Home Health Patient Experience Care Technical Advisory Panel Meeting
This NQF project seeks to identify and endorse measures for public accountability and quality improvement related to the quality of home health care in the United States.
More than 7 million Americans receive professional healthcare in their homes each year (2000). Home health care services are delivered at home to patients who are recovering from care in hospitals or nursing homes; patients who are disabled; the frail elderly; and chronically or terminally ill persons in need of medical, nursing, or therapeutic treatment as assistance with the essential activities of daily living. As in all areas of health care, the quality of care provided is of concern to consumers, purchasers, providers and other stakeholders.
There has been growing recognition of the importance of home health in the continuum of care, especially among those with chronic, co-morbid illnesses. While there has been a growing movement towards quality measurement in home health care, the voice of the patient has been absent. Current quality measures included on CMS’s Home Health Compare web site focus on improvement in patient mobility, ability to meet activities of daily living, patient remaining at home after an episode of care, and the patient rate of admission to the hospital or unplanned, urgent care. A measure of the patient experience of care in home health care is needed to fully understand the quality of home health care in America. There are currently NQF-endorsed™ measures on patient experience with care for many different setting of care, including hospitals and ambulatory care.
This project, like all NQF activities, involves the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders. The NQF proposes to work with the full range of stakeholders to identify performance measures that could be used by home health agencies and professionals to provide meaningful information to consumers, purchasers, providers, healthcare professionals, quality improvement organizations, and researchers. The project is guided by a Steering Committee. Agreement around the recommendations will be developed through NQF’s formal Consensus Development Process.
Funding for this project has been provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
For more information, contact Lisa Hines, BSN, MS, at 202.783.1300 or lhines@qualityforum.org.