“The 2010 HomeCare Elite winners continue to demonstrate a commitment to providing their patients with the best possible care while performing at the highest level,” said Amanda Twiss, CEO of OCS HomeCare. “We congratulate Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services in being one of the top home care agencies in the country. In addition, we salute all forward-thinking providers who are already working on measuring and improving their performance using OASIS-C outcomes and process measures and HH-CAHPS results. This important data will also be used in identifying the HomeCare Elite in the future.”

Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services, Mary “Toddie” Grezaffi-RN, BSN, Administrator, credits an experienced and devoted staff with the company’s ability to rank as one of the HomeCare Elite. She said, “Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services has been blessed to serve the citizens of Pointe Coupee Parish and surrounding areas for 27 years. We take our mission seriously to offer the best care possible to all of our patients,” Grezaffi continues, “We are committed to providing care that is evidenced based and follows the best practices in the home care industry.”

“On the fifth anniversary of HomeCare Elite, DecisionHealth would like to congratulate all of the winners who have achieved excellent clinical and financial outcomes, especially during times of such drastic regulatory changes,” added Marci Heydt, executive editor of DecisionHealth’s Home Health Line.

The 2010 HomeCare Elite is the only performance recognition of its kind in the home health industry. The 2010 HomeCare Elite is brought to the industry by OCS HomeCare, the leading provider of homecare information, and DecisionHealth, publisher of homecare’s most respected independent newsletter Home Health Line. The data used for this analysis were compiled from publicly available information. The entire list of the 2010 HomeCare Elite agencies can be viewed by visiting the OCS HomeCare website at www.ocshomecare.com.

“Thanks to overwhelming region-wide support, we are thrilled to offer this record level of grant funded programs to women and men in our local area,” Lucie Agosta, PhD, RNC and President of the Komen Baton Rouge Affiliate Board of Directors. “Our mission is to end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all, and energizing sciences to find the cure,” she added.

Donations from the 15^th Anniversary Komen Baton Rouge Race for the Cure^®, Bowl for the Cure^®, and from individual and business donors across the area made this record mission funding possible.  Contributions from the 2011 Race alone totaled $552,000.

In addition to funding local breast cancer programs, the Affiliate will also contribute more than $125,000 this year to the Komen National Research Grant Program.

The programs receiving Affiliate funding will conduct breast cancer education, screening, mammography and treatment in the 10-parish Greater Baton Rouge area, including Ascension, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston Parish, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, and Tangipahoa Parishes.

The Affiliate’s fiscal year 2012 (April 1, 2011 – March 31, 2012) grant slate is as follows:

American Cancer Society                                   – Resource Network

Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge            – Exercise Program for Survivor
- Health Care Navigation
- Financial Assistance

Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center                        – Comprehensive Early Detection – Mobile Screening
North Oaks Health System                                 – Screening for Women in Tangipahoa & St. Helena parishes
Ochsner Health Systems                                    – Hope Check Breast Cancer Support Group

POINTE COUPEE HOMEBOUND

HEALTH & HOSPICE                                           -Awareness, Screening, Mammography

River Region Cancer Screening Center                – Education, Screening, Mammography

Woman’s Hospital                                                     – Digital Mobile Mammography

YWCA Greater BR ENCOREplus                        – Breast Health Empowerment

“We are especially happy to offer the Greater Baton Rouge area this host of breast cancer services.  Grant applications were carefully reviewed and receipients ranked to be sure we are funding the best and most effective programs available in our region,” said outgoing Grants Chair Barbara Scwartzenburg, a survivor who has worked with the Affiliate’s grant program for six years.

Over the years, the Affiliate’s grant programs have funded tens of thousands of education sessions, and provided thousands of clinical screenings, mammograms, treatment support, and financial assistance for underserved local women.  Additionally, the grants provided exercise and support groups for breast cancer survivors.

The Komen Baton Rouge Affiliate’s grant program is a part of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s national breast cancer support efforts.  In 2010 alone, because of the Organization’s global outreach program, the following services were made available to breast cancer survivors and underserved women in particular:

2.2 million            Breast cancer education/awareness information provided

295,000            Clinic breast exams performed

351,000            Mammograms performed

48,000            Psychosocial services provided

40,000            Financial aid services provided

In addition, the Organization funded more than $610 million in the organization’s 30-year history, including several Nobel Prize winning discoveries.  Today, these research efforts are focused on preventing breast cancer, understanding why breast cancer spreads within the body, understand why some people (such as African American women) have higher rates of breast cancer, refining treatment options, and more.

