Methodist Hospitals Named to the Top 500 of the 2014 HomeCare Elite

Home-Health-AwardMethodist Hospitals today announced that it has been named to the Top 500 of the 2014 HomeCare Elite, a recognition of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States. Now in its ninth year, the HomeCare Elite identifies the top 25 percent of agencies and highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Winners are ranked by an analysis of publicly available performance measures in quality outcomes, best practice (process measure) implementation, patient experience (Home Health CAHPS), quality improvement and consistency, and financial performance. In order to be considered, an agency must be Medicare-certified and have data for at least one outcome in Home Health Compare. Out of 9,994 agencies considered, 2,501 are elite.

The award is sponsored by OCS HomeCare by National Research Corporation, the leading products for home health metrics and analytics, and DecisionHealth, publisher of the most respected independent newsletter in the home care profession, Home Health Line.

“The 2014 HomeCare Elite winners demonstrate a commitment to providing high quality care in their home health communities and we recognize them for their remarkable achievements,” said Mary Oakes, Senior Vice President of Post-Acute at National Research. “We congratulate Methodist Hospitals on being one of the top 500 home care agencies in the country.”

Methodist Hospitals Manager of Home Health Services, Martha Sutkowski, attributes the hospitals’ strong performance to “our single-minded focus on achieving the best possible outcomes and experience for every patient, every day.” In 2014, Methodist Hospitals consistently scored significantly higher than the state average on all seven outcomes measures on which CMS evaluates home health providers and its patient experience scores exceed state and national benchmarks.

“We are very proud to be counted among the top home health agencies in the nation,” said President and Interim CEO Michael Davenport, M.D. “This award is another indication of Methodist Hospitals’ deep commitment to the health and wellbeing of the Northwest Indiana community.”

“HomeCare Elite recognition is a significant acknowledgement. In today’s healthcare ecosystem, it is imperative that our seniors have access to quality home healthcare in order to ensure better patient outcomes and improve overall cost, and therefore, home healthcare continues to remain an integral part of the care continuum. The winners of the HomeCare Elite Award are proving that a heightened focus on clinical outcomes, patient experience, and financial management lead to success,” said Marci Heydt, Product Manager for the post-acute care business group of DecisionHealth.

The entire list of 2014 HomeCare Elite agencies can be downloaded by visiting the National Research Corporation website at www.nationalresearch.com/homecareelite.