UCSF Home Health Care Partners on National Project

UCSF Home Health Care has announced that it is partnering with Lumetra, Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) in California and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) Center for Home Care Policy and Research (CHCPR) in a demonstration project aimed at reducing the number of avoidable hospitalizations for home health patients. "Our agency is dedicated to improving the care that all our patients receive in their home. Keeping patients out of the hospital is our top priority," said Joan Spicer, PhD, RN, MBA, administrative director of UCSF Home Health Care, one of only 72 such agencies nationwide. The two-year demonstration project is designed to implement and disseminate evidence-based improvement strategies to reduce acute care hospitalization among home care patients. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), 28 percent of home care patients were admitted to the hospital in 2004. However, many agencies have much higher rates of rehospitalization. UCSF Home Health Care has deep roots in the community. Medicare-certified in 1966, it first started as an outpatient service of Mount Zion Hospital in the late 1950s. The agency now has offices on the first floor at 3333 Geary St. From this location, the agency provides skilled care to San Francisco patients and those living in all adjacent Bay Area counties within a 30-mile radius. Clinical staff provides nursing, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, home health aide, registered dietitian and medical social worker services. The goal is to help patients become as independent as possible and to deliver the highest quality of care that is sensitive to the patient's social, cultural and economic environment.