Nuclear Care helps IAAP workers

Sept. 14--Nuclear Care Partners' version of home health care is extremely specialized.

The Grand Junction, Colo.-based company only helps nuclear weapons and uranium industry workers who were exposed to radioactive toxins like beryllium and have been diagnosed with a chronic illness.

Registered nurses Leslie Olkowski and Jenna Noem founded the company in Colorado in 2011 and have several offices around the country. They opened the Burlington office August 2013 at 409 N. Fourth St., Suite 102, in Burlington.

"There families were affected and they had a passion for it," said Angela Beardsley, the director and case manager of the Burlington office, of why Olkowski and Noem started the company.

The Burlington office was opened to take care of former employees of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown.

"Some of our patients made bombs at the plant," Beardsley said. "The most prevalent was Line 1 workers. Some of them worked in the storage yards. It depends on what their exposure was."

The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act provides compensation and medical benefits to employees who became ill as a result of working in a facility like IAAP where atomic weapons were manufactured.

Beardsley said most of Nuclear Care Partners patients were exposed in facilities such as IAAP from 1945 to 1978.

"They would have had to work during that time frame," Beardsley said.

The most common illnesses suffered by former IAAP workers are cancer or respiratory diseases related to asbestos. Beardsley said respiratory illnesses are the most prevalent right now, which might require oxygen tanks or other treatments for their patients.

Twenty-two cancers, established in a Special Exposure Cohort, are covered under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The cancers include bone cancer, renal cancer, lung cancer, multiple myeloma, lymphomas, and a number of cancers related to specific organs.

"They have to have a medical card in order to receive treatment," Beardsley said.

A patient must meet certain criteria to qualify for the card and treatment from Nuclear Care Partners. To qualify a patient must have worked during a specific period of time and developed at least one of the 22 cancers.

Nuclear Care Partners is a registered provider with the Department of Labor. A for-profit company, Nuclear Care Partners, bills the Department of Labor for services rendered to its patients, which includes medication and physician visits.

"The doctors have to be very helpful," Beardsley said. "Most of our physicians are Department of Labor providers.'

The company hires registered nurses and home health aides to tend to its patients.

"We are able to keep people safe in their homes," said Julie Schrepfer, a registered nurse with Nuclear Care Partners.

Schrepfer previously worked in an assisted living center and in internal medicine. She will visit some of her patients daily and others at least once or twice a week.

"Our goal is prevention ... to be between the patient and the doctor. We want to catch bronchitis or pneumonia before they have to be hospitalized," Beardsley said.

Many of the patients have Medicare, if they don't have a health insurance policy.

"We are very personal with our patients," Beardsley said. "We strive on continuity and consistency."

The same nurse or aide typically helps the same patient each week.

"We can provide up to 24-hour care," Beardsley said.

Nuclear Care Partners also offers a Family Care Program where a relative of a patient can be trained to be an employee of the company. Registered nurses are in charge of training a patient's relative.

The company is servicing IAAP employees largely within a 50-mile radius of Burlington, covering Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Nuclear Care Partners is looking into opening an Illinois office, which would be located relatively close to Burlington.

Nuclear Care Partners makes former IAAP employees aware of its services by holding public meetings in the area.

"We do outreach monthly," Beardsley said. "We do a lot of marketing."

Nuclear Care Partners' mission is specific, but could evolve into home health care for anybody in the future.

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