To our elderly patients, urinary incontinence is much worse than a prevalent nuisance. Urinary incontinence (UI) negatively affects the psychological health of patients and results in reduced physical activity (as a self-imposed management strategy), reduced social activity, reduced leisure and travel, lowered self-esteem, and diminished sense of self-efficacy. Urinary incontinence has been connected with increased risk of fall injuries, pressure ulcers, UTI, and institutionalization. Mild UI frequently progress when the underlying pelvic floor muscle weakness is not addressed.
One third of men and women age 65+ have incontinence, but only 25% of incontinent patients seek treatment. This disparity underscores the importance of including questions about incontinence as part of routine assessments. Allegiance Home Health & Rehab makes available to your homebound patients a scientifically proven, highly effective Home Continence Program. Research has proven that elements of Allegiance’s Home Continence Program work better than certain anticholinergic agents for urge incontinence. However, research also demonstrates that the combination of pelvic floor muscle exercises and medications work better than either treatment alone. More importantly, rehabilitation approaches for urinary incontinence work dramatically better when patients have ongoing professional guidance, supervision, and coaching. Compared to patients who received some sort of initial training and literature for a “self-help program,” patients receiving ongoing supervision (and sometimes additional PT modalities) demonstrate a 37%+ increase in the degree of success.
The Latest Technology in Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation:
Through an exclusive arrangement with Neotonus, Allegiance makes extracorporeal magnetic innervation (ExMI) available in the homes of your patients. ExMI involves using targeted magnetic pulses to stimulate pelvic floor muscles. Patients sit, fully clothed, in a comfortable chair. The twenty-minute treatments are painless and have no side-effects. Contraindications include pacemakers and non-titanium artificial hips (contact Allegiance for a complete list of contraindications). Since patients are clothed and comfortable for 100% of Allegiance’s program, and since Medicare pays 100% for homebound patients, patient resistance to treatment can be almost eliminated. Since patients need not concentrate on the ExMI therapy, it works well with cognitively impaired patients. Patients typically receive two treatments per week for eight weeks. Multiple studies demonstrate the effectiveness of ExMI for treatment of both urge and stress incontinence. ExMI alone typically generates success rates of 78% to 85%.
The Allegiance Home Continence Program enhances the effectiveness of ExMI treatments with training in customized behavioral strategies including diet modifications, voiding schedules, bladder retraining, etc. We have a community liaison specially trained in presenting the Allegiance Home Continence Program, Teri Martin. For more information or to schedule a demonstration, you can contact her directly at (561) 305-4449 (cell) or [email protected].
