January 2023, marked the 110th anniversary of Cornerstone VNA, a local nonprofit home health and hospice care organization serving Strafford, Rockingham, Belknap, and Carroll Counties in New Hampshire and York County in Maine.
Cornerstone VNA is excited to celebrate its 110th year and is proud to look back on its impressive history of providing care at home. In 1913, the Rochester Women’s Club, led by president and philanthropist, Norma Snow, and the Ladies Aide of the First Church Congregational founded the VNA to provide homecare services. For more than a century, Cornerstone VNA has been committed to bringing services to people of all ages, so that families can stay together at home, even when facing the challenges of aging, surgical recovery, chronic or life-threatening illnesses or end-of-life care. As a full-service home care organization, Cornerstone VNA provides award-winning care and support through five distinct programs: Home Care, Hospice Care, Palliative Care, Life Care-Private Duty, and Community Care.
Julie Reynolds, RN, MS, President/CEO states, “I have proudly worked as a home care nurse since 1987 and joined Cornerstone VNA in 1994. I have experienced so much personal and professional growth in my time at Cornerstone VNA, and it has been an honor to lead this organization as the President/CEO for the past 10 years.” Julie continues, “Although we have grown tremendously in recent years, we still pay tribute to our founder and our remarkable history of providing high-quality care to our patients and our community.”
Particularly in the last decade, Cornerstone VNA has experienced significant growth which earned them recognition as the Business NH Magazine 2020 Health Care Business of the Decade, as well as numerous other awards including most recently the Falls Chamber of Commerce 2022 Nonprofit of the Year, and 2022 Best of the Seacoast Best Home Health Care.
As the region braced itself for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Cornerstone VNA was well-prepared thanks to their ongoing emergency preparedness efforts. They continued providing care to patients and developed innovative ways to remain connected to their local communities. They also broke ground on an important capital project in October 2020 to expand their building and renovate their existing space to address the growing needs of their patients, staff, and community members. Over the years, Cornerstone VNA has remained proactive in its approach to researching and implementing innovative specialty services, including a remote telehealth monitoring program, to meet the complex needs of its patients to ensure positive outcomes.
With a staff of over 170 team members, Cornerstone VNA has a depth of longevity that is quite extraordinary. Sandy Powers, RN, has been a nurse at Cornerstone VNA for thirty-one years, and is known fondly by her patients as “Nurse Sandy”. Sandy remarks, “I’ve had various roles over the last 30 years, and it has been a wonderful ride with all of them. I’ve gained so much knowledge working as an RN in-home care.”
From longtime nurse, Sandy, to recently enlisted team member, Megan Casey, RN, BSN, the positive feeling of being a nurse and working in-home care is just as strong. Megan shares, “There’s something remarkable and rewarding about caring for patients in the home setting, often at their most acute and vulnerable states, and being part of an agency (family) that provides endless support and appreciation. I don’t just love what I do, I live for it.”
To learn more about Cornerstone VNA, visit www.cornerstonevna.org or call 800-691-1133. Visitors to the website can also learn more about Cornerstone VNA’s history by reading their historical blog posts, which will be posted each month throughout the year.