Gundersen Home Hospital cares for 100th patient

When he was lying in his hospital bed at Gundersen Health System, Dennis Anderson, 73, was focused on one thing: returning to the dance floor.

Dennis was hospitalized in November 2022 for radiation cystitis, a side effect of his radiation therapy for prostate cancer in 2010. This caused bleeding and pain during urination. While Dennis was hospitalized, he was also treated for two urinary tract infections, clostridium difficile colitis (C. diff) and sepsis.

“He was really sick,” Dennis’ sister and care manager, Sinclair, said. “It was a horrific journey for him.”

After four blood transfusions and more than two weeks of care, Anderson was ready to be discharged. But he had become too weak to live alone, and Sinclair adds that no nursing home would admit Anderson due to his active C. diff case.

“He was a great candidate for Gundersen Home Hospital,” Sinclair said, adding that her brother is temporarily staying with his significant other, Rhonda, in Holmen.

Hospital-level care at home

Gundersen Home Hospital is available to help folks like Dennis. The program brings all the essential elements of hospital care to the comfort of patients’ homes through a combination of in-person and virtual care. Once a patient chooses Gundersen Home Hospital, they begin receiving care at home within hours.

“Nurses went to Rhonda’s house and showed her and Dennis how to take, enter and monitor vital signs,” Sinclair said. “They assessed him regularly in-person and followed up with daily check-in calls.” Sinclair added that occupational and physical therapists also provided in-home services.

100^th patient gets back on his feet

This program helped Anderson, Gundersen Home Hospital’s 100^th patient, get back on his feet – literally. On Friday, Jan. 6, less than a month after he’d been discharged from the hospital, Anderson joined his family band at the Onalaska Legion where he stepped out on the dance floor once again.

“He was encouraged by that piece of normalcy. He keeps making steps toward to his former life,” Sinclair said.

Gundersen Home Hospital is available for Quartz and Medicare fee-for-service patients at Gundersen in La Crosse.