More About VNA

January 16, 2007

(SYRACUSE, NY) — The Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, Inc. has announced that it has been named to the 2006 HomeCare Elite, the inaugural compilation of the most successful home care providers in the country. This ground-breaking review names the Medicare-certified agencies whose performance measures in quality, improvement and financial performance are among the top 25% of providers nationwide.

“We applaud the success of all the providers named to the 2006 HomeCare Elite”, said Bill Bassett, Senior Director of Market Strategy at OCS, Inc. “Being noted as one of the top performers in the nation in this very competitive environment shows that the Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, Inc. is dedicated to quality and performance.”

Indi L. Shelby, President and CEO of the Visiting Nurse Association credits staff competence and dedication, management leadership and a strong commitment to meet the health care needs of the community with the company’s ability to rank as one of the HomeCare Elite. She said, "There is a great deal of pride associated with this honor and it’s a real testament to the hard work of everyone within our entire organization."

"As performance improvement, both clinical and financial, continues to be a critical metric for home care agencies, it’s wonderful that we now have an award that recognizes our industry’s highest achievers," said Tonya Nevin, Executive Publisher of DecisionHealth. "We congratulate the Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, Inc. on being one of the top 25% best performing home care agencies in the country."

The 2006 HomeCare Elite is the first performance recognition of its kind in the home health industry. The 2006 HomeCare Elite is brought to the industry by OCS, Inc., the leading provider of healthcare informatics and DecisionHealth, publisher of home care’s most respected independent newsletter Home Health Line. The data used for this analysis was complied from publicly available information. The entire list of the 2006 HomeCare Elite agencies can be viewed by visiting the OCS web site (www.ocsys.com).

About Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, Inc.

The Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, Inc. delivers nursing services, medical social work and rehabilitation services, including physical, occupational and speech therapy to patients throughout Onondaga County. The goal of this comprehensive and focused approach is to improve the quality of each patient’s life and help them safely achieve maximum independence. It can also reduce hospital stays and prevent or delay institutionalized care. Patients include seniors, new mothers and their newborns, children, disabled workers, and persons of any age who are chronically ill, recovering from acute illness, or post-surgical and in need of wound care.

The Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, Inc., is a not-for-profit agency and eldest of the two sister agencies that comprise VNA Systems, Inc. Their sister agency is Independent Health Care Services, Inc.

About OCS, Inc.

OCS is a healthcare information company with the nation’s largest and most comprehensive set of measures spanning clinical outcomes, financial performance, resource utilization, patient satisfaction and operational indicators for Home Care, Hospice, and Private Duty programs. The OCS suite of products and services provide healthcare organizations the insight to improve the quality of care for their patients while enhancing the effectiveness of their organization. Serving the needs of healthcare organizations, vendors and consultants, OCS provider clients consistently rank in the top one-third of all healthcare organizations in the country.

About DecisionHealth.

DecisionHealth™ serves the business and regulatory needs of health care practitioners, providers and their administrative staff nationwide. It’s flagship newsletters – Home Health Line, Part B News, Medicare Compliance Alert and Inside the Joint Commission -- are among the most recognized titles among business-to-business publishers. It offers more than 50 subscription-based independent newsletters, magazines, books, web sites and loose-leaf services that help readers make the best business decisions on issues affecting the business operations of Medicare and private-pay home health agencies; physician offices, including solo, group, specialty and faculty practices; hospitals, including inpatient, outpatient, quality assurance, facility management, MIS and compliance departments; durable medical equipment suppliers; clinical laboratories in physician offices, hospitals and independent settings; and ambulatory surgery centers.

Read Other VNA News