The Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its
first five-star quality ratings on its Home Health Compare website in
an effort to bring clarity to a fast-growing segment of the medical industry.
Torrance Memorial Home Health received a ranking of 4.5 out of five stars.
That puts it in the top 11 percent of 9,000 agencies rated nationwide
and in the top 10 percent among the 1,249 agencies ranked in California.
“Torrance Memorial Home Health offers a robust program for ongoing
education that includes frequent shadow visits of the staff with their
managers when visiting patients and weekly patient care conferences,”
said Theresa Ferry, director, Torrance Memorial Home Health. “We
are also part of the Torrance Memorial care transitions program, which
enables us to share information and oversight with the hospital, the coordinated
care center, and ambulatory care management. All of these factors help
us to achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients.”
The star ratings capture overall quality by summing up the results of nine
of 27 measures Medicare published on its Home Health Compare website.
Agencies are evaluated on the following:
- How quickly they visit a patient
- Whether they explain all drugs a patient is taking to the patient or caretaker
- Whether they make sure a patient got a flu shot for the season
-
How much patients improve in
- Walking
- Getting in and out of bed
- Bathing
- Breathing
- Being able to move around with less pain
- How many patients end up going to the hospital
Current star ratings are based on performance from the fall of 2013 through
the end of last year. Medicare reassesses the stars quarterly.
Torrance Memorial Home Health Care offers quality health care in the place
people are most comfortable — their home. Founded in 1983, Torrance
Memorial Home Health is a full-service, California-licensed and Medicare-certified
home health care and hospice agency that serves the entire South Bay area
of Los Angeles. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Torrance Memorial Medical
Center, it is also accredited by the Joint Commission.
Torrance Memorial Home Health’s professional team of nurses, therapists
and other staff provides personalized attention and cost-effective care,
allowing patients to remain as independent as possible.
Home health care is for patients who require skilled intermittent care.
Additionally, it coordinates home health care with other programs at Torrance
Memorial, including palliative care and hospice.
Torrance Memorial Medical Center's team of home health professionals
provide compassionate care while helping each patient achieve the highest
level of independence with daily living activities. Patients receiving
services from Torrance Memorial's home health care department are
evaluated by a registered nurse or a physical therapist to the degree
in which the patient can care for himself and his physical surroundings.
As a patient's abilities increase, the improvements are quantified,
reported, and then compared with the same data from other home health
care agencies.
To learn more about home health choices in your area, visit the Home Health
Compare website:
www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/. If you would like to learn more about Torrance Memorial Home Health, visit,
www.torrancememorial.org/Home_Health, or to arrange for home health care, call 310-784-3739.