Home is our safe place, where we connect with the people we love most.
There’s nothing like being at home – surrounded by your own things, sleeping in your own bed, snuggled down in your own favorite chair with your four-legged friend, enjoying the comforts of home – the way you like it, surrounded by the people and the things that make you happy.
Enter Forrest General Hospital Home Care. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the service opened its doors and welcomed its first patients in 1985 when Forrest General purchased a privately-owned home health care agency, which ultimately settled in its newly-constructed home on South 27th Avenue in Hattiesburg. The facility, which served 16 counties at that time, housed home health nurses, nursing assistants, therapists, social workers, the business office, and other supporting staff. There were also Home Care offices in Columbia, Laurel, Lumberton, New Augusta, Prentiss, and Tylertown.
It was during this time that many procedures that had once only been performed in a hospital environment, such as IV therapy and chemotherapy, were being performed in the home setting. Other such one-on-one customized personal care and post-hospitalization services offered in the home setting included: nursing care, wound/ostomy nursing services, diabetic educator visits, infusion services, wound care, pediatric services, hospice, pharmacy, personal care and medical social services, physical, occupational, and speech therapy, nutritional and intravenous therapy, registered dietician visits, psychiatric/mental health services, pediatric services, supplies, and equipment arrangements. These programs worked to meet both the patients’ and family’s physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs with the assistance of skilled nursing care.
In 2002, the need for Home Care Services began to increase, and the intermittent health care required when a loved one became ill or injured was made easier through Forrest General’s Home Care, which provided flexibility to families. By providing dependable, specially-trained nurses, therapists, nursing assistants, and others to give family members some relief, Home Care services allowed a patient to enjoy the familiarity and comfort of their home rather than having to stay in a hospital or be transferred to an assisted living facility.
This increase was the result of the overall efforts of employees and caregivers. Home visits were up by almost 7,000 during 2001.
Pat Snead, who served as Home Care director, noted at that time, “The purpose of increasing Home Care service was to help families become more independent. Quality of life is improved once patients are able to manage individual care at an appropriate level.”
For Home Care employees, caring for a patient becomes a labor of love. For many Home Care staff, they become members of a new family and extend not only their professional services, but the love and compassion of their heart. Many of their patients become like a mother, father, sister, or brother.
Amanda Smith, RN, Business Development coordinator, said each member of the Home Care team could tell countless stories of the bonds they share with their patients and families.
“They say home is where the heart is. It’s a place filled with memories, familiarity, and love. At Home Care, it’s a profound honor to be welcomed into a patient’s home, where care extends beyond clinical needs to the heart of human connection,” she said. “While my current position no longer takes me into the home, the relationships that formed during my time in the field continue today. Whether it’s running into a former patient or their family and reminiscing or seeing a patient that was a child growing up and thriving, those bonds remain today and I am so thankful for them! Our stories go far beyond the healing. It a matter of the heart and it all starts at home.”
According to Home Care Director Leslie Masters, RN, Home Care offers clinicians a unique and rewarding perspective when caring for individuals with acute illnesses, chronic conditions, or those recovering from surgery. “Being welcomed into a patient’s home means delivering care in the environment where they feel most at ease, comfortable, safe, and truly themselves,” she said. “This setting fosters a deeper, more trusting relationship between the healthcare provider and the patient.
“While delivering the skilled care each patient requires, clinicians also have the opportunity to understand the person behind the diagnosis. You may meet their spouse, their children, their pastor who stops by for a visit, or even their beloved pets. These glimpses into the patient’s daily life are invaluable, allowing us to personalize care in meaningful and effective ways.”
Masters said over time, witnessing a patient’s progress – made possible through the collaborative efforts of the interdisciplinary team – also strengthens the bonds among Home Care staff. “The trust developed within the team becomes a powerful partnership rooted in knowledge, compassion, and mutual respect,” she said. “In Home Care, this circle of care extends beyond our patients to include and uplift each other.”
While the majority of their home care patients are older, Forrest General Home Care is the only area service to accept pediatric patients.
In 2008, Forrest General Home Care introduced a new state-of-the-art telehealth system, which used electronic information and communication technology to deliver medical information and services through standard phone lines. Home Care continues to use this system, with a physician’s order, to monitor patients with heart failure/congestive heart failure, hypertension/hypotension, tachycardia/bradycardia and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
The patients who benefit most from the use of telehealth are those who require chronic disease management and whose diet and medication changes need frequent monitoring. This one-on-one patient interaction is a supplement to skilled nursing and can result in improved clinical outcomes, improved patient safety, and improved nursing efficiency as well as decrease repeated Emergency Room visits and re-hospitalizations at no additional cost to the patient.
During 2014, in an effort to help lower operating costs while continuing to meet the increased demand for care and providing more fuel-efficient transportation for its clinical staff, Forrest Health leased a fleet of 93 2014 Nissan Sentra SVs, which were made available to Forrest General’s Home Care nurses, therapists, social workers, and nursing assistants. At that time, it was estimated that Home Care staff members drove more than 24 million miles annually across an 11,000 square mile territory. A newer version of the cars is still on the road today and is easily recognizable, wrapped in the Forrest General Home Care logo.
By the time Home Care celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015, they had expanded their coverage to a 19-county area and added services including skilled nursing, specialty nursing, social services, certified nurses’ aides, therapy and various specialty programs for all ages, from newborns to senior adults.
Now, 40 years later, Home Care has 138 employees with seven offices that house nine care teams. In 2024, they made approximately 94,049 Home Care visits, providing specialty care with a dose of love. While office hours are 8 am-4:30 pm, clinicians are on call 24/5 to make home visits, if needed. Their daily average census is 980 patients.
Masters, who took over the position in 2019 after working as a field nurse, a telehealth nurse, Patient Clinical manager for the Picayune office, and program director for Hattiesburg, said this Home Care group has the common vision of having patients who are beyond satisfied. “The caring, knowledgeable staff keeps the Forrest Care We CARE values in the forefront of their mind and actions,” she said. “We are on a mission to do what is best for our patients.”
For Dr. Janet P. McMillan, APRN, PMHNP-BC, ACHPN-BC, Home Care is uniquely personal. “It allows me as a clinician to build a meaningful bond with patients and families by walking alongside them in their own homes, learning about their families and friends, and sharing special memories with them,” she said. “These bonds grow and are nurtured over time, by building trust, and providing care with compassion. In Home Care, we are invited into the heart of a person’s life – their home. This setting fosters deeper connections, where trust grows over time and care becomes more than treatment – it becomes a relationship centered on dignity, comfort, and partnership. It is this continuity and connection that makes home care not only effective, but genuinely human.”
With heart and history, Forrest General Home Care will continue to meet the needs of those patients who find they do their best healing at home.
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