Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care Named 2022 Hospice Honors Elite Recipient by HEALTHCAREfirst
JGS Lifecare, a not-for-profit healthcare system serving seniors and their families in western Massachusetts for over 110 years, is pleased to announce that Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care, one of its subsidiary organizations, has made the 2022 Hospice Honors Elite list. Hospice Honors is a prestigious annual national program from HEALTHCAREfirst that recognized hospices that continuously provide the highest level of quality care as measured from the caregiver’s point of view. HEALTHCAREfirst is a leading provider of billing and coding services, CAHPS surveys, and advanced analytics. It acknowledges the highest performing agencies by analyzing the performance of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) hospice survey satisfaction measures.
“Hospice Honors Elite recipients are industry leaders in providing quality care and constantly seeking ways to improve,” said Ronda Howard, Vice President Revenue Cycle and CAHPS at HEALTHCAREfirst. “Last year was especially challenging for healthcare which makes this accomplishment even more impressive. We are honored to be aligned with such high performing agencies like Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care and we congratulate them.”
Award criteria were based on Hospice CAHPS survey results for an evaluation period of October 2020 through September 2021. Award recipients were identified by evaluating performance on a set of 24 quality indicator measures. Performance scores were aggregated from all completed surveys and were compared on a question-by-question basis to a National Performance Score calculated from all hospices contained in the HEALTHCAREfirst’s Hospice CAHPS database. Hospice Honors recipients include those hospices scoring above the HEALTHCAREfirst National Performance Score on 20 of the 24 evaluated questions. HEALTHCAREfirst holds a special recognition, Hospice Honors Elite, to honor hospices scoring above the HEALTHCAREfirst National Performance Score on all 24 of the evaluated questions.
“This Hospice Honors Elite award is given to hospices that score above the HEALTHCAREfirst National Performance Score on 100% (all 24) of the evaluated questions! Spectrum Hospice accomplished this!” commented Madeline Presz, current Executive Director of Ruth’s House Assisted Living Residence and former Executive Director of Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care. “This award absolutely reflects the hard work, dedication and outstanding performance of the entire staff at Spectrum! What an honor this is to receive!” Presz credits the exceptional relationships that the Spectrum Hospice team is able to build with patients and families; being there with a patient and their family during their most vulnerable time providing support and compassion is the most important aspect of the hospice care. She continued, “I will be working with Diahann Wimmer, Spectrum Clinical Director, to plan a celebration for the team, at which time the framed certificate will be proudly displayed in the office!”
Please visit HEALTHCAREfirst’s website at www.healthcarefirst.com to learn more about HEALTHCAREfirst’s Hospice CAHPS survey program as well as the Hospice Honors awards.
About Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care
If recovering from an illness, injury or surgery, Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care provides a full range of professional rehabilitation and healthcare services to recover in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Spectrum coordinates medical care with community physicians, families and multiple service agencies, and provide a personalized care plan for every patient. When a cure is no longer the goal, Spectrum Hospice services allow patients with a life-limiting illness and their families to take a proactive step to ensure that needs and wishes are embraced, and that all the care possible will be given to manage symptoms and optimize quality of life. Spectrum provides care throughout Hampden County, and their team includes Spanish-speaking care providers. Patients can be accepted within one hour of new service requests, and are able to start services within 24 hours. For more information, call Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care at 413-567-4600 or visit JGSLifecare.org.
About JGS Lifecare
JGS Lifecare, founded in 1912, is a leading health care system serving seniors and their families. JGS Lifecare services include nursing home care (The Leavitt Family Jewish Home), rehabilitation services (Sosin Center for Rehabilitation), assisted living (Ruth’s House Assisted Living Residence), adult day health care (Wernick Adult Day Health Care), home health, hospice, and palliative care (Spectrum Home Health and Hospice Care) and independent living (Genesis Lifecare). For more information, call JGS Lifecare at 413-567-6211 or visit JGSLifecare.org.