National Initiative to Improve Quality of Care
Delivered by Home Health Agencies
Baptist Home Health Care has joined the national Home Health Quality Initiative to further improve the quality of care received by the 3.5 million elderly and disabled Americans who receive care from the nearly 7,000 Medicare certified home health
agencies.
The initiative gives consumers easy access to important, objective healthcare information to allow them to make more informed decisions when choosing a home health care provider for himself or herself or a loved one. The data is part of a new Home Health Quality Initiative (HHQI) of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency designed to improve the quality
of care provided by home health agencies through public reporting and community-based efforts.
“As a partner in this quality initiative, we recognize the opportunity to work collaboratively with Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc., will expand our knowledge and resources to help us achieve greater and more immediate improvement in our services,” said Diane Jones, RPh, Director of Baptist Home Health Care. "And as a leading provider of home health care in Florida, we are
committed to providing the best possible quality of care for our consumers."
The more than 150 employees of Baptist Home Health Care delivered approximately 70,000 home visits to patients in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. John’s counties in 2002. Services are available 24 hours a day and include: physical assessment, IV infusion, blood collection for lab testing, coordination and referrals to community services and patient education.
The eight-state Phase I pilot, launched on May 1, releases new quality data to give seniors and their families comparative information about home health agencies’ quality of care. Through its participation, Baptist Home Health Care, is further illustrating its commitment to offering the highest quality of home health care in Florida. During the rest of this year, CMS will refine and expand the initiative to include quality information for health agencies in all 50 states in fall 2003. Consumers can obtain the comparative data by going on-line at
www.medicare.gov
and clicking on Home Health Compare. They can also request information by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.
"A key step towards improving quality is getting consumers the information they need to make informed health care choices," Jones said. "As leading provider of home health services in Florida, we are committed to the best possible quality of care and are actively involved in this initiative."
e-baptisthealth.com
