VNA Community Care Services was selected to be profiled at a national Home Health Quality Improvement Summit January 11, 2007 at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, Maryland. The focus of the summit is to launch a yearlong national campaign to unite the home health community in a shared vision to improve health care quality by keeping home health patients independent and in their homes. A key strategy that CMS will use to achieve this vision is the dissemination of best practice information based on successes among select agencies known as “identified participant group (IPG)” agencies.

VNA Community Care Services has been one of these select agencies for over a year and is one of only three home health agencies nationwide to be featured in video segments during the invitation-only Summit in January. VNA was selected by event organizers because of their commitment to keeping patients healthy by avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations. After the summit, the video segments will be available for viewing by the public at the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign Web site at www.homehealthquality.org.

"We are honored to have our successes profiled and used as examples for other home health agencies," said Dawn Murr-Davidson, leader of the agency’s focus team. "We recognize the importance of seeing that home health patients stay in their homes when they need to. It leads to better care, and ultimately better outcomes."

Currently, more than one in four home health patient episodes will result in a hospitalization. Studies have shown that reducing the number of home health patients admitted to the hospital improves patient safety and satisfaction. By staying in their homes for treatment, patients avoid the tremendous emotional and financial impacts, and setbacks in recovery associated with being admitted to the hospital for an acute condition.