Memorial home care recognized

LUDINGTON – Memorial Medical Center Home Care, the home care agency of the Ludington hospital, has been recognized as among the top 10 percent in the nation in patient satisfaction. The agency provides approximately 10,000 annual patient visits to homes in Mason, Oceana, Manistee and Lake counties.

The local home care group received the “Five Star Excellence Award” from Professional Research Consultants, Inc., which conducts confidential patient satisfaction interviews with the patients of 2,000 home care organizations nationwide.

Patricia Olson

Memorial Medical Center Home Care scored in the top 10 percent of agencies across the U.S. who were rated “excellent” by their patients in the PRC surveys.

“This award shows our efforts to improve patient well-being must be working,” said MMC home care director Patty Olson, RN. “We’re rated ‘excellent’ by more than 95 percent of our patients. It’s a tremendous reflection on our nurses, rehabilitation specialists and other staff members who take excellent health care to people in their homes every day.

“The emphasis on ‘excellent’ scores for this award is very compatible with our philosophy,” Olson continued. “In our own internal analysis of patient satisfaction, we set our goals for only the ‘excellent’ and ‘very good’ responses, thinking that ‘good’ is not good enough.”

The home care agency is staffed primarily by 14 registered nurses, but also employs home health aides, a home care social worker with an MSW degree, and two clerical staff members. Memorial Medical Center’s rehabilitation services department also participates by dedicating physical therapists, PT assistants, and occupational therapists to work with home care patients. The staff travels about 5,500 miles per month to care for their patients.

“We know that people heal best at home, in their most comfortable environment, surrounded by loved ones and familiar things,” Olson said. “For many patients, it’s physically difficult for them to come to the hospital or doctor’s office.

“Our people deliver that in-home care with great compassion and technical skills, while dealing with weather, traffic, occasionally unpredictable animals, and people who are not only ill, but sometimes have inadequate heat and food. They are a remarkable group of caring people and richly deserve this recognition. It’s especially appropriate that it comes in November, National Home Care Month.”

Other recent awards

This is not the first time Memorial Medical Center’s home health agency has been recognized for its performance.

In 2007 they earned a spot on the HomeCare Elite list published by Success in Home Care magazine. That meant the group scored in the top 20 percent of home care organizations nationwide, based on clinical outcomes, patient improvement and other categories of data from Medicare records and other sources. Olson said the group is still in that elite category.

Last year MMC Home Care received the “Great Michigan Home Care Award” from AdvisorMed, the online report card/health care guide for consumers. This ranking among the best in Michigan was determined by national standardized data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, including quality measure results, and recent consumer reviews.