WCHC Named Top 500 of the 2018 ABILITY HomeCare Elite

Danbury, Connecticut - December 12, 2018 – Western Connecticut Home Care (WCHC) announced today that it has been named to the Top 500 of the 2018 HomeCare Elite, an exclusive recognition of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States. For 13 years, HomeCare Elite has annually identified the top 25 percent of agencies and highlighted the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall for providing excellent service in the home care setting. This is the fourth year WCHC has been recognized by ABILITY Homecare.

The ranking is developed by ABILITY® Network, a leading information technology company helping providers and payers simplify the administrative and clinical complexities of healthcare. It is sponsored by DecisionHealth, publisher of Home Health Line and the Complete Home Health ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Coding Manual.

“I would like to congratulate the team at Western Connecticut Health Network and thank them for their commitment to providing consistently high-quality care,” said Christine Lang, senior director for ABILITY Network. “During a time of increasing demands on home health professionals’ time and attention, these caregivers and leaders have demonstrated that they have prioritized their patients and created a solid foundation for serving their communities and partnering with other healthcare providers.”

WCHC credits strong leadership, highly-trained and compassionate staff and innovative patient-centered approaches always being the priority with the agency’s capability to achieve recognition as one of the HomeCare Elite. "We appreciate this important validation of our work. The team at WCHC is devoted to caring for their patients in the most pro-active way possible. This focus keeps our patients highly satisfied and living the most healthy and independent life avoiding the need for nursing facilities and hospitalization,” said Sharon Adams, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Executive for WCHN.

“Congratulations to the WCHC from all of the staff at DecisionHealth,” said Marci Geipe, product manager at DecisionHealth. “Your leadership and staff have placed a premium on the patient care your agency provides, as showcased by your quality outcome scores. The entire community benefits from the compassion that your staff shows toward your patients, leading to cost savings for the entire healthcare system.”

HomeCare Elite agencies are determined by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, best practices implementation, patient experience (HHCAHPS), quality improvement and consistency, and financial health. In order to be considered, an agency must be Medicare-certified and have data for at least three outcomes in Home Health Compare. Out of 8,898 agencies considered, 2,223 are recognized on the 2018 HomeCare Elite winners list overall. The entire list of 2018 HomeCare Elite agencies can be downloaded by visiting the ABILITY Network website at abilitynetwork.com/hce.

Catch up on the latest news at WCHN. Visit wchn.org/news today!

CONTACT
Amy Forni
Manager, Public Relations
203-739-7478
Amy.Forni@wchn.org

Andrea Rynn
Director, Public & Government Relations
203-739-7919
Andrea.Rynn@wchn.org

About Western Connecticut Health Network
Western Connecticut Health Network is the region’s premier, patient-centered healthcare organization serving residents of western Connecticut and adjacent New York. WCHN is anchored by three nationally recognized hospitals, Danbury Hospital, New Milford Hospital, and Norwalk Hospital. We have an integrated network of more than 1,300 employed and community physicians and specialists, 70 Western Connecticut Medical Group medical and sub-specialty practices across 16 communities, and Western Connecticut Home Care. Our nationally renowned Rudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research Institute is leading innovative research, especially for cancer and Lyme disease. Many of our advancements have been made possible by generous donors from our community and through the Danbury Hospital & New Milford Hospital Foundation and the Norwalk Hospital Foundation. As an academic institution, we are proud to shape the future of care through our partnership with the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. WCHN employs nearly 6,300 employees including about 1,900 clinical staff. For more information, visit wchn.org. Share your comments with us at Facebook.com/DanburyHospital, Facebook.com/NewMilfordHospital, and Facebook.com/NorwalkHospital.

About ABILITY® Network
ABILITY Network, an Inovalon Company (NASDAQ:INOV), is a leading cloud-based, SaaS information technology company helping providers and payers simplify the administrative and clinical complexities of healthcare through innovative applications and data analytics. The combination of myABILITY and the Inovalon ONE™ Platform creates a vertically integrated cloud-based platform empowering the achievement of real-time value-based care from payers, manufacturers and diagnostics, all the way to the patient’s point of care. For more information, visit www.abilitynetwork.com or write to resources@abilitynetwork.com. For more information about HomeCare Elite, call 888.572.4009, write to homecareelite@abilitynetwork.com or visit www.abilitynetwork.com/hce.

About H3.Group
In March 2017, Simplify Compliance LLC announced the merger of DecisionHealth, LLC with existing brands HCPro and HealthLeaders Media, to form the H3.Group! H3.Group, with its three pillars of thought leadership, expertise, and application, provides critical insight, analysis, tools and training to healthcare organizations nationwide empowering today’s healthcare professionals with solution-focused information and intelligence to guide their organizations’ efforts in achieving compliance, financial performance, leadership, and organizational excellence. The creation of the H3.Group comes as healthcare faces an unprecedented period of transition that brings uncertainty and opportunity. As policies and regulations are revisited and payment models changed, the need for clarity, actionable guidance and expert training for all provider settings and functional areas will increase dramatically.

About DecisionHealth
For over 30 years, DecisionHealth, an H3.Group brand, has served as the industry’s leading source for news, analysis and instructional guidance with brand names such as Home Health Line and Part B News. Our unique blend of award-winning on-staff journalists and unmatched access to health care executives, providers and their administrative staffs results in business management advice and operationally focused editorial that has captured the attention of nearly 100,000 home health care professionals and specialty physician practices.