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11/16/2005 - National Benchmarking Firm Identifies Alacare as OCS Vision Award Winner
F OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Richard Nieves or Nancy Kucik
Alacare Home Health & Hospice
4752 Highway 280 East
Birmingham, AL 35242
Phone: 205.981.8000 or 800.852.4724
Fax : 205.981.8743
Richard.Nieves@alacare.com
National Benchmarking Firm Identifies Alacare as OCS Vision Award WinnerBirmingham, Alabama—Alacare Home Health & Hospice today announced that National Benchmarking firm Outcome Concept Systems, Inc. (OCS) selected their agency as the winner of the 2005 Vision Award for Operational Achievement.
“Despite the fact that we already exceeded national benchmark criteria, we were able to identify operational aspects that could be even better,” says Mark Cook, RN, BSN, MBA, Alacare’s Chief Operating Officer/Chief Clinical Officer. “Once we pinpointed the specific areas where opportunities for improvement existed, we addressed them accordingly.” In achieving this award-winning goal, Alacare not only further improved its ability to serve its patients, but also had substantial cost savings.
“Choosing only one winner in each category is always difficult, and after five years, it has become far more challenging” said Amanda Twiss, OCS President. “The quality of this year’s entries, representing hundreds of agencies, shows how creative our clients are in developing new ways of leveraging the power of information to achieve success. In the end, it is all about improving overall patient care and we are pleased to recognize the 2005 Vision Award winners as the cream of an outstanding crop. ”
About Alacare
Alacare Home Health & Hospice is Alabama's oldest and largest privately owned, Medicare-certified home health agency. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alacare is dedicated to providing patients the highest level of skilled nursing, rehabilitative, palliative and hospice care available in the most efficient environment—the patient's own home. Since 1970, Alacare has provided patients with quality home healthcare.
Medicare’s new Home Health Care data reflect that Alacare’s overall patient-care outcomes in 11 essential areas are among the best when compared to both National and Alabama averages. Interested persons can obtain these data online at http://cms.hhs.gov/quality/hhqi/ or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.
Services provided include: diabetes education, enterostomal therapy, homecare aides, home medical equipment, hospice/palliative care, infusion therapy, medical nutrition therapy, medical social services, mental health nursing, occupational therapy, pain management, physical therapy, skilled nursing, and speech language pathology.
Alacare’s service area now includes the following counties: Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coffee, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Cullman, Dale, Dallas, DeKalb, Elmore, Etowah, Fayette, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Marengo, Marion, Marshall, Montgomery, Morgan, Monroe, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, St. Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Wilcox, and Winston.
For more information, visit the Company's corporate Web site: www.alacare.com.
About Outcome Concept Systems
Founded by a pioneer in the area of home care outcomes, OCS has provided organizations with performance improvement solutions since 1992. With over 1,500 clients spanning all 50 states, OCS maintains the nation’s largest proprietary home care benchmark database comprised of patient-level data across all business components: clinical, financial, operational, visit utilization and patient satisfaction. OCS uses this information to provide the home health, hospice and private duty markets with relevant research and industry education, as well as business intelligence products and services. Endorsed by trade associations throughout the country and recommended by major MIS vendors, OCS is the premier quality management vendor for post acute care. For more information, access OCS’ web site at www.ocsys.com or call 206.325.3396.
