provide safe and efficient traf
fic flow; an appropriate balance of
land uses must be met after alloca
tion of water and sewer capacity; the
project must maintain or promote
the health, safety and general wel
fare of the community, and an
appropriate balance of housing
types within the jurisdiction must be
maintained.
Lambert wins state
wrestling championship
Douglas Lambert, a senior at
Cardinal Gibbons High School in
Raleigh, won the NCISAA 152 lb.
state championship wrestling title
on February 21
His overall record was 25-3 and
he was undefeated in dual team
competition and also named All
Conference and Conference MVP.
As a junior at Cardinal Gibbons, he
placed third in the NCISAA
Tournament at 160 lbs. with a 23-5
record. Doug wrestled on the varsi
ty level as a sophomore on Cary’s
State Championship Team which
reclaimed its title from Riverside.
Doug has participated in this sport
through various junior programs
since the age of 8. In his freshman
year of high school, he wrestled on
the varsity level for Don Bosco
Prep High School in Ramsey, New
Jersey. He also won the Bergen
County, NJ, freshman champi
onship at 135 lbs. and placed sixth
in the New Jersey Freshman State
Finals.
He is the son of John and Renae
Lambert of Preston. He plans to
attend the UNC-Chapel Hill.
comes and gives him a check up
once a month.
“It’s an issue of quality of life,”
said Medlin's home health aide
Peggy McCarthy. “He would not be
satisfied any place but home.”
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