Hours of operation
As noted above in “Operating hours” section. After hours, on weekends and PeaceHealth-recognized holidays, a nurse is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Patient populations served
PeaceHealth Southwest Home Health provides short-term, intermittent skilled nursing and therapy services to patients in Clark and Cowlitz Counties who meet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Conditions of Participation. Home Health also provides additional services through Medical Social Workers and Home Health Aides when a patient is receiving skilled intervention. Home Health is a provider-driven service that focuses on developing an individualized plan of care to improve a patient's functional mobility, health status, and ability to manage their disease process, medications, etc.
Geographic area served
Clark and Cowlitz County; Skamania County on a case-by-case basis.
Services offered and skill mix of staff
- Skilled Nursing services provided by Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses:
- Physical Therapy in partnership with Physical Therapy Assistants
- Speech Language Pathology
- Medical Social Work
- Basic Life Support (BLS) certification is required for all clinical staff.
- Nurse triage is available via phone when outside of business hours.
Service limitations (service not provided, or offered at reduced capacity)
- Specialty Services: Maternity and behavioral health services are not offered
- Service Duration: none
- Service Frequency: none
Staffing
Home Health care is provided in a case management style, with an interdisciplinary team assigned to each patient. Patients receive visits at the frequency required by their condition and ordered by their provider.
Assessment and reassessment
- A registered nurse (or appropriate skilled professional) is required to conduct an initial assessment visit within 48 hours of referral, or within 48 hours of the patient's return home, or on the medical provider ordered start of care date.
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) develop the regulatory admission criteria for home health. These Conditions of Participation (CoPs) include the following:
- Patient must be homebound
- Patient must be safe for intermittent care from a skilled clinician including a registered nurse and/or therapist
- A face-to-face encounter with a medical provider is required, either 90 days prior or 30 days after the first day of HH service
- Medical provider must sign the HH Certification attesting to the patient's homebound status, approving the Plan of Care and attesting to the face-to-face encounter.
- Care must be provided by a Medicare-certified HH agency.
- All services provided under the Medicare home health benefit must be ordered by a medical provider.
Accreditation, certifications, and affiliations
Professional affiliations with:
- Homecare Association of Washington with board member representation
- National Alliance for Care at Home