[Headline] Home Health Program Earns Certification SVHs home health program, Adventist Health/Home Care Services of Simi

Valley Hospital, has recently received a three-year certification from the California Department of Public Health. The certification is essential to the departments ability to function since it enables SVH to receive reimbursement from Medicare and Medi-Cal for home health services. But the significance extends beyond the government-sponsored health programs, said Eileen Tondreau, Home Care Services director. Every other insurance company requires us to be Medicare-certified, too, she said, so without that certification, were out of business. [Subhead] Run Through the Wringer During the six-day survey at SVH, conducted earlier this month, a registered nurse trained by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reviewed home health patient charts for compliance with Medicare rules and regulations and accompanied home health employees on six in-home visits with patients. The surveyor was really thorough, Tondreau said. There was a new survey process this time, which made it even more rigorous than usual. She said that the surveyor lauded SVHs home care program for its interdisciplinary teamwork. When patients have multiple clinicians, those people get together and construct a care plan that is then submitted to the patients doctor, Tondreau said. The surveyor said she liked the cooperation and thoroughness that she saw in that process, and she said that the care plans did a great job of describing the patients needs accurately. This is fantastic work, considering this was home care's first survey now that they are live with an electronic medical record, said Ann Marie Svolos, director of Risk Management and Accreditation at SVH. Surveys with an electronic record can prove to be a challenge for both the organization, whose system is ever-evolving, and for surveyors who are more familiar with paper records and who have to adapt to a new electronic system at each facility they evaluate.