Dallas-based Visiting Nurse Association will shutter its home health care services as a result of continued losses, the non-profit organization announced this week. As a result of increased costs, diminished reimbursement rates and a proliferation of for-profit home health care agencies in the area, VNA will shift its focus to its other service offerings including Meals on Wheels, hospice care and private duty care.
“This decision was not an easy one,” said VNA CEO Robert Carpenter. “The board of directors and I gave serious contemplation over the past two years to the changing home health care environment. We held on as long as we possibly could, hoping that industry conditions would become more compatible with the levels of service and quality to which our nonprofit agency has aspired for the past 78 years. This move will allow us to focus our resources on our signature program, Meals on Wheels, and to build our hospice and private duty service lines, both of which are truly needed in our community.”
VNA said it will transfer home care and long term care patients to other service providers and hopes many of its employees will shift employment with those clients.
“VNA has always gone where the community needed us most. We know that our patients will be well served by one of the
many organizations in our area,” said board chair Ted Enloe. “This change allows us to streamline our services and offer more charitable care to the aging and dying.“
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
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