Peg Sherer is a fiercely independent 95-year-old, grateful that home health care allows her to stay in the La Crosse house where she has lived for almost 65 years.

Id have to be in a nursing home if I didnt have this, Sherer said Tuesday.

She relaxed on her living room couch as nurse Kathie Hanna applied fresh bandages to ulcers on Sherers right leg resulting from a vascular condition.

Im happy here in my home, Sherer said. Im so much happier than Id be in a nursing home.

Thats the point of home health care, a notion aimed at getting patients out of the hospital faster and keeping them in their homes longer before in-patient treatment is required.

Patients are happier at home, and hospitals save money.

Its a growing trend in medicine. According to the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, about 12 million Americans require some form of home health care. Two-thirds are women.

There are about 33,000 home health care providers today, and about $72.2 billion was spent on home health care in 2009.

Thats a lot of money, but likely less than what would have been spent if those patients were hospitalized.

The medical system is trying to keep people out of the hospital, said Jennifer Meyers, home care-hospice supervisor at Mayo, whose program recently earned a HomeCare Elite title for the third consecutive year in a national ranking of home health care agencies. This gets them out sooner and prevents rehospitalization.

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