Sweetwater Hospital Association's Home Health ranks second in the state and in the very top nationwide when it comes to home health care quality.

HealthInsight, a private, non-profit Medicare quality improvement organization dedicated to improving the health care systems, computed the rankings using publicly reported data downloaded from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Web site.

SHA's Home Health ranked second in Tennessee out of more than 130 home health services and in the 97th percentile out of the more than 9,000 home health organizations studied nationwide.
The agencies were judged on their performance in a dozen categories with special focus on the CMS's emphasis of reducing future hospitalizations of patients using home health services.

SHA's Home Health Director Karen Clark, RN, is proud of the staff and effort put forth to garner such a high ranking.
She is particularly proud of the organization's consistently high ranking in all 12 categories.
The rates were based on episodes of care from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008.
"We put a lot into this," she said. "When you are good in all 12 you are doing very well."

The areas of measurement include: percentage of patients who get better at walking or moving around, percentage of patients who get better at getting in and out of bed, percentage of patients whose bladder control improves, percentage of patients admitted to the hospital as well as other areas.

SHA's Home Health was established in 1983.
Twenty-five employees work hard to service an average of 80 to 100 home health patients a month in five counties (Monroe, McMinn, Meigs, Loudon and Roane), Clark said.
She said there are several keys to Sweetwater Home Health's success, including assessing the patient's needs right off the bat.

"When a patient calls, we actually make a home visit," Clark said.
The home health center has a nurse dedicated to overseeing the day-to-day services for patients providing consistent care, all under the leadership of Medical Director Dr. Thomas Evans, Clark said.
As more and more patients have shorter stays in hospitals, home health care is all the more important, Assistant Director of Nursing Jennifer Tackett, R.N., said.

According to Tackett, the average home health patient requires three weeks of care unless they need wound care that might require a longer need.
Sweetwater Hospital Association's Home Health provides skilled nursing, home health aide, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, medical social services and the services of a registered dietician.

This is not the first high ranking garnered by the local home health agency.
In 2006, the agency was ranked first in the state out of 135 home health providers for maintaining the lowest acute care hospitalization rate in the state.

For more information on Sweetwater Hospital's Home Health, call (865) 213-8508.

tommy.millsaps@advocateanddemocrat.com | 337-7101