Berkshire Visiting Nurse Association Recognized by U.S. News & World Report

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Visiting Nurse Association has been named a Best Home Health agency for 2026 by U.S. News & World Report.

This recognition comes as part of U.S. News' first-ever evaluation of home health providers, identifying the top-performing agencies in the United States.

With more than three million patients turning to home health agencies each year, this debut analysis offers a much-needed, independent view of quality. By prioritizing patient outcomes and consumer experience for a predominantly senior population, these ratings provide clarity for families, in consultation with their physicians, making crucial care decisions. The Berkshire VNA earned the "High Performing" designation – the highest level of recognition – for exceeding expectations in care quality and patient experience based on U.S. News' methodology.

"The nurses and therapists at the Berkshire VNA provide the highest standard of care for our home care patients, day in and day out," said Tejas Ghandi, Berkshire Health Systems Vice President and Berkshire Medical Center Chief Operating Officer. "This national recognition reflects their commitment to excellence as they travel across the county and provide hands-on care in the patients' homes."

In the first edition of Best Home Health, U.S. News evaluated more than 12,000 agencies. Just 17 percent of the agencies U.S. News rated were awarded the Best Home Health designation from U.S. News.

"Earning the Best Home Health distinction is a significant achievement, as it is reserved only for those agencies that satisfy U.S. News' standards of care quality and patient experience," said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News.

The Best Home Health methodology developed by U.S. News leverages two data sets from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Data on care quality measures, including timely initiation of care and outcomes such as potentially preventable hospitalizations, were combined with patient experience surveys to produce the ratings. The ratings and underlying data for each agency, published on USNews.com, provide consumers with the trusted data and clarity they need to confidently choose, in consultation with their health care providers, the right care for a family member or themselves.

 


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Pittsfield: Should Park Square Be an Historic District?

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The committee drafting a proposed local historic district around Park Square wants to generate interest and participation in the process. 

Members launched the charge during meetings in August and September. A survey and public hearing are planned to gather feedback early on. 

City Planner Kevin Rayner explained they are not just doing this out of a love for historic buildings, but for the timeless sense of place you get when you step into Park Square, which was laid out over 200 years ago and hosted the first-ever agricultural fair in 1810. 

"I think that the main thing that we need to kind of park on is that this is the heart of our community, and it really sets the stage for the sense of place in Pittsfield, and any change to that should have some review and some consensus from folks who have a passion for protecting the history and that character of Pittsfield," he said to the new Local Historic District Study Committee last week. 

"And there's that private property versus historic resource thing, but I’d say that a lot of these buildings on the square belong to the soul of Pittsfield here, and deserve to be protected, and I don't think that the layer of regulation that we're throwing down here is going to be unreasonable or a real boundary." 

In March, the City Council voted to amend the City Code, Chapter 2, to establish the study committee.

Pittsfield has more than 20 locations on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Park Square Historical District, but the designation just allows communities to apply for federal tax credits and doesn't impose restrictions on buildings. The central area was laid out a few decades after Pittsfield was given a town charter in 1761.

A district can be one building, several buildings, or an area. Historic restrictions only apply to the exterior of buildings; the committee has authority to say a building in the district cannot be demolished. 

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