Archie Gill knew he had to do something.

The 78-year-old retiree in Rougemont, N.C. had dislocated his left shoulder, and the arthritis in his right shoulder made it difficult to get out of bed.

“It always hurt so bad just to get out of bed,” he said. “You try to do it like a normal person, but I just couldn’t. I had to come up with a new way.”

His left arm was immobilized in a splint, and his right arm had limited movement, but he was determined to move on his own. His first solution was to sleep by keeping his left shoulder off the bed, but that didn’t allow him a comfortable rest.

Tired of tossing and turning as well as the pain of getting up, the retired engineer discovered a new approach.

“I thought it over, and I just had to come up with something a little easier,” he said. “That’s when I remembered I had some ropes.”

Those ropes became the catalyst to alleviating his trouble. Archie took the ropes and tied them to the headboard and the footboard at the left side of the bed. The half-inch rope provided enough support so that Archie could use his right shoulder to help pull himself up.

“Once I figured out the concept, it really didn’t take that long to put it together,” Archie said. “I had it all set up within an hour.”

Archie began using his new pulley system in February, just two days after his injury. Joleen Dunson, operations manager at Liberty HomeCare & Hospice Services in Durham, N.C., visited Archie the following day to start his occupational therapy and was amazed by his creative approach to his predicament.

“It was very clever,” she said. “It was great to see a patient take such an initiative.”

Dunson visited Archie for a month to help him regain more movement in his right arm. He’s had a second operation on that shoulder and says he will continue using his pulley system while it regains strength.

“We always try to encourage our patients to adapt to their environment,” Dunson said. “I was thrilled that Archie has been able to do that. Many patients are open to teaching and suggestions, but he was smart enough to figure it out on his own.”

“There’s no place like home.”

That saying, made famous by ”The Wizard of Oz,” reminds us just how nice and convenient it is to do many things at home, and receiving medical care is no exception. Studies have shown that patients recovering from illness or surgery at home heal faster than those in a hospital.

Over the last decade, advancements in technology have created new treatments that can be administered safely in the patient’s home. Donna Turlington, director of clinical operations for Liberty HomeCare & Hospice Services, offers an overview of five treatments that can now be performed outside of a hospital or doctor’s office:

1. Telemonitoring. Within the last decade, more homes have been equipped with monitoring devices that transmit a patient’s vital sign statistics – including heart rate, blood pressure, respirations, weight and oxygen in the blood stream – via phone line. Acceptable parameters for the patient’s vital signs are set, and if the device indicates that the vital signs are outside those parameters, the patient receives a visit from a home health nurse.

2. Anodyne therapy. Anodyne therapy is used to supplement physical therapy for patients with debilitating pain from diabetic neuropathy. Wraps are placed around patients’ lower legs that emit small infrared rays of light to relieve pain and promote circulation.

3. PT/INR home testing. Prothrombin times are monitored frequently in patients taking oral anticoagulants such as Coumadin(R) (warfarin) to determine the safest dose and to minimize risk for complications. These patients are accustomed to having blood drawn and sent to a lab for results. Now portable coagulometers (INR monitors) such as the InRatio(R) monitor easily determine INR levels in the home. This allows home health nurses to use a small device much like a glucose monitor for diabetes to obtain results in seconds.

4. Chest catheters. In years past, people suffering pleural effusion (accumulation of fluid) would have needed long hospital stays or placement in a long-term care facility. Medical advancements now allow home health nurses to treat patients with PleurX(R) pleural catheters (chest tubes) in the comfort of their own homes.

5. Intravenous home medication therapy. Certain intravenous treatments that would have once required lengthy hospital stays can now be administered in the home. Medication and infusion pumps can be delivered to the home, and a registered nurse can teach a caregiver how to assist in giving those infusions.

Turlington also notes that several other treatments have seen advancements, including wound vacuums, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy and hyperalimentation therapy for those who cannot eat solid foods.