BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amedisys, a leading healthcare at home company (Nasdaq:AMED), today announced that 162 of its care centers across the country have been named to the 2014 HomeCare Elite™, a compilation of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States compiled annually by OCS Home Care and DecisionHealth.
Now in its ninth year, HomeCare Elite identifies the top 25 percent of agencies and further 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 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 Amedisys on being on being recognized as a top home care agency."
"Our caregivers deliver essential services to our patients and their families every day by caring for them as we would for our own loved ones. It is our privilege to help each of them address chronic challenges or regain independence," said Kate Jones, RN, MSN chief clinical officer of Amedisys Home Health and Hospice. "Making the 2014 HomeCare Elite list is an honor that recognizes our exceptional care teams and their commitment to high-quality, patient-centered care."
The award is sponsored by OCS HomeCare by National Research Corporation, the leading provider of home health metrics and analytics, and DecisionHealth, publisher of independent newsletter in the home health profession, Home Health Line.
"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 leads 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 http://www.nationalresearch.com/about/2014-homecare-elite/.
About Amedisys
Amedisys, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMED) is a leading health care at home company delivering personalized home health and hospice care to more than 360,000 patients each year. More than 2,200 hospitals and 61,900 physicians nationwide have chosen Amedisys as a partner in post-acute care. Amedisys is focused on delivering the care that is best for our patients, whether that is home-based recovery and rehabilitation after an operation or injury, care focused on empowering them to manage a chronic disease, palliative care for those with a terminal illness, or hospice care at the end of life. Amedisys also has the industry's first-ever nationwide Care Transitions program, designed to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions through patient and caregiver health coaching and care coordination, which starts in the hospital and continues throughout completion of the patient's home health plan of care. For more information about the Company, please visit: http://www.amedisys.com.
About National Research Corporation
For more than 30 years, National Research Corporation (Nasdaq:NRCIA) (Nasdaq:NRCIB) has been at the forefront of patient-centered care. Today, the company's focus on empowering customer-centric healthcare across the continuum extends patient-centered care to incorporate families, communities, employees, senior housing residents, and other stakeholders.
Recognized by Modern Healthcare as the largest patient satisfaction measurement firm in the U.S., National Research is dedicated to representing the true voice of patients and other healthcare stakeholders. This integration of cross-continuum metrics and analytics uncovers insights for effective performance improvement, quality measurement, care transitions, and many other factors that impact population health management.
National Research is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. For more information, call 800-388-4264, write to info@nationalresearch.com, or visit www.nationalresearch.com.
About DecisionHealth®
For over 25 years, DecisionHealth has served as the home care industry's leading source for analysis, guidance and tools that improve revenue cycle performance, profitability and regulatory compliance. Agencies nationwide turn to DecisionHealth for education and training, coding and billing solutions, and ongoing expert guidance through its family of subscription-based services. DecisionHealth also certifies home health agency professionals in coding and OASIS-C through its Board of Medical Specialty Coding & Compliance, and provides custom consulting services to agency leaders through its DecisionHealth Professional Services unit. For product information, call 1-855-CALL-DH1 or visit www.decisionhealth.com.