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Business Review of VNA-TIP Homecare
Home healthcare and hospice providers pride themselves on their ability to provide the best quality care to the most needy patients. The mission of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA) is "to support, promote and advance nonprofit providers of homecare, community health and hospice to ensure quality care for their communities" (2010). This mission is the goal of hundreds of home healthcare providers around the country. Hospice is a service that supplies an even greater need. This service is provided, through Medicare funding, to individuals who are terminal and have a doctor estimated less than six months to live. Both of these services are primarily the purview of non-profit groups funded by donation and government grants. There are very few such companies which operate on a for-profit basis.
One of those companies is the subject of this review. It is important to note that one of the guiding principles of the VNAA is that they "support…nonprofit providers." This seems like a good business model because nonprofit companies are seen by many as more compassionate since they do not wish to take a profit from the individuals they serve. However, as will be seen by the profit-seeking model of VNA-TIP, nonprofits are not the only organization types which can provide quality healthcare and hospice services. In actuality, the profit model may be the best possible alternative for small healthcare organizations which are seeing donations decline rapidly.
General Business
Sales
Exact sales figures for this business are not available because it is a privately held. The website did not offer any information other than that the company is in a "100% debt free position. With such unusual leverage, the company has the extraordinary capacity to acquire an eight (8) figure acquisition opportunity or pursue a sizable merger opportunity" (VNA-TIP). This means that the company is relatively secure in its position, whereas comparable companies that operate with part of their capital coming from donations or grants, may have taken a financial hit in the last few years. VNA-TIP is able to operate completely free from the influence of both outside investors and influence from charitable givers. Also, this communication tells the potential client that VNA-TIP has such a secure business model that when acquires another...
This not only adds to the profitability of the company, but it increases the quality options that they can offer their clients.
Markets
The company began operations in southern Illinois and has since expanded to eastern Missouri. The company is a visiting nurses association which means that it is a healthcare organization that "provides care for all individuals regardless of complexity of illness or ability to pay" (VNAA). The company also provides hospice services. Both of these services will be further detailed below.
Trends
This is a company that has been growing since it entered the healthcare market in 1917. Recently it has acquired several smaller companies which have made the company the largest in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, and these acquisitions have expanded its base of services. Acquired VNA of Illinois in 1999 and TIP healthcare of southern Illinois in 2001. In 2005 the company acquired a vaccination business that also offers phlebotomy. VNA-TIP has over 30 branches, that offer a variety of services, and they service 58 MO and IL counties.
Products/Services
VNA-TIP lists all of the services that they provide in their website, and they explain what each of the services entails. The hospice services that the company provides include "on-call RNs, in-services offered by the hospice director, chaplains available, social workers and volunteers to visit families" (VNA-TIP). The company also is a primary provider of private pay services. In general, this means that the company accepts private healthcare insurance payments, group healthcare payments or personal funds for certain services. The services offered are: Premier Care -- in home care and on-call assistance; Private Duty -- "a combination of supportive services, personal care assistance, and healthcare" (VNA-TIP); Private Care -- "bridges the gap between independent living and institutional care" (VNA-TIP); Personal Care -- certified nurses' aides will provide personal care; Skilled Nursing; and, Rehab Services -- physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Another service choice that VNA-TIP offers is that of IV infusion. These are services that are generally conducted in a clinic by trained nurses and physicians. However the company does offer home visits for some of the…
Works Cited
BBB. Better Business Review of VNA TIP Home Care. Better Business Bureau, 2010. Web.
St. Louis Business Journal. "TIP Healthcare buys Doctor's Preferred's Vaccination Business." St. Louis Business Journal, 2005, 12 April. Web.
VNA-TIP. "About Us." VNA-TIP, 2010. Web.
VNAA. "About the VNAA." Visiting Nurse Associations of America. Web.
Hospice Care and Catholic Ethics Is Hospice care consistent with Catholic bioethics? Chapple, in her discussion of the topic "Hospice care" in Catholic health care ethics, argues that ultimately the answer is yes, but she acknowledges that there are levels of difficulty in answering the question (Chapple 2009). The ethics of Hospice care present us with a complicated question, insofar as Catholic teachings on end-of-life care have at times provoked public
In fact it is federally mandated that hospices must give the patient every option available to them in order to efficiently manage pain, "the federal guidelines regulating hospice require the hospice to make every reasonable effort to assure that the patient's pain is controlled," (Hospice Patient's Alliance, 2008). Hospice services are sophisticated and rely on a number of professionals to help comfort and ease the pain of patients who have
Who provides the care is dependent upon the patient and the type of care their illness requires. Also, some families are more active in taking care of end of life patients than other families. Indeed, hospice care providers have a significant number of responsibilities as it relates to taking care of the patient. The type of illness that the patient has can increase or decrease the number of responsibilities of
However, they are often emotionally isolated and are unable to determine whether or not they are loved by their family members or whether they will be missed after passing on. This often happens because the family members are not directly involved in providing hospice care to their patients. Hospice care can be a great way of strengthening the connection between the terminally ill patient and their loved ones and
Hospice and Attitudes Towards Death Attitudes towards dying, death, and bereavement are very dependent upon culture. Some cultures embrace death as a natural part of the life cycle and do not attach fear to death. Other cultures are very fearful of the topic of death and treat it like a taboo. "In many preliterate societies, the dead are imbued with special powers and considered potentially harmful to the living. Many customs
Children believed that death is more like sleep and the dead may or may not return. Children between five and nine years of age belonged to the second group. Maria observed that children belonging to the second group perceived death as an irreversible phenomenon but still thought of it as an avoidable one. Death for these children represented a certain shadowy or skeletal figure who could possibly be evaded