Registration for our Spring Conference at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, MA is now open. To learn more about the conference, visit the conference web page where you can download the registration form or register online.
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The Home Care Alliance is pleased to announce our partnership with CHAMP, an exciting new benefit for our members. CHAMP Collaboration for Homecare Advances in Management and Practice is a unique national initiative designed to advance home care excellence for older people. CHAMP’s web site www.champ-program.org is a one-stop resource for home care professionals and includes expert advice, downloadable practice tools, and online educational courses and activities all to be used for improving the quality of home-based patient care.
CHAMP currently offers two web-based courses for frontline home care managers: Geriatric Medication Management and Geriatric Pain Management. These courses are designed to give managers the skills and tools they need to help their clinical team improve the quality of care for older home care patients. Registration is now open for both courses scheduled to begin on April 26th. Home Care Alliance receive a $40 discount, bringing the total cost per course to $109.
To learn more about the courses and to register online, click here or contact Thomas Bow, CHAMP Liaison, at 212-609-5767 or thomas.bow@vnsny.org.
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There are too few opportunities to celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes who make such an incredible difference in the lives of their patients and clients. A Home Care STAR Award brings some well-deserved recognition for both the individual and the agency they work for. To nominate a colleague via printable form or electronically, visit or Home Care STAR Awards page on the Alliance’s website.
Award Categories include:
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This year we are inviting clients, families, physicians, and case managers to tell us about the home care stars who have touched your lives. Winners will be announced at the Alliance’s 2010 Annual Meeting on Wednesday, June 9, 2010, at the Sturbridge Host Hotel; nominations are due by April 16, 2010.
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Save the date! The our annual Spring Conference & Trade Show is scheduled for June 9-10 at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, MA. This is the Alliance’s largest annual event, attracting more than 200 home care leaders from around the state.
Companies interested in exhibiting or sponsoring the conference can learn about available opportunities by downloading the Call for Exhibitors & Sponsors, which is also available on the conference’s webpage. Likewise, anyone interested in speaking at the conference can download the Call for Presentations, also available on the conference’s page.
A provisional schedule of events will be available by the end of February.
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The Home Care Alliance has invited Boston-area fashion design students to create a home care/visiting nurse uniform.
The Alliance sent out this flier to various colleges that have degree programs in fashion design and entries into the contest will be on display at the Alliance’s annual Spring Conference.
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The Home Care Alliance is pleased to join the many agencies, organizations, and advocates across the state and country in celebrating National Home Care Month.
In working to raise awareness of the services provided to patients in their homes, the Alliance is also promoting the cost effectiveness of home health care, which helps people remain independent in their communities, and stepping up advocacy efforts.
You can help us raise awareness by using some of the materials provided below, including a press release and promotional posters provided by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.
~SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE~
[Agency] Celebrating National Home Care Month
Month-Long Campaign in Motion Across the Country to Raise Awareness of Home Care(Town), MA – [Agency] is joining home care and home health providers across the state and country this November to mark National Home Care Month and, with an intense focus on state and national health care reform, [Agency] is working to raising awareness of the services they provide as a cost effective solution to help improve care delivery.
“We are very proud of our work that enables patients to remain in the most comfortable and familiar setting: their own homes,” said [agency director]. “[Agency] is honored to help patients remain independent and close to their loved ones.”
Nationally, more than 11 million Americans receive home health care, according to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. In Massachusetts, more than 150 member agencies of the Home Care Alliance provide over 5 million home care visits each year to approximately 175,000 elderly, mentally ill and otherwise infirm Massachusetts residents.
Through technological advances, home-delivered health care has grown far beyond basic professional nursing and home care aide services. Today’s modern home care agency offers a wealth of services from nursing, physical, occupational, respiratory and speech therapies to counseling, dietary, telehealth (remote patient monitoring) and personal care services.
“So many emerging health care reform efforts play to our member agency strengths,” said Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts Executive Director Patricia Kelleher. “Efforts at reducing readmission rates to hospitals and new state programs aimed at managing chronic illnesses can look to us for help and support.”
The cost efficiency of home care was recently proven in a study by the national research firm Avalere Health (May 11, 2009). Their research found that home health use saves Medicare dollars by reducing hospitalizations and nursing home stays. Based on their findings, an estimated $30 billion could be saved nationally over the next ten years by expanding access to home health for chronic disease patients.
To find out more about home care and National Home Care month, visit www.thinkhomecare.org.
Posters:
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice also lists other ideas on how to celebrate National Home Care Month here.
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The state’s Department of Mental Health (DMH) Commissioner Barbara Leadholm will be holding a series of forums across Massachusetts over the next few weeks.
The series is titled “Sustaining the Vision of Recovery in Challenging Economic Times” and will focus on how DMH can continue to fulfill its mission and provide services to the mental health community given the fiscal circumstances. For more information, see the DMH announcement.
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Join us for the 2010 Northeast Home Health Leadership Summit, the premier gathering of home health agency leaders from throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic states.
The Summit is sponsored by the Northeast Home Health Leadership Collaborative, a consortium of state home care trade associations representing provider and associate members in the northeast.
This cutting-edge conference — now in its eighth year — is attended by home care executives seeking to take their operation to the next level. The Summit is unique from other leadership conferences in that it focuses on future trends in health care and management and brings thought leaders from the business and policy sectors. The Summit is also an excellent opportunity to network with peers.
Though the 2010 Summit is being held in Boston, the Home Care Association of New York will handle all registration. HCA of Massachusetts members will receive their member discount.
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The course is free, but space is very limited for an all-day training session on professional development for health care staff, presented by PHI.
See this flyer to view details on the course, including information on how to register.
Professional Development for Health Care Staff: Teaching the Adult Learner.
When: Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Where: Milford Care & Rehab Center, 10 Veterans Memorial Drive, Milford, MA
Time: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Content: Tools and Techniques for Educators in a Health Care setting
Audience: Anyone with a staff training role
Credit: 5.5 contact hours from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (All participants must attend full day in order to earn CEU’s)
Cost: Free
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We are planning another OASIS workshop in December for those of you that have been closed out of the October workshop. We will announce details soon.
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