About the Center for Home Care Policy & Research and VNS Health

Center for Home Care Policy & Research

The mission of the Center for Home Care Policy & Research (“The Center”) is to conduct objective research that advances knowledge promoting the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care in the home and community, and supports informed decision making by policy makers, managers, practitioners, and consumers of home- and community-based services. Unique in the home care industry, the Center draws its strength from its ability to both synthesize and enhance the programmatic, clinical, technical and administrative resources of this rapidly evolving field. A broad network of collaborations with other health care researchers, schools of nursing and medicine, and practitioners across the U.S. is central to the Center’s work, ensuring its timeliness, applicability, and usefulness to the home care community. The Center focuses its activities in three main areas: 1) improving the quality, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes of home- and community-based services; 2) analyzing and informing public policies that affect home-based care; and 3) supporting communities that promote successful aging in place. In all areas, it emphasizes transforming “data into information for action.” The Center’s salaried staff of 20 includes: 8 PhD investigators trained in nursing, informatics, epidemiology, biostatistics, social psychology, sociology, and political science; a PhD candidate in clinical psychology; 9 master’s level trained researchers with expertise in statistics, biomedical engineering, public health, anthropology and project management; and several staff with expertise in the pre- and post-award administration of federally funded research grants. Additionally, the Center draws on a group of field interviewers trained by our staff in primary data collection methods including patient screening and recruitment, administration of structured and qualitative interviews, and data entry.

VNS Health

VNS Health (formerly the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY)) was established in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald, the founder of public health nursing in the United States, to provide nursing care and health education to new immigrants. Today, VNS Health is the largest not-for-profit home- and community-based service provider in the U.S. and a leader in the national arena of home health care. The organization is dedicated to providing quality home and community services to people of all ages and of all social backgrounds and economic means. It also works closely and tirelessly with national home care associations and other national groups to develop and disseminate best practices for home and community-based care. VNS Health's mission is to:

• Promote the health and well-being of patients and families by providing high-quality, cost-effective health care in the home and community
• Be a leader in the development of innovative services that enable people to function as independently as possible in their community
• Help shape health care policies that support beneficial home- and community-based services
• Continue its tradition of charitable and compassionate care