The Home Health Agency of West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital has received a Gold 2009 Louisiana Home Health Agency Quality Award presented by eQHealth Solutions (formerly Louisiana Health Care Review), the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Louisiana. The award was announced at the 2010 Louisiana Medicare Health Care Quality Summit & Awards hosted by eQHealth in Baton Rouge in April, 2010. With this award, the Home Health Agency of West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital is one of only fifteen Home Health Agencies in the state to receive a Gold 2009 Louisiana Home Health Agency Quality Award.

The Louisiana Home Health Quality Award is presented to home health agencies that have achieved defined levels of health care quality improvement by December 31, 2009. Louisiana Home Health Quality Awards were given for excellent performance and improvement in Acute Care Hospitalization (ACH) and/or other outcomes.

The criteria for the ACH awards are:

• Platinum – sustained or achieved an ACH rate of 23%
• Gold – achieved a relative improvement of 50% or greater
• Silver – achieved a relative improvement of 40 to 49%
• Bronze – achieved a relative improvement of 30 to 39%.

The criteria for an award (other than ACH) are:

• Platinum – had a relative improvement of 30% or greater in 8 or more outcomes
• Gold – had a relative improvement of 30% or greater in 6 to 7 outcomes
• Silver – had a relative improvement of 30% or greater in 5 outcomes
• Bronze – had a relative improvement of 30% or greater in 4 outcomes.

The topics measured for the awards have been designated as national care priorities by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Staff members from West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital's Home Health Agency have been working with quality improvement specialists from eQHealth Solutions to use proven, evidence-based practices to improve patient care.

""When we began these awards five years ago, we had several goals. The first was to recognize providers who had achieved measured improvements in patient care as determined by national standards,” said Gary Curtis, CEO of eQHealth Solutions. "Then, by publicizing these results, our second goal was to create an environment that encouraged others to strive for this same recognition.”

Curtis said that based on the increasing number of providers who are making these improvements, the ultimate goal of improved care is occurring. "One provider at a time, one patient encounter at a time, the quality of health care continues to improve throughout Louisiana,” he added.

For more information about Louisiana Home Health Quality Awards, please visit http://louisianaqio.eqhs.org or http://www.wcch.com.