Hospice of the Valleys named as 2021 Hospice Honors Elite recipient

MURRIETA – Hospice of the Valleys has been named a 2021 Hospice Honors Elite recipient by HEALTHCAREfirst, a leading provider of billing and coding services, CAHPS surveys and advanced analytics. This annual review recognizes agencies that continuously provide the highest level of quality care as measured from the caregiver's point of view. It acknowledges the highest performing agencies by analyzing the performance of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems hospice survey satisfaction measures.

"Hospice Honors Elite recipients are industry leaders in providing quality care and constantly seeking ways to improve," Ronda Howard, vice president of revenue cycle and CAHPS at HEALTHCAREfirst, said. "We are honored to be aligned with such high performing agencies like Hospice of the Valleys and we congratulate them on their success."

Award criteria were based on Hospice CAHPS survey results for an evaluation period of October 2019 through September 2020. 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 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. 

"Though we were faced with the challenges of providing care during such unprecedented times due to the COVID pandemic, our dedicated and highly skilled team of front-line nurses, social workers, chaplains, home health aides and physicians did not lose focus of our mission to provide the best end of life care for our patients and families. Their overwhelming commitment to make sure they were there with our patients and families helped to ensure our community received the best end of life care possible. We are truly thankful and proud of the work our team has done during these challenging times," Leslee B. Cochrane, executive medical director of Hospice of the Valleys, said.

Marta Sarver-Martinez, director of nursing at Hospice of the Valleys, said. "This award represents the voice of our patients' loved ones and we are truly humbled to receive their recognition of our frontline worker's dedication and care."

Hospice of the Valleys is a 39-year-old nonprofit hospice organization headquartered in Murrieta. The mission is to foster reverence for life, relief of suffering and compassion in loss for the terminally ill patients in the communities we serve. Our service area includes Southwest Riverside County/Fallbrook and care is provided wherever our patients call home – a residence, board and care or other facility.

Hospice of the Valleys is also a community resource provider that offers free, public grief support groups, Alzheimer's support groups, educational workshops and more. They partner with the We Honor Veterans program. To learn more about Hospice of the Valleys visit http://www.HospiceoftheValleys.org or call 951-200-7800.

HEALTHCAREfirst enables home health and hospice providers to streamline and optimize their business through cloud-based software solutions and services. Thousands of agencies use HEALTHCAREfirst's CAHPS surveys, billing, coding and OASIS review, and advanced analytics services to streamline business efficiencies, simplify CMS compliance, expedite reimbursement and improve patient care. HEALTHCAREfirst is a wholly owned subsidiary of ResMed. Visit http://www.healthcarefirst.com to learn more about HEALTHCAREfirst's Hospice CAHPS survey program as well as the Hospice Honors awards.

Submitted by Hospice Of The Valley.