![Alex Barthe (left) presents a gift on behalf of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce to Dr. Joshua Kolmetz (center) and Tammy Suggs, the administrator for Gulf Coast Home Health. [SPECIAL TO THE NEWS BULLETIN]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-6a48bdec-4aa0-36b9-e053-0100007fde88-a04aa940-scaled.jpeg)
CRESTVIEW — A longtime member of the home medical care community has moved to a new location.
Gulf Coast Home Health held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at its new location at 2207 South Ferdon Boulevard in Court Plaza. It was previously located on Pine Street behind CVS.
The company, which was previously known as Okaloosa Regional, merged with LHC Group, Inc. earlier this month.
“We’ve been in the community for a long time,” administrator Tammy Suggs said. “Some of the nurses have been working here for 14 years. We’ve had three different names, so we felt like we needed to reintroduce ourselves to everybody.”
The company is going through a two-year transition into the LHC family, but will retain the Gulf Coast Home Health Care name. GCHH serves the four westernmost counties in Florida.
The open house showcased the different ways in which GCHH fills the needs of the community, including occupational and physical therapy, nurse care and other educational services.
Office manager Brandi Churchill talked about some of the important roles the nurses play.
“They teach you about all your medications, how to take them properly, how to fill your med box,” Churchill said. “They teach you if you have heart failure, don’t eat certain things, don’t do certain things. A lot of the nursing is educational.”
Another benefit GCHH offers is an on-site medical social worker. Kendall McDonald helps link patients with programs and resources the may not even know they qualify for.
“A lot of people don’t think they’re eligible for anything, even home health,” McDonald said.
She assists patients with safety issues, financial resources, insurance concerns and other areas that may be difficult to navigate, all while trying to keep the cost to the patient as low as possible.
“With home health, you really want the patient as independent as possible. That’s the goal, to make them safe in their homes so they don’t have to go to a facility somewhere,” Churchill said. “That’s what we’re here for is just to help anybody that we can.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Home health care service holds open house