Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care to Merge with Community Home Health

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/090211_visiting_nurse_hospice_care_to_merge_with_community_home_health/

By Greg Rogers for Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care

The two nonprofits will combine staff and resources in an effort to provide more comprehensive services

Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care announced Friday it will join forces with Community Home Health in an effort to provide more comprehensive, quality in-home health care to Santa Barbara residents, including those unable to pay.

The two nonprofit home health agencies will begin a gradual transition later this month, combining staff and resources to better serve the community. CHH will become part of VNHC’s existing home health department, which has cared for Santa Barbara residents for more than 100 years. Current patient care shall remain uninterrupted during the move.

“Each of our organizations has a unique relationship with the community, and together, we’ll be able to better serve patients who wish to receive care in their homes,” said Lynda Tanner, president and chief executive officer of VNHC. “Existing CHH patients will be able to continue seeing their current physicians and home-care staff, while new patients will have the benefit of receiving treatment from an expanded team of quality health-care professionals.”

With its newly enhanced home health department, VNHC will utilize the additional staff and resources to coordinate more comprehensive assessments, medical treatments, symptom control and medication management for both existing and new patients. Additional physical rehabilitation services will help patients restore functions that may have been impaired by illness or surgery.

“As we continue to face the challenges of rising medical costs and a complex health-care system, this alliance will enable us to better meet the needs of the community and an aging population,” said Chris Grant, executive director of CHH.

Community Home Health has been serving the community for the past 25 years and is the second-largest provider of home health services in Santa Barbara. CHH has had a very close affiliation with Sansum Clinic and has served the very high proportion of its managed care patients. This relationship will continue with the new alliance, as the same systems and relationships for providing continuity of care will remain intact.

After the transition, CHH will no longer be known as Community Home Health. Rather, VNHC’s name will survive because of its storied history and deep ties to the community. Their reorganized home health department will employ about 70 licensed nurses and home health professionals made up of individuals from both organizations.

— Greg Rogers is the communications officer for Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care.

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/090211_visiting_nurse_hospice_care_to_merge_with_community_home_health/