National Geriatric Home Health Care Quality Program Offers New Tools and Discussion Forums Through an Expanded Web Site

June 30 expansion of CHAMP Program web site includes new online community features, best practices, resources, and tools 01 Jul 2009 New York, NY (PRWEB) July 1, 2009 – To improve the quality of home care services for older persons, the Center for Home Care Policy & Research is expanding its CHAMP Program web site ( http://www.champ-program.org) with new online community features, best practice information, and a redesigned look-and-feel to further its establishment of a national Community of Practice for geriatric home care excellence. The initiative is based on the nation’s first evidence-based recommendations specific to geriatric homecare – the Framework. CHAMP (Collaboration for Homecare Advances in Management and Practice) has been improving geriatric home care nationally for the past 3 years via educational programs in medication and pain management for frontline homecare nurse managers. Now, these efforts will be leveraged with the Framework recommendations into a “Community of Practice,” the first online national forum to motivate and support quality improvement efforts by home care organizations and other stakeholders. The Community of Practice includes new online social networking features such as discussion forums and blogs. The community forums will provide a central place for nurse managers, staff and home care senior leaders to discuss success stories, strategies, and experiences within the home care field of work. The community blogs will feature “Ask the Expert” columns, where site users can ask questions and receive periodic advice from experts across a variety of home care topics, such as medication management and improvement methods. The expanded web site will also include new best practice information, resources, and tools that are specific to geriatric home care and based on the Framework recommendations. Home health organizations, accrediting agencies, national and state professional associations, Quality Improvement Organizations, consumer groups, and other stakeholders in the delivery of home health services will be invited to participate. The CHAMP Program’s expansion has been made possible with generous support from the Atlantic Philanthropies and The John A. Hartford Foundation and builds on their previous funding to the Center to improve geriatric home care quality nationwide. The Center for Home Care Policy & Research conducts scientifically rigorous research to promote the delivery of high quality, cost-effective care in the home and community, and support informed decision making by policy makers, payers, managers, practitioners, and consumers of home and community-based services. The Center is part of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the largest nonprofit homecare agency in the U.S., ensuring the Center’s research is applicable to real-world homecare settings.