If you’re reading this, you probably already know and appreciate
Torrance Memorial Medical Center’s excellence as a hospital. But
the medical center provides top-notch services beyond its walls. Case
in point: its award-winning home care-providing agency.
Recently Torrance Memorial Home Health was granted Home Care Elite status—for
the fourth consecutive year—from Decision Health, which rewards
the top 25% of home health agencies in the country. Agencies are judged
on publicly reported Medicare data, including quality of care, patient
experience and financial performance.
Theresa Ferry, RN, BSN, MBA, CHCA, is executive director of Torrance Memorial
Home Health and Hospice and knows why the agency continues to win these
awards. “We work really hard,” she says, “and we’re
focused on a high bar for quality. It starts at the top, with our CEO
[Craig Leach]. Our quality metrics are high, and this hospital puts a
big emphasis on patient experience.”
Home Health provides nurses, speech therapists, rehab staff, social workers,
bathing aids and many more who make visits to patients’ homes to
perform wound care, physical therapy, infusions, assessments, help finding
caregivers and even advance directive planning. It’s a trend toward
helping seniors stay at home and in touch with those they love, and it
is surprisingly cost-effective.
“We started a program called ‘I Will,’ and what it means
is that all of our caregivers—before they walk through someone’s
front door—stop and say to themselves, “Today I will …”
Some days it will be: ‘I will treat this patient like they are my
mom.’ Other days it might be: ‘I will put everything but this
patient out of my head.’ And patients see it, feel it … that
dedication of our staff.”
Ferry had her own business and started with the group as a consultant.
But she soon joined the staff and has been executive director for 10 years.
“I just love it and am really proud. It’s a well-deserved
award.”
For more information on Torrance Memorial Home Health and Hospice, call 310-784-3751.