Panhandle Health District

                                                            8500 N. Atlas Road         Hayden, Idaho  83835

www.phd1.idaho.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      Date:     February 1, 2011                    

Contact:                                                                        Released by: Lora Whalen, Director  

Cynthia Taggart

Public Information Officer

(208) 415-5108

(208) 818-7288 (cell) 

Panhandle Home Health in Top 10 Percent Nationally

 Hayden – Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI), a national movement to raise the quality of home health care, ranks the Panhandle Health District’s Home Health program in the top 10 percent nationally because so few of its patients end up in the hospital. 

             The national average of home health patients who need hospitalization is 27.5 percent. Idaho’s state average is 17.2 percent. Panhandle Home Health’s average is 14.3 percent. 

             “If I was looking for home health care and I saw that an agency had a low rate for patients needing hospitalization, that would tell me that there’s an excellent set of clinicians there,” said Mary DeTienne, director of the health district’s Home Health division. “I’m very proud of our home health staff.”     

         HHQI bases its rankings on agency reports filed with Medicare. More than 4,500 home health agencies participate in HHQI. This ranking puts Panhandle Home Health in the top 450 nationwide.  

            The national improvement campaign focuses on lowering the number of home health patients whose conditions worsen so they require hospitalization. It also focuses on improving medication management.HHQI provides participating agencies with best practices and tips on how to improve rates. That advice prompted Panhandle Home Health to print flyers for patients to post in their homes that show when their symptoms are under control and when they need help.

            For example, the flyer for patients with congestive heart problems is divided into green, yellow and red zones. Green shows all clear when breathing is regular and there’s no swelling, weight gain or inability to perform normal activities. Yellow shows signs, such as shortness of breath, that indicate a call to the doctor is necessary. Red shows signs, such as wheezing or unrelieved chest pain, that indicate a patient needs immediate medical care. 

              Patients who receive home health care are homebound for medical reasons. They may have a chronic condition, such as diabetes or congestive heart failure, that requires a health professional’s care to keep them out of a hospital. They may need medical help to care for a wound after surgery.

              Home health care is typically short term—a matter of weeks—until a patient regains the independence that comes with improving health or learning to care for himself.  

            Panhandle Home Health chose to participate in the quality improvement campaign. HHQI bases its ranking on a comparison of a patient’s status at admission into home health to his or her status at discharge. Hospitalization rates are an objective measure. Either a patient needed hospitalization or didn’t.  

            “This is the first time we have been recognized for our low hospitalization rates, though we’ve had low rates before,” said Joyce Bergen, PHD’s outcome-based quality improvement coordinator. “It tells our staff they’re doing a really good job of taking care of our patients.”  

            For information on Panhandle Home Health, visit the PHD website at www.phd1.idaho.gov or call (208) 415-5160.