Circle of Friends Home Care has selected "Fall Prevention" to decrease use of emergent care as its focus for improvement in the Home Health Quality Initiative (HHQI) a new federal program to improve the quality of care for Medicare patients using home health care services.

"Each year, about 1/3 of individuals 65 years of age and older will fall, and some will be permanently disabled by broken bones and injuries that can result. It is the goal of our agency to prevent these falls if at all possible,” said Amanda Schroeder, RN, BSN, Nurse Administrator.

A home health agency offers health and personal care to patients at home, and in many cases, teaches them to care for themselves. Improving the quality of home health care is important because it helps patients maintain or increase independence.

"We have chosen this measure because we believe it will provide the greatest improvement in our patients' quality of life," said Sherry McDonald, RN, agency owner. "We always strive to provide better care and look forward to this opportunity to learn new techniques and share information with other agencies."

"Patients prefer to live at home and home health agencies provide services that make this possible," Schroeder said.