With more and more seniors wanting to stay at home as they age, the homecare field is growing exponentially to meet the demand for in-home services. To promote high quality and innovative care, the Pennsylvania Homecare Association is calling on home health, hospice and homecare providers across Pennsylvania to submit their best practices for consideration in the 2013 Best Practices in Homecare and Hospice Awards program.
Awards are presented in four categories: Care & Services, Community Outreach & Advocacy, Human Resources Management and Operations Management. Entries must effectively demonstrate process and/or planning, staff involvement, measured improvement and an ability to be replicated.
“Every agency has a success story and a gold standard program that has improved patient outcomes, operations, employee relations or made a mark on the communities it serves,” said Vicki Hoak, PHA CEO. “This awards program is all about sharing successes and ideas to ensure that our agencies provide the best possible home health, hospice and homecare services.
“Best Practices are really about Next Practices,” she added. “In this ever-changing healthcare climate, now is the time to be innovative, to embrace risk, to engage our staff in furthering our vision for the future of home health and hospice services.”
PHA established the awards in 2010 to showcase the homecare and hospice industry as a whole for its exceptional, yet often unrecognized work and contributions to the healthcare continuum. It is estimated that more than one million Pennsylvanians receive homecare and hospice services each year and research shows that homecare presents significant cost savings to both Medicare and Medicaid compared to institutional-based care.
Agencies can submit entries to the Best Practices Awards program in three quick and simple steps:
Complete a cover form. Entry forms are available online.
- Describe your agency’s program in 800 words or less.
- Gather relevant supporting materials and send the information to PHA by the entry deadline of Dec. 31, 2012.
- To learn more, visit www.pahomecare.org.
