WAKEFIELD — VNA of Middlesex-East announced today that it has been named to the Top 500 of the 2014 HomeCare Elite, a recognition of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States.

Now in its ninth year, the HomeCare Elite identifies the top 25 percent of agencies and highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Winners are ranked by an analysis of publicly available performance measures in quality outcomes, best practice implementation, patient experience, quality improvement and consistency and financial performance The annual review is produced by OCS, a healthcare benchmarking service that rates the most successful Medicare-certified home health providers in the country. Out of 9,994 agencies considered, 2,501 are elite.

“We are very proud to be named among this high performing group of agencies,” said Merry Beth Rucker, VNA of Middlesex-East CEO. “Our success reflects on a hard working clinical team that understands the critical role homecare can play in reducing healthcare costs and raising standards of care.”

VNA of Middlesex-East provides a comprehensive range of home health and hospice care services to over 60 towns in Essex and Middlesex counties. It also owns and operates the 10-bed Sawtelle Family Hospice House in Reading. The agency recently completed an affiliation that brings the agency into the Lahey Health System.