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VNSNY Leads Groundbreaking Initiative to Improve Geriatric Home Health Care

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 09:24 CDT

Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the largest not-for-profit home health care organization in the US, today announced a new initiative to develop a national framework for guiding geriatric home care practice. This innovative program, which is the first of its kind, is being launched by the VNSNY Center for Home Care Policy and Research and funded by a grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation. The effort, including matching funds from external organizations, totals more than $1.3 million.

"The goal of the project is to influence the future of geriatric home care by establishing a framework and making it available to accrediting and regulatory bodies, public and private purchasers and home care organizations. This is a critical step that will help to assess, guide and improve the delivery of home health services to older persons," said Dr. Corinne Rieder, Executive Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation.

While the majority of individuals receiving home health care services are over 65 years of age, currently there are no consistent national practice guidelines for the more than 20,000 home health care organizations in the United States who serve this population. This is a major oversight that must be addressed. As the population of people over 65 is expected to double by 2030, it is critical to provide consistent, high quality eldercare. All home care organizations, and more importantly their millions of patients, will benefit from the establishment and implementation of a geriatric home care model.

"Americans today can expect to live 30 years longer than their great grandparents," said Carol Raphael, Chief Executive Officer of VNSNY. "This fact alone will cause an enormous shift in the nature and demand for health care services overall and home health care services in particular. This grant allows us to create industry-wide geriatric care goals, to build consensus between key stakeholders and to raise national awareness about the importance of a framework for improving the quality and consistency of home care for older Americans."

The 16-month, multi-disciplinary program will establish a National Advisory Council including members who have board and staff experience with provider, professional, consumer, and government organizations such as the National Association for Home Care, the American Medical Association, AARP and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Under the guidance of the advisory council, the program will conduct regional meetings and focus groups in three major U.S. regions, and develop a publication plan for key outcomes from these meetings. The project will conclude in the spring of 2008 with a national conference to discuss, adapt, disseminate and implement the new national geriatric home care framework.

The program will be headed by Penny Feldman, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Evaluation and Director of the VNSNY Center for Home Care Policy and Research. Conference attendees will include nationally recognized leaders from nursing, medicine, social work, pharmacy and paraprofessional services, as well as from consumer- and family-advocacy organizations.

"For years, home care agencies and allied health caregivers, families and consumer groups have struggled independently to identify the best practices to promote, maintain and restore the health and independence of older persons who rely on home-based care," Feldman said. "Without such a project, high-quality, cost-effective, compassionate care for the aging home care population is at risk, as is the means for this population to preserve its health and independence. Through this generous grant, we hope to change this, and establish a gold standard model for geriatric care that may be adopted by home care agencies nationwide."

"Visiting Nurse Service of New York has long been recognized for its expertise in improving care for older patients served by home health agencies and we are proud to be associated with the John A. Hartford Foundation," added Raphael.

For more information about the VNSNY Center for Home Care Policy and Research, visit www.vnsny.org/research.

About Visiting Nurse Service of New York

VNSNY is the largest not-for-profit home health care organization in the nation employing more than 9,700 highly trained care providers--including over 3,335 licensed health care professionals. VNSNY was established in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald, the founder of public health nursing in the United States, and today is licensed by the New York State Department of Health and fully accredited by the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) of the National League for Nursing In 2006, VNSNY employees made 2,209,000 home visits to more than 118,000 patients throughout New York City and Nassau and Westchester counties. Through its various divisions, VNSNY provide a wide range of health services to people of all ages, including post-hospital care, rehabilitation therapy, maternity and pediatric care, geriatric care, social work services, mental health counseling, end-of-life care and managed long term care. VNSNY is also New York City's largest provider of City Meals On Wheels for the homebound and the city's largest provider of flu shot vaccines. For more information, please visit www.vnsny.org.

About the John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc.

Founded in 1929, the John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of training research and service system innovations that promote the health and independence of America's older adults. Through its grant making, the foundation seeks to strengthen the nation's capacity to provide effective, affordable care to this rapidly increasing older population by educating "aging prepared" health professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers) and developing innovations that improve and better integrate health and supportive services. The foundation was established by John A. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, who left the bulk of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in the 1950's. Additional information about the Foundation and its programs is available at www.jhartford.org.

Source: Business Wire

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