Featured News - Butte Home Health & Hospice

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Art Buchwald has elected to forego
life-prolonging dialysis in favor of hospice, and is getting coverage by the national media:

Click here to read the article in USA Today

Click here to read the PBS article

Butte Home Health Designated a "National Best Practice Agency" In Preventing Hospitalization

Butte Home Health recently achieved the status of a "national best practice agency" under the Briggs National Quality Improvement/ Hospitalization Reduction Study, which was sponsored by the Briggs Corp. and cosponsored by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice and Fazzi Associates. The study's goal was to determine a common set of best practices used by home health agencies that are most successful in keeping patient hospitalization rates at 19 percent or lower, though the national average is approximately 28 percent or higher. The study researchers used data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to select agencies that represent the top-performing 10 percent in minimizing re-hospitalizations and also engaged the home care community at large for input on best practices for reducing hospitalizations.

"We are extremely proud that Butte Home Health has improved the lives of tens of thousands of seniors over the past 20 years. We are honored to be named as a National Best Practice Agency," said Brooke Quilici, PHN, Director of Patient Care Services. "We look forward to continuing to improve the quality of care for seniors in Butte, Glenn, and Tehama counties."

The top five best practice strategies identified in the report are:

fall prevention (83%)
front loading services (71%)
management culture and support (69%)
medication management (64%)
24 hour availability (63%)

A summary of the report can be viewed at:
http://www.briggscorp.com/pdf/BestPractices.pdf

21 Reasons for Home Care: Read the full text here.

Butte Home Health Receives High Marks on Medicare Scorecard

The latest Home Health Compare numbers have been posted by Medicare and, once again, Butte Home Health is at the top of the pack.

As part of the Home Health Quality Initiative, Home Health Compare shares information with the general public about how local Home Health Agencies rate.

The agencies are compared on 11 quality measurements, such as:
"Percentage of patients who have less pain when moving around",
"Percentage of patients who get better at taking their medicines correctly," and
"Percentage of patients who had to be admitted to the hospital."

At Home Health Compare, visitors to the site can compare agencies not only to each other, but to State and National results in each category. Medicare updates the results quarterly and they are now available at the Medicare website.
Butte Home Health applaudes Medicare's efforts to inform consumers and hold Home Health Agencies accountable for their quality of care. Please visit www.medicare.gov and click on the "Home Health Compare" link.