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Desiree M. Voinche
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Delmarva Foundation Wins Prestigious Home Health Award

Easton, Maryland, September 11, 2007 – The Maryland National Capital Homecare Association (MNCHA) presented the Delmarva Foundation Home Health Quality Improvement (QI) Team with their President's Award for 2007. The award is presented to a "prominent person or agency in the community whose work has contributed to an improved health care system in the area.” Delmarva received an engraved silver plate to display in their office.

The Delmarva Foundation Home Health QI Team has worked diligently with all Home Health Agencies (HHAs) in Maryland and the District of Columbia to improve the quality of care provided to home health patients in the communities they serve.

The Delmarva Home Health QI team has a long standing and successful working relationship with home health agencies statewide. Maryland was one of five states to pilot Outcome-Based Quality Improvement (OBQI) in the late 90’s and through continued efforts between Delmarva and the HHAs, has produced some of the lowest re-hospitalization rates of home health patients in the nation. Delmarva also works at the statewide level with area hospitals and community-based physicians to educate them on their role in reducing avoidable hospitalizations in an effort to assist HHAs in providing quality care and keeping patients in their homes.

Over the last three years, Delmarva has also worked quite intensively with poorer performing agencies; providing education and training in OBQI and technical assistance in their QI activities – some of which have improved a number of their publicly reported quality indicators by more than 50%. Delmarva’s Home Health QI team’s ability to assess and recommend best practices as well as consistently reinforce monitoring of an agency’s quality improvement activities – has essentially prepared Maryland Home Health Agencies to be successful in the upcoming Pay For Performance (P4P) environment. 

In the District of Columbia, Home Health Agencies district-wide have made an astounding 39% improvement in the Acute Care Hospitalization measure and have also made consistent improvements in the management of oral medications. 

Finally, Maryland and the District of Columbia have among the highest participation rates (MD 96% and DC 100%) in the National Home Health Quality Campaign. “District Home Health Agencies have accepted the Delmarva Home Health Quality Improvement team into their agencies as part of their team  - I believe that results like this demonstrate a strong relationship between Delmarva and our area’s HHAs in our reciprocal commitment to quality healthcare in the communities we serve” Wendy Gary, Delmarva’s Director of Quality Improvement commented.

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About Delmarva Foundation
Delmarva Foundation is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality in over 20 states. Since 1973, Delmarva has assisted in improving care in hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, medical practices and health plans. Delmarva performs quality improvement, quality assurance, utilization review, external quality review and Program Safeguard activities. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Easton, Maryland with other offices in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, DC; Columbia, South Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Tallahassee, Florida. For more information, please visit Delmarva Foundation on the web at www.delmarvafoundation.org.

8SOW-MD/DC-NH-091307-0044
This material was prepared by Delmarva Foundation, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Maryland and the District of Columbia,  under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.