To the editor:

The single most cost-effective agency in Douglas County has got to be the Visiting Nurses Assn. I wish it were possible to add up all the expenses this organization saves local taxpayers in addition to the human misery it alleviates. Most obvious is the cost of nursing home care, the only alternative for most persons in need of VNA’s services. More difficult to calculate are lost work hours for family members who attempt to bridge the gap when loved ones are denied VNA home care and still resist the costly and inhumane alternative of a nursing home. Without skilled home care, many persons will become sicker and will ultimately require longer and more expensive medications and hospitalizations, driving up health care costs for all of us. Persons who could recover their health with a few weeks or months of skilled home care and remain tax-paying homeowners will instead be forced to sell their homes and pour all their assets into the ever-increasing costs of nursing home care before joining the ranks of the indigent on Medicaid.

Even the jobs lost at VNA as its revenue shrinks are a cost to our community.

Clearly, VNA has met the most stringent requirements for belt-tightening and waste elimination. Forcing it to cut its patient load and its work force seems to me to be the most short-sighted, counterproductive action the County Commission could take.

Carol Clifford,

Lawrence