Delta Study to Reduce Hospitalizations
In line with this conversation about reducing readmissions, our friends at Delta Health Technologies in Altoona, PA have just announced the results of a major national study.

As recent as 2008, 3.2 million Medicare patients were served by home health agencies with national readmission rates around 29%.  Obviously, many home care agencies have developed expertise in keeping readmissions to a minimum, but the goal in this study is to uncover exactly what practices tend to work best and share the findings with the entire industry.  Even a 2% difference would result in reducing over 900,000 hospitalizations at a net savings of $0.5 billion.

In reponse, the industry has recently completed the largest collaborative effort of its kind with The Delta National Study To Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations Through Home Care, identifying best practices being used by homecare's most successful agencies and serving as a guideline to reduce or even eliminate patient readmissions.  This study will have a positive impact not only on homecare agencies but on the nation's healthcare industry as a whole.

The study is co-sponsored by NAHC with the Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Compaign, the Forum of State Associations, Community Health Accreditation Program, The Joint Commission and American Physical Therapy Association serving as advisors.  Fazzi Associates, a national best-practice research firm, manages and facilitates the study.  The study's mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative research collected data via web an phone from more than 800 agencies that had been selected on the basis of their most recent Home Health Compare scores.  Sponsors are planning four free webinars on their research in November and a national Executive Best Practice Report for December.  Complete results will be made available free of charge to all homecare agencies.

November is National Family Caregivers Month 
November is National Home Care & Hospice month and we celebrate with pride and joy for all of the work that you do to make a difference in the lives of your patients and their families. 

November is also National Family Caregivers month.  This is a time to identify and recognize those family members who spend a considerable amount of their time and energy caring for others.  Having been a family caregiver for many years, and now moving back into that role again, we can all too well identify with the challenges of being a family caregiver.

As a gesture of good will to all family caregivers, Home Care Assistance, a non-medical home care franchise company based in Palto Alto, California is making available free copies of a new ebook, Handbook of Live-In Care:  A Guide for Caregivers (a $17.95 value).  This 128 page ebook written by Kathy N. Johson, PhD, CMC; James H. Johnson, PhD, and Lily Sarafan, MS, is a wonderful resource for families concerned about caring for a loved one.  You can download your complimentary copy during the month of November.