Augusta Health Home Health has been named to the Top 500 of the 2012 HomeCare Elite™, a compilation of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States. Now in its seventh year, the HomeCare Elite identifies the top 25% of agencies and further highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Those named are ranked by an analysis of publicly available performance measures in quality outcomes, process measure implementation, patient experience (Home Health CAHPS), quality improvement and financial performance.
Tammy Irby, RN, BSN, MBA, NE-BC, Director of Augusta Health Home Health believes that a focus on educating patients and families about managing chronic diseases such as diabetes, COPD and congestive heart failure has been a contributor to the agency’s success. “For the last five years, we have worked to help patients and their families understand their chronic disease so we can prevent episodes that would require admission to the hospital. Tele-monitoring is a tool the home health nurse uses to observe trends in vital signs for earlier interventions to prevent emergency room visits and/or hospitalizations. This Top 500 award is recognition of the great collaborative work between our staff, our patients and our physicians to keep everyone as healthy as possible,” she said.
“The 2012 HomeCare Elite winners demonstrate a commitment to providing patient-centered care and serving as leaders in the home health community. Their success offers data-driven proof of being well-managed and high quality care providers to hospitals, managed care organizations, ACOs and other potential referral partners across the healthcare continuum,” said Susan L. Henricks, President and COO of National Research Corporation, the parent company of OCS HomeCare. “Again, this year, we updated our methodology to reflect the rapidly evolving quality-focused healthcare landscape and national value-based purchasing trends. We congratulate Augusta Health Home Health on being one of the top 500 home care agencies in the country.”
“HomeCare Elite recognition continues to gain importance given the increased regulatory mandates and the threat of shrinking reimbursement revenue. Home health agencies that have earned recognition among the HomeCare Elite demonstrated that they not only can adapt to an evolving marketplace but continue to excel in clinical, patient experience, quality improvement and financial outcomes,” said Marci Heydt, Product Manager for the post-acute care business group of DecisionHealth.
The HomeCare Elite is the only performance recognition of its kind in the home health profession. The 2012 HomeCare Elite is co-sponsored by National Research Corporation (also known as OCS HomeCare), the leading provider of cross-continuum healthcare metrics and analytics, and DecisionHealth, the publisher of the industry’s most respected independent newsletter Home Health Line. The data used for this analysis were compiled from publicly available information. The entire list of 2012 HomeCare Elite agencies can be downloaded by visiting the National Research Corporation website at www.nationalresearch.com.
Augusta Health Home Health is a department of Augusta Health, an independent, nonprofit community hospital whose mission is to promote the health and well-being of our community through access to excellent care. Named one of the 100 Top Hospitals in America by Thomson Reuters in both 2011 and 2012, Augusta Health has also been nationally recognized by HealthGrades for clinical excellence and patient safety and has been named one of America’s 100 Best Hospital by HealthGrades. For more information about Augusta Health, its programs or its services, please contact Public Relations at 540.245.7329 or 540.221.7329, or visit our website, www.augustahealth.com.
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Chris Graham
