The 2012 HomeCare Elite™ report commended 28 offices from the Florida and Louisiana regions. The report – compiled by Senior Home Care (a leading provider of home health care solutions in the Southeast) – investigates the highest-performing home health agencies in America. This encompasses over 10,000 Medicare-certified agencies.
Senior Home Care Inc. was established in 1994 to provide retirees in Florida and Louisiana with quality care. Working alongside its Louisiana company, Synergy Home Care, it has nearly 50 branches and 1,800 employees. It is thus able to treat over 50,000 elderly annually. Above all, it seeks to “provide quality patient care in a compassionate and ethical manner while encouraging a lifestyle of independence.”
Sponsored by the National Research Corporation (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), HomeCare Elite has now been running for seven years. It seeks out the top performing quarter of Medicare-certified agencies throughout the nation and thereafter ranks the best 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Entrants are judged on: performance measures in quality outcomes; process measure implementation; patient experience; quality improvement and financial performance. The study is the only one of its kind in the home healthcare industry. Data comes from publicly-accessible information, as opposed to that sent in by the agencies.
According to Susan L. Henricks, President and COO of National Research Corporation (the parent company of OCS HomeCare products), “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. Again, this year, we updated our methodology to reflect the rapidly evolving quality-focused healthcare landscape and national value-based purchasing trends. We congratulate Senior Home Care on being recognized as a top home care agency.”
Robert Fusco, CEO of Senior Home Care pointed out that those organizations that scored high did so as they always put their patients at the top of their priority list. He explained that “our winners demonstrate a commitment to providing the very best care to patients, while providing the highest level of service possible.” According to Product Manager for the post-acute care business group of DecisionHealth, Marci Heydt, HomeCare Elite is an increasingly important body, especially given that there are more regulatory mandates alongside the threat of diminished reimbursement revenue. They show that not only are they able to adapt to a marketplace in continual flux, but also do well in overall patient and clinical experience.