BALTIMORE, June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In less than four months, 5,000 home health agencies have signed up to participate in the 2007 Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Campaign. This represents more than 60 percent of all Medicare-certified home health agencies in the country.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, the Home Health Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (HHQIOSC), launched the HHQI National Campaign at CMS headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland on January 11, 2007. Since the launch, CMS, national stakeholders and individual Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) have worked closely to implement an extensive educational campaign aimed at reducing avoidable acute care hospitalizations in the home health setting. The purpose of this unified effort is to assist patients with remaining in their homes when it is appropriate, increase patient satisfaction, improve quality, and reduce health care costs.

The Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign was founded by key home health stakeholders: National Association for Home Care and Hospice; American Association for Homecare; Visiting Nurse Association of America; American Telemedicine Association; Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association; Care Transitions Program, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; American Occupational Therapy Association; American Physical Therapy Association; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association; Gentiva Health Services; Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Center for Home Care Policy and Research, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its contractors, the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs); and The Remington Report.