Houston Healthcare Partners With CareSouth for Home Health Care Services

Houston Healthcare and CareSouth Homecare Professionals are pleased to announce their partnership to deliver Home Health Care Services to Houston County and the communities we serve. This partnership will begin in May 2010 for the Houston Medical Center campus.

“Often times our patients leave the hospital and have limited resources at home for the extra care they need in order to fully recover,” states Grady W. (Skip) Philips, III, President and Chief Executive Officer for Houston Healthcare. “We are excited about our new relationship with CareSouth and are confident that our partnership with them can help to provide care for our patients just as we would while they are in our facilities. By partnering with CareSouth, we are continuing to deliver our mission of improving the healthcare of our community. This is also another step in improving access to care and coordination of care for our patients and their families.”

CareSouth Homecare Professionals provides home health care services in seven states throughout the country, offering various programs and specialized services including fall prevention, total hip and knee orthopedic rehabilitation, wound care management, pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease management. The CareSouth Homecare Professionals work closely with each patient’s physician to ensure they are following the orders as prescribed by the physician. CareSouth is also accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc.

“Home Care was one of the areas we saw as a need and potential option when we reorganized from a Hospital Authority to a private not-for-profit system last year. I am pleased Houston Healthcare will now have the ability to offer Home Care services to our patients and their families through our partnership with CareSouth,” says Sonny Watson, Chairman, Houston Healthcare System Board of Directors.

"Houston Healthcare and CareSouth Homecare Professionals share the same philosophy. We are both committed to providing the highest quality health care for our patients in the most cost effective manner,” says Rick Griffin, President and Chief Executive Officer for CareSouth Homecare Professionals. “In order for that to happen, it is critical that acute care providers such as Houston Medical Center and non-acute providers such as CareSouth work very closely together to optimize resources, and most importantly, optimize the care made available to the aging and chronically ill population. This innovative partnership, integrating home care into the health care continuum, is a direct result of that shared philosophy."

“CareSouth in partnership with Houston Healthcare will be closing the loop on follow-up care after discharge from the hospital. We see better coordinated home care as the next step in improving outcomes and care for our community. Home Care is an important part of care delivery especially for patients with chronic illness. We often are not aware of the after care patients receive at home. If they do not receive appropriate care at home, we frequently see them readmitted to the hospital for the same condition,” states Philips. "Providing care in the home is another step in meeting the needs of Every Patient, Every Time for the communities we serve.”