Alyse Riffer, Northwest Signal
CHP Home Care & Hospice is celebrating a half century of providing home-based health care services in Northwest and West Central Ohio.
The nonprofit, 501c3 organization was incorporated in December of 1974 and served its first patient on March 1, 1975. Dr. E. E. White, a local physician, initiated the establishment of a home health care service because Van Wert County was one of five Ohio counties at the time that lacked these services.
Dr. White hired Donna Grimm, a registered nurse, and with the help of a $3,000 grant from the United Way of Van Wert County, Van Wert Area Visiting Nurses Association – later changed to Community Health Professionals (CHP) – was established.
History & Growth
The agency quickly grew and a branch office was opened in Paulding County in 1979. It also became the parent agency for Van Wert Women Infants and Children (WIC) a short time later.
In 1984, CHP became one of first hospice agencies in the state of Ohio. Offices were added in Celina and Delphos by 1993. CHP acquired Helping Hands Home Care in 1995 and expanded its service area to include Lima. The Angel Foundation was also established that year, which was the first program to provide wishes to terminally ill adults.
More branch offices in Archbold and Ada opened in 1997, and an adult day center (ADC) opened in Van Wert in 1998, providing monitored day programming for elderly and disabled adults. ADC centers were also established in Celina and Archbold shortly after. CHP also acquired an office in Defiance that year.
The organization became Passport-certified in 2001 and expanded its Medicaid nursing services. An inpatient hospice center in Defiance was opened in 2007, becoming the 12th such facility in Ohio, and it has since provided end-of-life services to around 4,700 patients. The CHP office in Bryan was established in 2013.
Staff longevity
Brent Tow, CHP President/CEO, has been with the organization for 23 years, and one of the things he attributes to the success of the organization is retaining staff.
“A lot of times in healthcare, you see a lot of turnover. I’m in my 23rd year as president/CEO. There’ve only been two president/CEOs over this entire 50 years,” he said.
He added the director of clinical services has been with CHP for 33 years, and the former vice president of finance spent 29 years with CHP. He said its common for a staff member to
have 10-plus years of experience with CHP.
Community-based
He added the staff is local and understands patients and needs in the community.
“All of our nursing staff is local, so we’re not owned by a third party. We’re not owned by a company,” he said. “We are all locally owned and governed by a board of directors that has one board representative from every county that we service.”
The community has played a big role in the organization’s success and ability to succeed, and the organization is very community-oriented. In one case, Tow explained a situation in which a tobacco cessation program was created for and named after a local veteran who wanted to quit smoking. “In our rural communities, everybody knows everybody, and I think word of mouth is really going to keep that growth and positivity of saying, ‘We had a good experience here,’” he said.
Challenges
Tow added one challenge for the organization comes down to the moment someone finds out a loved one will need hospice or home care. Tow said once that moment hits someone, they typically will agree with the fastest and easiest option. In order to keep up with referrals, this means the organization has to keep close ties with industry partners.
“We really work hard now in developing close relationships with the decision makers, case managers, hospitalists, discharge planners, and social workers…those types of people in the hospitals and other facilities,” he said. “It’s really important that we stay in good communication with them, work with them well and follow up to any concerns they have and keep communication lines wide open.”
Another challenge he highlighted was managed care companies.
“That is completely different from the type of traditional Medicare coverage that we used to deal with,” he said. “It’s becoming harder and harder for agencies like us to not refuse anybody based
on their ability to pay because with some payors, there’s vast differences between what one of these managed care companies could pay.”
Responding to future challenges
For continuing the organization’s growth into the future, Tow highlighted the need to keep up with retaining quality staff.
“I think our key for growth is efficiency and having good staff that we can really lean on to continue to do excellence in care and keep us moving forward as an agency by strong word-of-mouth and strong quality of the care that we do,” he said.
Additionally, Tow added CHP’s mission is to not only care for the patient but for the family, as well.
“There’s nothing worse than feeling that your loved one is suffering and you feel helpless that you can’t do anything about it,” he said. “It really, really benefits the family members, too, when our nurses can jump and run and get out to the homes in the middle of the night and resolve that issue, if it’s a pain issue, especially, and it brings comfort to the family, as well as to the patient, because every body’s under stress when you have a sick family member.”
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Photo: CHP held a 50th year celebration on June 27 at a Van Wert LIVE’s Feel Good Fridays! concert at Fountain Park. The Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce presented CHP president/CEO, Brent Tow, with a 50 year milestone award as several CHP staff members looked on during the staff appreciation event.