Jane Pike-Benton was recently named president of the VNA of Care New England. She has served as chief operating officer and chief clinical officer for VNA Care in Worcester, Mass., for the last four years, where she worked with the CEO, board, senior leadership and the organization as a whole to improve employee engagement and organizational culture.
Prior to that, Pike-Benton was chief clinical officer and president of home health strategy at Trident USA in Maryland. She also led the Trident Care At Home strategy across 36 states for development and expansion of mobile diagnostics for patients, while simultaneously being responsible for patient experience and clinical quality outcomes.
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Pike-Benton spoke with Providence Business News about her new role at VNA of Care New England.
PBN: What are your goals as the VNA of Care New England’s new president?
PIKE-BENTON: My highest priority is to provide a culture of engagement and support for the employees of VNA of Care New England so that they may continue to drive forward their important mission with a focus on the patients, families and communities they serve. Additionally, I want to propel innovative care delivery models that support the needs of Care New England in providing integrated, value-based care across all of their entities.
PBN: What made you want to join Care New England Health System?
PIKE-BENTON: I was so impressed with the people that I met during the interview process. The leadership of Care New England is a compilation of smart, innovative and motivated individuals, all working on the integration of the various CNE entities to provide a seamless lifelong health care experience for the residents of Rhode Island.
I was also drawn to the rich history of the VNA dating back to caring for individuals in their homes since 1908. It is so clear that the team at VNA of Care New England embraces this history and continues to excel at bringing high-quality care directly to patients wherever they call home.
PBN: What are some challenges you’ve noticed in the home health and hospice industry?
PIKE-BENTON: As with other segments of health care, home health and hospice are facing similar challenges such as workforce shortages and insurance reimbursements that do not cover the cost of delivering care. Although care in the home is one of the least expensive health care segments and helps drive down total medical expense by keeping patients out of the hospital unless absolutely necessary, payers continue to reimburse at levels far below the actual cost of providing the care.
And the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services actually implements payment reductions to home health providers every year, despite the fact that seniors and other patients prefer to be cared for in the comfort of their home whenever possible.
PBN: How do you plan to address those challenges in your new role?
PIKE-BENTON: I am a proponent of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s quadruple aim. The four components include improving the health of populations, improving the patient experience of care, reducing costs and improving the well-being of the care team.
There are many strategies and initiatives that target each of these components but a few that I plan to employ include: creating an environment of transparency, trust and support to become the employer of choice; using the leverage of the Care New England system in combination with the stellar clinical quality of the VNA to negotiate fair and improved payer reimbursement; and identify areas for tighter integration within the Care New England system so that patients remain within the system to receive all aspects of their health care.
PBN: What opportunities do you see to improve patient outcomes at the VNA of Care New England?
PIKE-BENTON: Fortunately, VNA of Care New England has top-tier clinical quality and patient outcomes. So, in that regard, I plan to continue to support and celebrate the good work that the employees are already doing.
One area where I plan to expand is in innovation and deeper alignment with all Care New England entities so that collectively we can provide our patients with the absolute best health care outcomes and experience.
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
