ST. MARYS – In July 2015, the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) published the first ever Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings for home health agencies.
CMS established the Home Health Compare (HHC) website on medicare.gov as a key tool for consumers to use when choosing a home health care provider. It is designed to be an easy-to-access, convenient source of authoritative information on provider quality.
However, even the information on Home Health Compare can seem like “too much of a good thing” to consumers faced with an urgent need to make a choice as it provides too much information, and too many measures to consider. Therefore, CMS added new tools to Home Health Compare to make the information easier to use “star ratings” that will summarize some of the current measures.
The quality of patient care star rating summarizes nine of the 29 quality measures reported on Home Health Compare. The star ratings were derived from agency performance and patient outcomes. These included timely initiation of care, education on all medications, documentation of the influenza immunization being received for the current flu season, improvement in ambulation, improvement in bed transferring, improvement in bathing, improvement in shortness of breath, improvement in pain interfering with activity and the patient’s need to be hospitalized.
The star ratings are an additional tool to support consumers’ health care decision-making. Across the country, most agencies fall “in the middle” with 3 or 3½ stars. Grand Lake Home Health was awarded a 4-star rating. Grand Lake Home Health has been providing home health care services since 1987. These services include nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social services and home health aide.
Grand Lake Home Health leads the area in all patient experience/ satisfaction scores according to CMS on Home Health Compare website. In addition to these scores and their 4-star recognition, Grand Lake Home Health has also received the Home Care Elite Award identifying them as being in the top 25 percent nationally in patient performance outcomes, customer satisfaction and financial management. For more information about Grand Lake Home Health please call 419-394-7434.
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