Visiting Nurse Services of Connecticut
Bringing HEART to Home Care and Hospice
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Medically Underserved Program (MUP)
The MUP at VNS reaches out to the poor and elderly who are among the most vulnerable and dependent members of our community and provides a comprehensive array of the highest quality home medical services to responsibly and effectively address their medical and care-related needs. These services, provided by credentialed and trained staff, include skilled nursing, physical and speech therapy, occupational therapy, and medical social work assistance. Our services and programs address acute and chronic care patients and we serve the needs of the terminally ill with end of life palliative and hospice care. Annually, VNS provides $4 million in community subsidized care for 1,800 patients though our medically underserved program.
Medical Social Work
To ensure patients achieve their optimal health outcomes, VNS' services include medical social workers who assess and work to mitigate non-medical barriers or constraints which may impact recovery and patient care. In many instance the VNS medical social worker will work with the patient and the caregivers to access available community resources. As many of our patients are among the most vulnerable cohorts (financially in-need, elderly, often living by themselves with weak family supports and with prior experience of healthcare disparities, the intervention of a licensed medical social worker can make a significant difference. Home visits by medical social workers are generally an unreasonable expense incurred by VNS supported by our community fundraising.
Compassionate Hospice Services
As needed, VNS provides compassionate home based palliative and hospice care for uninsured financially in-need patients. These services are supported by community fundraising efforts.
Telehealth
Home-based telemonitoring has demonstrable impacts improving individual and community health outcomes with lower overall community health costs. VNS' Bridgeport Telehealth Collaborative provides patients who would not otherwise have access to services with clinically managed telemonitoring and supportive home visits. VNS is committed to expanding telemonitoring services which support patient independence and lower the incidence of acute or institutionalized care. We would welcome collaborative opportunities in the communities we serve and community funding to support expansion.
Where we work
Accreditations
Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP) - www.chapinc.org
External reviews

Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Visiting Nurse Services of Connecticut (VNS) is a not-for-profit provider of home healthcare services. We provide a comprehensive range of services to meet patient needs including: skilled nursing; occupational, physical and speech therapy; palliative and hospice care; and home health aides. In addition, our clinical staff includes advanced credentialed nurses with specialized training to address complex patient needs.
Our organization objectives include: to assist patients in attaining their optimal health outcomes; to provide dignified and compassionate care for the terminally ill; and to provide access to vital home healthcare services for uninsured and underinsured patients who may not have other accessible care options.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We endeavor to meet our patient-centric philosophy of care by recruiting and appropriately training qualified staff; adopting and implementing best-practice care delivery protocols; and by providing care-delivery staff with the resources and technology capabilities to deliver best practice care. We have a strong clinical management team to ensure adherence and compliance to evidence-supported care protocols. We have a strong commitment to quality reviews and process improvement and continuously assess our outcomes to identify improvement opportunities. We assess our documented patient outcomes against national, regional and peer-group benchmarks to identify any significant variances.
We have a robust and inclusive referral network to ensure all residents, particularly the underinsured and uninsured, have access to quality home healthcare services during their time of need.
We maintain voluntary accreditation through the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) to ensure that our performance outcomes and processes meet and exceed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) quality standards.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
VNS has an experienced and trained staff of 450 committed employees capable of providing quality health and supportive care to a diverse patient census. We operate 24 hours a day / seven days a week and have multiple languages. Our patient outcomes and care delivery is assessed for adherence and compliance with adopted best patient protocols by an experienced clinical management staff. In June 2013, VNS transitioned to electronic health records (EHR) and equipped our nursing and therapy staff with portable tablets providing real-time access to clinical decision-support systems and connectivity to clinical supervision and other members of the patient's health team while they are with the patient in the patient's home.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Based on internal and external assessments of patient outcomes, we believe we are meeting agency objectives in delivering quality comprehensive care to the residents of the 54 communities we serve.
Along with other healthcare providers in the network, we are reviewing all of our processes to ensure we are doing all that is possible to meet the triple aim of healthcare reform: improved outcomes, increased patient satisfaction and cost-reduction in the delivery of care.
While there are a variety of indicators of patient outcomes, we continue to work with hospitals and emerging managed care organizations to reduce the incidence of hospitalization among our patient census. VNS is implementing an Integrated Chronic Care Management (ICCM) protocol for chronically ill patients which to date is showing reductions in the incidence of rehospitalization for at risk patients. We also anticipate that our new point of care integrated technology and software capabilities will improve patient adherence to their recovery plan and result in improved patient outcomes. We are also planning to expand our use of telemonitoring services for chronically ill patients. Telemonitoring provides early detection of conditions requiring intervention and supports the patient's ability to maintain independence at home.
We can also report that VNS is providing access to quality home healthcare services for underinsured and uninsured residents in our service area. In the year ending June 2017, VNS provided $3.4 million in unreimbursed care for 1,902 patients; this included uninsured patients in need of care, patients requiring services for which VNS was not reimbursed; and the difference between reimbursement levels and the reasonable cost of providing clinically needed patient care.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Visiting Nurse Services of Connecticut
Board of directorsas of 4/29/2019
Mr. Paul Mayer
Carolyn Salsgiver-Kobsa
Barbara Miller
Brody Wilkinson P.C.
M. Geraghty
Community Volunteer
Janet Brogan
Community Volunteer
Dale Danowski
St. Vincent's Medical Center
George Estrada
University of Bridgeport
Matthew Fair
Key Insurance and Benefits
Pamela Hoffman
Geriatric Professional Group JHE
Karen Jeffers
Jeffers Cowherd PC
Victor Liss
Community Volunteer
William Newbauer
Hubbell Electric Heater Co.
Jane-ellen Porter
People's Securities, Inc.
James Roach
Community Volunteer
Allan Tibbitts
Retired
John Varrone
Varrne & Varrone
James Woods
Venman & Co. LLC
Mary Beth Bednarz
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital
Victor Liss
Daniel Roach
Seye Astou
Robert Rodia
Anne Khanna
Denali Partners
Ann Olson
Visiting Nurse Services of CT
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No