The Benchmark Email

...benchmarks, strategies and ideas for improving your agency
A service of Fazzi Associates, Inc.

April 5, 2007

Home Health Compare March 2007
Quality Improvement Chart
Plus Strategies for Improvement

Question: Our agency's Home Health Compare outcome results are typically near the national average. Do you have an updated Quality Chart that shows the results of top performers and, do you have ideas on how we can improve our quality scores?

Answer: Yes, the updated Quality Chart is available. We have updated the Quality Chart with the March 29, 2007 national averages as well as the results for the best practice group: top 20%. The latest update reveals an improved national average for three quality measures. The improved measures are: Improvement in Ambulation/Locomotion, Improvement in Pain Interfering with Activity, and Improvement in Urinary Incontinence.

In addition to the changes in three national averages, the result needed to be in the top 20% (or 80th percentile) has also increased for three outcomes. The measures with a higher result at the 80th percentile are: Improvement in Ambulation/Locomotion, Improvement in Pain Interfering with Activity, and Improvement in Dyspnea.

Click here or on the image at right to get the March 2007 Home Health Compare results. For a report that includes your state's scores, simply go to our Home Health State Association page and click on your state.

Every agency in the country is concerned about P4P and trying to improve quality scores. In our quality improvement and OASIS audit and training work with hundreds of agencies, we have found that there are three specific efforts that consistently help agencies improve their quality scores:

• OASIS Audits tell you specifically where you have problems,
• OASIS Trainings build on audit results and provide clinical staff with the knowledge, skills and confidence to do more accurate assessments and,
• Performance Improvement initiatives clearly advance care practices.

While it is true that OASIS audits and trainings can immediately help you improve your case mix weight, there is another truth. Because Home Health Compare scores are based on twelve month averages, for most agencies, it will take six to nine months before you will see significant changes in your Home Health Compare scores from either OASIS audits/trainings or quality improvement efforts. But, it is still worth doing!