Advocating for Nurses at Thrive SPC

Advocacy is at the heart of Thrive SPC not only for our patients but for our nurses who work tirelessly to make a difference in people’s lives. When nurses receive the proper resources, they can provide the highest-quality care for medically fragile children. However, Pediatric Home Care Nurses haven’t always been compensated fairly, especially in the state of Kansas. 

Kansas Had the Second-Lowest Private Duty Nursing Hourly Reimbursement Rates

Every single day, nurses independently monitor, assess, and care for their patients who have a variety of medical conditions ranging from tracheostomies, colostomies, urinary catheters, gastric tubes, and complex IV lines. However, because of low state reimbursement rates, private-duty nurses in Kansas were earning wages comparable to those in other essential non-medical roles, despite the higher skill sets and medical training their jobs required. This disparity made it more challenging for nurses to want to enter or remain in the field. 

Lynn Dalrymple Began Advocating for Higher Reimbursement Wages

Lynn Dalrymple has always had a passion for advocacy, joining forces with lobbyist Amy Campbell to advocate for nurses, medically fragile children, and their families. When she went to the former Kansas Medicaid Director, Adam Proffitt, asking for guidance, he supported her ideas but knew his support alone would not be enough to change the state legislature. Lynn would need to get more people to join the fight.

“We started getting the nurses involved by writing letters to the legislature, talking to our families and having them write letters and also asking the representatives of Kansas to come to their home to see the services that we provide and see some of the things that the nurses have to go through so that we could justify that these nurses truly needed an increase,” Lynn says. 

The Path to Fair Reimbursement Rates was a Long One That Took Strength

Lynn worked a long time to get the Kansas Legislature to increase reimbursement rates for Pediatric Home Care Nurses and for many of those years, there was very little change. But Lynn kept returning to the state legislature, finding new opportunities to get them to listen. “Each time that I went, there were more people that remembered us,” she says. “There were more people that remembered our name or remembered the parent that came and testified, and it started making a difference.”

Thanks to Lynn Dalrymple, Amy Campbell, Adam Proffitt, and Thrive SPC nurses and families of patients, reimbursement rates rose from $21-22 an hour to up to $50 an hour. 

To learn more about Lynn and Thrive SPC’s experience advocating for higher reimbursement rates for Pediatric Home Care Nurses, click here and watch our video.