Carilion Closing Private Duty Service

Carilion Clinic will close its private duty services, referring patients to other existing private duty providers in the region. The decision affects all Carilion Clinic Private Duty service in Southwest Virginia.

Carilion patients will be referred to other local, independent providers for these services, including Maxim Healthcare Services and Interim Home Care. Private duty professionals provide both nursing and non-nursing care to patients when they need extra assistance, including ventilator and feeding tube maintenance, bathing and companion services.

“Twenty years ago, no one offered private duty care in this region, so we began the program to meet our patient’s needs,” says Melina Perdue, Carilion Clinic senior VP. “We now have the opportunity to work with independent providers in the region, allowing us to focus our attention on core physician, hospital and medical education services.”

The closing affects approximately 90 employees. Most, if not all, will have the opportunity to take other positions inside Carilion, or transfer with their patients to the independent providers. Employees who are not able to transfer to other Carilion positions will receive severance benefits and placement assistance.

Carilion Private Duty currently serves about 115 patients. Carilion will continue to provide service to each patient until they are successfully transferred to another provider. Maxim and Interim have indicated they have the capacity to serve all of Carilion’s existing patients, and can do at a comparable cost. Carilion Clinic Home Care and Hospice are not affected and will continue normal operations.