Centra Home Health has been named to the Top 100 of the 2016 HomeCare Elite, a recognition of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States.

According to a press release from Centra Southside Community Hospital, winners are ranked by an analysis of publicly available performance measures in quality outcomes, best practice implementation, patient experience, quality improvement and consistency and financial performance.

“In order to be considered, an agency must be Medicare-certified and have data for at least one outcome in Home Health Compare,” officials say in the release. “Out of 9,406 agencies considered, 2,353 are recognized on the 2016 HomeCare Elite winners list overall.”

“The HomeCare Elite is based on our quality and it’s showing that we’re one of the top agencies in the nation for quality,” said Amber Hucks the clinical manager of Centra Home Health — Farmville.

“With Home Health, we do what’s called an Oasis,” she said. “And it’s basically a way for us to do a snapshot of how the patient is doing functionally when we take them in and when we discharge them. And they’re looking to see did the patient get better, did they get worse, did they stay the same.”

After adjusting risk to the scores, “that’s how they compare us to the other agencies is through those scores,” Hucks said.

She said the HomeCare Elite designation shows more of their patients got better and improved while receiving care “more than any of the other agencies.”

The accolade “reinforces, to me, that my group provides high-quality care to our patients (and) that we’re doing what’s best for the patients and giving them what they need and our scores are showing that,” Hucks said.

According to the release, for more than 10 years, HomeCare Elite has annually identified the top 25 percent of agencies and highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall.

“The ranking is developed by ABILITY Network, a leading information technology company helping providers and payers simplify the administrative and clinical complexities of healthcare; and sponsored by DecisionHealth, publisher of Home Health Line, The Complete Home Health ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Coding Manual and The Home Health Coding Center.”

“Improving quality of care and the patient experience continue to underpin a rapidly evolving healthcare environment,” said Christine Lang, a senior director of product management for ABILITY Network. “The 2016 HomeCare Elite winners have demonstrated the highest-quality care in their communities, which is a remarkable achievement. We congratulate Centra Home Health on being one of the top 100 home care agencies in the country.”

According to Hucks, Centra Home Health was also recently named an Home Health Care Consumer Assessment of Home Health Care Consumer Providers and Systems Honors (HHCAPS) recipient.

This designation, Hucks said, is based on patient satisfaction.

“Our patients have deemed us one of the top agencies. There were only four in the state of Virginia and two of those were Centra agencies. We were the only one in this agencies.”

Patients “enjoy our care,” Hucks said. “They like our care and they’re receiving the high-quality medical piece of it as well.”

Centra Home Health provides skilled nursing care, home health aides, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology and social work services.