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Home Health program earns five-star rating

| April 17, 2018 1:00 AM

Panhandle Health District’s Home Health program has received a five-star rating in the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Panhandle Home Health offers individualized clinical care in the comfort of a patient’s home after a surgery or hospital stay.

“Receiving the five-star rating is a huge achievement for us and shows how hard we have worked,” said Rousal Mahakam, Panhandle Health District Home Health program manager. “What makes our program unique is we serve all five northern counties and we accept all insurance. Ultimately, it’s our nurses, therapists and staff that made this possible and continue to keep our patients happy and well cared for.”

Panhandle Health is one of just two home health programs that has a five-star rating in the area and also has a lower rehospitalization rate than state and national averages.

According to CMS, the star ratings are an additional tool to assist consumers when they are faced with making the difficult decision in choosing a home health provider. The star ratings summarize the current measures of health care provider performance.

Across the country, most agencies receive three stars, meaning they deliver good quality of care. A star rating higher than three means a home health provider performed better than average compared to other home health providers.

Home health providers are rated on several measures including timely initiation of care, drug education, improvement in ambulation, improvement in bed transferring, improvement in bathing, improvement in pain interfering, improvement in shortness of breath and acute care hospitalization. These measures where rated from 679 cases that PHD Home Health managed between July 2016 and June 2017.

PHD is accepting patients for the Home Health program. To learn more, visit http://panhandlehealthdistrict.org/home-health or call Cindy Holman, nurse manager, at Panhandle Health District at 208-415-5160.