Natick Visiting Nurse Association Named as a Top Agency of the 2012 HomeCare Elite

Nov. 2, 2012 - PRLog -- The Natick Visiting Nurse Association (Natick VNA) today announced that it has been named as a Top Agency 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 percent of Medicare-certified agencies and further highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Winners 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.

“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 The Natick Visiting Nurse Association on being recognized as a top home care agency.”

Judith Boyko, MBA, MS, RN, CEO of Natick VNA and Century Health Systems credits the Natick VNA’s staff with the agency’s ability to achieve recognition as one of the HomeCare Elite. "Our staff is dedicated to our mission and remain ‘committed to excellence in providing caring and compassionate multi-disciplinary health care services to patients in their homes,’” said Boyko.

“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.

About Natick Visiting Nurse Association: The Natick VNA, which serves more than 20 towns in MetroWest, is the area’s premier free-standing, not-for-profit home health care agency. The Natick VNA helps patients of all ages to stay out of the hospital and live with the fullest degree of independence in their own homes, while benefiting from the agency’s state-of-the-art home telemonitoring technology, ComfortCare palliative care program, cold laser therapy, and other advanced services. The Natick VNA is located at 209 West Central Street, Suite 313, Natick, Mass., 01760. For additional information, call 508-653-3081 or visit www.natickvna.org.

About National Research Corporation and OCS HomeCare: OCS HomeCare is a product of National Research Corporation. For more than 30 years, National Corporation  has been at the forefront of patient-centered care. Today the company’s focus on empowering customer-centric healthcare across the continuum extends patient-centered care to incorporate families, communities, employees, senior housing residents, and other stakeholders.

Currently recognized by Modern Healthcare as the largest patient satisfaction measurement firm in the U.S., National Research is dedicated to representing the true voice of patients and other healthcare stakeholders. This integration of cross-continuum metrics and analytics uncovers insights for effective performance improvement, quality measurement, care transitions, and many other factors that impact population health management.

For more information, call 800-388-4264, write to info@nationalresearch.com, or visit www.nationalresearch.com.

About DecisionHealth®: For over 30 years, DecisionHealth has served as the leading source for home health news, coding tools and resources, and training materials found in reputable products such as Home Health Line. Our unique blend of award-winning staff journalists and unmatched access to health care executives and industry experts enables DecisionHealth to provide solutions, tools, and guidance that are relied on by nearly 100,000 home health care and specialty physician practice professionals. For more information, please visit www.decisionhealth.com or call 877.602.3835.