Since 1990, there has been a 31% decline in breast cancer mortality with 2.5 million survivors in the United States alone; yet, 40,000 women and 1900 men will die of breast cancer annually in the United States.  Louisiana is in the top two ranking for breast cancer deaths with more African American women diagnosed with late state breast cancer than women of other ethnicies.
About Susan G. Komen for the Cure^® and the Komen Baton Rouge Affiliate

Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. The Baton Rouge Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in the local community joining more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors and activists around the globe as part of the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting breast cancer. Through events like the Komen Baton Rouge Race for the Cure®, the Baton Rouge Affiliate has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in community breast health programs in our ten-parish service area.  Up to 75 percent of net proceeds generated by the Affiliate stay in the Greater Baton Rouge area. The remaining income goes to the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure Grants Program to fund research. For more information, call (225) 615-8740 or visit www.komenbatonrouge.org

The goal of the Louisiana Breast Cancer Task Force is to eradicate breast cancer through a grassroots activist’s stance.  The organization is located in Metairie, Louisiana and may be contacted at (504) 454-0066. Their website is www.louisianabreastcancer.org.

In the 2009 Koman Report, “Baton Rouge Affiliate Breast Cancer Incidence”, Pointe Coupee Parish had the highest incidence of cancer in a ten parish area.  According to Jeanne LeJeune, Foundation Director, “This grant provides free mammograms to women who otherwise would not receive this vital screening and promotes breast cancer awareness and prevention in our community.”  The radiology department at the Pointe Coupee General Hospital will be performing the mammograms. “Our department is looking forward to working again with the foundation to provide mammograms to women in need,” stated Tess Jarreau, Director of Radiology at Pointe Coupee General Hospital.

Please contact the offices of Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services and Pointe Coupee Hospice at (225) 638-5717 to find out more about scheduling a free mammogram for yourself or a loved one.   Remember, “Early Detection is the Best Prevention”.

Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services and Pointe Coupee Hospice both have many years of experience in the wide spectrum of home health and hospice services.  We have worked with both local physicians as well as physicians in Baton Rouge, Alexandria, Lafayette, even as far as New Orleans and other larger towns and cities.

If you have questions or need information on how to contact Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services or Pointe Coupee Hospice to provide the services ordered by your physician call us at (225) 638-5717 or email homebound@eatel.net. We can be found on the internet at www.pchhh.org.

Chloe Roy, a Catholic of Pointe Coupee senior, is a difference maker at her high school.  As a senior year service project Chloe chose to promote breast cancer awareness, raise money to provide free mammograms to those in need in her community and present information to her fellow senior female students about the importance of prevention and early detection of breast cancer.  In celebration of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is held every year in October,   the elementary students, high students and faculty of Catholic of Pointe Coupee were able to wear pink for a donation.  Chloe was able to raise over $700 and presented this donation to Pointe Coupee Homebound Health Services and Pointe Coupee Hospice to be placed in a fund to provide free mammograms to women in need.  Currently PC Homebound Health Services and PC Hospice receives a grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to provide 100 free mammograms to those in need.  The quota had already been met for the year but thanks to Chloe and the students and faculty of CESPC and CHSPC more mammograms are available.  PC Homebound Health Services and PC Hospice would like to congratulate Chloe for a job well done.

Pictured here left to right: Fonda McKneely, RN Liaison PC Homebound Health and PC Hospice; Mary “Toddie” Grezaffi, Administrator PC Homebound Health and PC Hospice; Jeanne LeJeune, PC Health Services Foundation Advisory Board Member; JC LaCombe, Jr, Jeremy LaCombe and Jessica LaCombe

On Monday, August 23, 2010 the family of Janell LaCombe presented a donation in the amount of $26,000 to the Janell LaCombe Cancer Fund. For the past 10 years this family and many friends have gotten together on the first Saturday of August in memory of their loved one, Janell Legier LeCombe, with one goal in mind– to raise money to support the cancer patients of Pointe Coupee Parish.   This amount was raised from a full day of co-ed softball, an exciting live auction, raffle, 5K walk/run, poker run and lots of great food.

Pointe Coupee Hospice Volunteers, Jane Jarreau and Blanche Jewell,  take time to re-fill a bird feeder outside a Pointe Coupee Hospice patient’s window at one of the  local nursing homes. This is just one of the many projects that the Pointe Coupee Hospice Volunteers do  for the hospice patients. If anyone is interested in donating items for this project or if you would like to become a Pointe Coupee Hospice volunteer please call (225) 638-5717 or email fmckneelypchh@yahoo.com.