Home health pioneer stays busy

• Lula Galloway provides guidance in the ever-changing world of home healthcare.

K.K. Snyder

ALBANY — When Lula Galloway’s mother was fighting cancer in St. Petersburg, Fla., in the mid-’70s, the family’s experience was made easier by the compassionate care of the home health nurse who delivered care in the comfort and convenience of the Galloway’s home.

“I’d never heard of home health,” until her mother’s illness, said Galloway, 80. “It was the biggest blessing in my life.”

Today, home health is a household word in the Albany area, thanks to Galloway, her late husband Robert, her son Patrick and a family friend and registered nurse, Pamela Baggett Fullington. After experiencing home health firsthand, the group recognized the business potential and began the process to open a new home health agency.

But once they realized that the Sunshine State was already flooded with such agencies, the group selected Albany as the location for their new business venture, as home health was virtually unknown here at the time and the potential was thought to be vast.

“We came in and had to educate the doctors and the public because no one had even heard of home health,” said Galloway, who would later be joined in the business by son, Bob, and daughters Nancy and Jan. “Thank God for family; they were wonderful.”

Once they received approval through the Georgia’s Certificate of Need process in 1977, the Galloways and Fullington opened River Valley Home Health Agency, the first agency of its kind in Albany. The business opened with three participating doctors and half a dozen patients.

“(The doctors) would call and say, ‘I’ve got some patient way out in the boondocks. Go and see them and see what they need,’ ” recalled Galloway, adding that the agency worked with just the one nurse early on, who scrambled to cover patients in Albany, Cordele, Cuthbert and beyond, until another nurse and an aid were added to the roster.

“We thought we’d hit the jackpot,” she said of receiving the first six patients. “Then on the first day, one of them passed away and we thought, ‘Oh, no! That’s not the way this is supposed to work!’ ”

But word soon spread and business soared. When Galloway’s husband died in 1982, she took on the role as executive director of the agency, which she later sold to HealthMaster of Augusta. She initially stayed on under the new ownership to help with the transition and later remained to answer phones, file or whatever needed to be done. The company was later bought by Care South, with Galloway remaining onboard once again to keep things running smoothly.

“I stayed on for the transition. Then stayed on and on and on,” said Galloway.

Today, the company is known throughout the region as Phoebe Home Care, having been purchased in the mid ’80s by Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. Led by Darleen Cox, administrative director, Phoebe Home Health employs 86 staff, including skilled nurses; physical, speech and occupational therapists; administrative and clerical personnel; and home health aids. And Lula Galloway, who still works full-time and compares the home health agency to “having a child that does so much good for so many people and you watch it grow and you just feel so proud.”

The business has grown from the census of just six patients that first week to the daily census of about 530, said Cox, with annual admissions to the agency of about 2,700 patients in 16 counties.

“With our aging population of baby boomers, we’ve seen an increase and do expect a bigger increase in coming years,” added Cox.

In the meantime, Galloway enjoys answering phones, filing, cleaning, painting and building patient charts, whatever needs to be done. But she especially enjoys decorating the office according to the holiday or season, a practice her co-workers have come to cherish.

Galloway has enjoyed watching her “child” grow and improve through the years, noting that technology is likely the biggest change the business has seen.

“The key word to home health is ‘home.’ It’s home that counts and that’s where people want to be,” said Galloway.

K.K. Snyder is a freelance writer who resides in metro Albany.