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Hillsboro, Illinois - On Wednesday, August 6, 2008,
Hillsboro Area Hospital (HAH) announced that it had discontinued providing home
health services through Heartland Home Care. VNA-TIP Homecare is now providing
the majority of home care services for former home care patients of HAH.
Rex Brown, Chief Executive Officer of HAH said, "The decision to
discontinue this service was a difficult one. While our patient-satisfaction
surveys in this area consistently ranked in the 99th percentile, it was not
financially feasible for us to continue home care operations." Brown shared
that Heartland had been heavily subsidized by the hospital for years and it was
no longer practical to continue the subsidy.
The changeover was
completed without interruption of services or lapse in care. The home care
therapy staff at HAH, TeamWork Rehab, will continue to provide physical and
occupational therapy services through a contract between HAH and VNA-TIP.
Remaining staff members were provided with an option to stay on with VNA-TIP.
"Options for continued employment for our home care staff was a key factor with
whom we chose to collaborate," said Brown.
The hospital's Board of
Directors and leadership team analyzed alternatives with a number of home care
providers in the area. "While patients continue to choose their care providers,
we wanted to ensure that access to this essential service remained in our
community, " said Brown.
VNA-TIP will be providing expanded private
duty services to the area and offer such vital care services as flu shots and
infusion therapy. They are the largest home health provider in Southern
Illinois and also serve St. Louis and the eastern Missouri area. The Visiting
Nurse Association of Illinois was founded in Centralia during the early 1970's.
TIP Home Health Services, which began in Cairo, also in the early 1970's,
became part of VNA- in 2001.
According to Nick Goodrich, VNA-TIP
Corporate Development Director, "We look forward to expanding the services
we're providing in Montgomery and surrounding counties. Hillsboro Area Hospital
has been wonderful to work with and is prepared to help us formally introduce
ourselves to the community. We also expect to add the strength and expertise of
a large organization to the personal touch provided in the past by the
hospital's home care staff."
VNA-TIP HomeCare is a Medicare-certified
provider of intermittent home nursing, therapy, social work, and aide services.
Their private duty services offer a wide variety of in-home care not covered by
Medicare, including homemaker/sitters, personal care, and shift nursing.
VNA-TIP is also Southern Illinois' largest provider of public flu shots.
To learn more about VNA-TIP HomeCare, visit www.vnatip.com. Hillsboro
Area Hospital is an independent not-for-profit hospital and not part of any
other healthcare organization. We provide emergency medicine care, essential
out-patient services including diagnostic imaging, laboratory and physical
therapy services, transitional (swing bed) care, in-patient skilled nursing
care and a variety of community health and wellness education programs. .
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