Medicare Recognizes Mercy Home Health With Five-Star Rating

February 9, 2016

(DURANGO, COLO.)Mercy Home Health was recently recognized by Medicare as a five-star provider of home health care.The recognition was earned after Medicares evaluation of Home Health Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) patient experience survey data.

Its recognition that we provide quality carenot only in terms of excellent outcomes, but also in how we treat our patients, said Tina Gallegos, RN, director of Mercy Home Health, Hospice of Mercy and Palliative Care. It shows that the care we give is the best patient care possible.

Using HHCAHPS surveys as a national standard for collecting information on patient experiences, Medicare is able to provide valid comparisons among home health agencies across the nation. Mercy Home Health rated better than both the state and national averages in all areas of analysis, including professionalism of care; communication with patients; medication, pain, and home safety discussions; overall care; and likelihood to recommend services to friends and family.

Mercy Home Healths current Medicare quality of patient care rating, which is reported separately from the patient survey ratings, is 4.5 stars. The quality of patient care ratings are based on process of care and outcome measures from the 12-month period ending June 30, 2015. For more information on Medicare home health agency ratings, visit https://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare.

Last December, Mercy Home Health was recognized by National Research Corporation and DecisionHealth as a 2015 Top 100 HomeCare Elite agency, placing Mercy Home Health among the top four percent of home care agencies in the nation. Agencies are ranked based on publicly available performance measures in quality outcomes, best practices (process measure) implementation, patient experience, quality improvement and consistency, and other metrics. Mercy Home Health was one of only two agencies in Colorado to be recognized as a Top 100 agency. This was the fifth time since 2005 that Mercy Home Health was recognized as one of the nations Top 100 home care agencies.

Over the last 30 years, Mercy Home Health has provided high quality, compassionate home care services to more than 10,000 patients in southwest Colorado.

# # #

About Mercy Regional Medical Center
Mercy Regional Medical Center is an 82-bed acute care hospital in Durango, Colorado. As a non-profit hospital that is part of the Centura Health network, Mercy is committed to improving the health and wellness of the communities it serves in the Four Corners region. See the Mercy website for more information.

About Centura Health
Centura Health connects individuals, families and neighborhoods across Colorado, Utah and western Kansas with more than 6,000 physicians and 21,000 of the best hearts and minds in health care. Through our 17 hospitals, two senior living communities, health neighborhoods, physician practices and clinics, home care and hospice services, and Flight For Life Colorado, we are making the regions best health care accessible and affordable in every community we serve. We believe you can inspire the people you care about to live healthier lives by encouraging them to do the little things that can make a big difference. Were Centura Health, and were here for your health. For information on Centura Health or any of the facilities in our network, please visit the Centura Health website.

Media Contact
David Bruzzese
(970) 764-3910