Kaiser Permanente Home Health Statement for NBC
Attribute to: Judy Coffey, senior vice president and area manager, Kaiser Permanente Marin-Sonoma
Providing high quality care and service for our members is our top priority. Because of patient privacy laws, we cannot
discuss individual cases. However, we can say that we take our members’ concerns extremely seriously and are
committed to working to resolve any issues that may arise. We understand that complex situations can develop and we
empathize with the impact this may have on patients and families.
Home Health is an important part of the comprehensive care offered by Kaiser Permanente. In Northern California, we
have nearly 700 home health care providers, including medical social workers, registered nurses, and physical and
speech therapists. Home health care is ordered by a physician for a homebound patient who needs intermittent skilled
care by licensed professionals after surgery or hospitalization, or to treat an illness or an injury. Covered benefits may
include skilled home health services including nurse visits, wound care, caregiver and patient education, and intravenous
therapy. Kaiser Permanente offers these services through our own home health care providers and, in a limited number
of locations, through contracts with high quality home health care providers in the community.
We do not discharge any patient without a plan for their follow up care, including any home health needs. In the rare
event that a patient’s care plan includes home health care but an appropriate home care nurse is not immediately
available, we work with the family and patient to adjust the plan. This may involve delaying discharge or providing more
education, training, resources, physician support, and other interventions to enable the patient to be safely and
competently cared for at home.
As the demand for home health care increases, the shortage of home health nurses, especially in certain specialties, is a
challenge affecting the entire health care community, not only Kaiser Permanente. At Kaiser Permanente we are
successfully recruiting home care nurses, but there is great demand and a limited pool to draw from. To make sure our
members’ needs are met, we continually assess the needs of our patients and increase the use of community providers
to supplement our own home health staff when needed.