Profile: Debra Trent

<b>‘I work the way I do because I am so passionate about the work my staff and I do in home care’</b>

By Courtney D. Clark

There’s no happy medium when it comes to home health care, according to Debra Trent.

“You learn very quickly that you either love it or you hate it,” said Trent, director of operations for Amedisys Home Health Services in Beckley.

“What drew me to and kept me in home care was the one-on-one interaction,” she explained. “Patients become like family, and you can really see the impact that you’re making. To know that you are truly helping is very rewarding.”

Trent, originally from Oceana, began her career as a nurse after graduating from Marshall University in 1980.

“I always wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “I worked at old Beckley Hospital, then a black lung clinic, but I found home care in 1984. That was my niche, and that’s where I’ve stayed.”

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Having spent 25 years in home care, Trent started as a field nurse visiting patients in their homes in Wyoming County.

“I also co-owned a start-up agency that we sold to Princeton Community Hospital,” she continued. “I have kind of worked from the ground up in home care over all these years.”

Trent has been with Amedisys, formerly Extend-A-Care, almost 10 years.

“Amedisys bought us in December 2007,” she said. “That purchase was a very good change.”

“Not only do we have better education for our staff members, it gives us more resources for our patients and families.”

Amedisys provides skilled care that entails nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, home health aides and a full-time medical social worker.

“We have a dietitian by consult,” Trent added. “The focus of home care is to teach patients and families to be as independent as possible in providing and self-managing their own health care.”

She said Amedisys wants patients to learn about their disease processes to try to keep them in their homes as long as possible, and out of facilities and hospitals.

“Our population is getting older,” she said, “and people are living longer. So now it’s even more important that they know how to take care of themselves to have a better quality of life.”

The average patient is around 80 to 85 years old and takes about nine to 13 medications.

“You can imagine how difficult it can be for the elderly population to even know how to take their medications correctly,” Trent said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

The Beckley location covers Raleigh and Wyoming counties, and has 12 sister agencies in West Virginia and 500 locations across the United States.

Trent oversees approximately 24 employees.

“We have a great group of people at our home health agency,” she said. “I feel so fortunate to work with them every day. Everyone loves what we are doing for the public and we are all in it together, just working really hard to provide this service.”

Her employees seem to reciprocate that feeling.

“Debra is an awesome boss who is delightful to work for,” account manager Melody Lambert said.

“The best person I have ever worked for — I can tell you that.”

Lambert says Trent makes her happy to be a part of the organization. “Debra is very enthusiastic and just lives this. ”

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“We are trying to grow the agency,” Trent explained, “and I do, I live it. I have always been accused of being a workaholic, but I work the way I do because I am so passionate about the work my staff and I do in home care.”

Trent says when she does get away from work, the mainstay of her extracurricular activities is spending time with her grandson, Deven.

“The ultimate high point of my life has been being called ‘Nana’ by my grandson. In him, I have found my cruising partner, and most recently, we enjoy challenging ourselves to the most difficult Lego set we can find,” she said, smiling.

“Something that has always been very important to me is to set a good example for my daughter and grandson.”

Always teaching them to treat others the way they want to be treated, Trent says the irony is that the “Golden Rule” is also a philosophy of the entire company.

“I strongly feel that our setting allows for the provision of holistic care for the patient,” she said. “Home health helps see the patient as a whole and includes the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects.”

All Amedisys clinicians receive special training and are certified in chronic disease management programs.

Additionally, the agency supports the Alzheimer’s Association and American Heart Association. It hosts blood drives twice a year.

“We feel like we are the best kept secret in health care right now,” she said. “It’s very cost effective because it’s done in a home setting rather than in a facility. We are bring the care to them.”

“My business development team and I got together because this is National Home Care Month. We want to make the public aware of what benefit is here for them.”

Trent said she wants to let people know what is available because the services are covered 100 percent for the Medicare population.

“With Medicare, there’s no deductibles and no co-pays,” she continued. “Many people just don’t know that we’re here.”

Home health care must be intermittent and under the care of a physician.

“Patients must also be homebound,” Trent said. “It should also be a taxing effort for them to leave their homes to get medical care. That’s why we are ordered to go into the home.”

Another characteristic of Amedisys that sets it apart is that it uses modalities in the home setting.

“The future goal of our founder is to have a hospice linked with every home health agency,” she said, “but right now, the certificate of need is not met for this area yet. I would like to see this agency grow to the point that we are eventually providing hospice services because it fits so nicely with what we do every day.”

Trent says she expects home care is where she will end up retiring.

“It’s my passion, and we are only going to keep growing. Our founder calls what is getting ready to occur the ‘Senior Tsunami’ because so many baby boomers are turning Medicare-age.”

“There’s going to be a lot of health care needs out there and not enough facilities and funds to take care of them. Home care is going to be the trend because it is the most cost effective way to provide health care. We feel like we are in a really good position here.”

— E-mail: cclark@register-herald.com