The Home Health Quality Measures currently number at 41. There are 30 are Risk-adjusted quality measures and 11 are Descriptive quality measures.

Patient outcome measures are calculated on a completed "episode of care, which begins with admission to a home health agency (or a resumption of care following an inpatient facility stay) and ends with discharge or transfer to inpatient facility. This is different than a Home Health Prospective Payment episode of 60 days. A patient outcome is defined as a change (lack of change) in patient condition during an episode of care.

The outcomes are divided into two groups:

• Risk-adjusted outcomes measures to compensate for differences in the patient population served by different home health agencies
• Descriptive outcome measures which are not risk adjusted that observe all eligible patients served by home health agencies and aggregate the data to obtain a national observed rate.

            Risk Adjusted Outcomes
            Improvement in Grooming
            Stabilization in Grooming
            Improvement in Upper Body Dressing
            Improvement in Lower Body Dressing
            Improvement in Bathing
            Stabilization in Bathing
            Improvement in Toileting
            Improvement in Transferring
            Stabilization in Transferring
            Improvement in Ambulation/Locomotion
            Improvement in Eating
            Improvement in Light Meal Preparation
            Stabilization in Light Meal Preparation
            Improvement in Laundry
            Stabilization in Laundry
            Improvement in Housekeeping
            Stabilization in Housekeeping
            Improvement in Shopping
            Stabilization in Shopping
            Improvement in Phone Use
            Stabilization in Phone Use
            Improvement in Management of Oral Medications
            Improvement in Dyspnea
            Improvement in Urinary Tract Infection
            Improvement in Urinary Incontinence
            Improvement in Bowel Incontinence
            Improvement in Confusion Frequency
            Discharged to Community
            Acute Care Hospitalization
            Any Emergent Care Provided

            Descriptive Outcomes
            Stabilization in Management of Oral Medications
            Improvement in Speech and Language
            Stabilization in Speech and Language
            Improvement in Pain Interfering with Activity
            Improvement in Number of Surgical Wounds
            Improvement in Status of Surgical Wounds
            Improvement in Cognitive Functioning
            Stabilization in Cognitive Functioning
            Improvement in Anxiety Level
            Stabilization in Anxiety Level
            Improvement in Behavior Problem Frequency

Downloads
Comparison of OBQI Outcome Report and Home Health Compare Consumer Language - revised 09/2005 [PDF 18 KB] Overview of Risk Adjustment and Outcome Measures for Home Health Agency OBQI Reports [PDF 313 KB] Risk Adjustment for the 10 Quality Measures on Home Health Compare Web Site [PDF 642 KB] Comparison of OBQI Outcome Report and HH Compare [PDF 54 KB] AHRQ Report on Home Health Quality Measures for CMS Public Reporting [PDF 313 KB]
Related Links Inside CMS
OASIS Public Utility Files Showing State and National Means
Related Links Outside CMS
The Center for Health Services Research at the University of Colorado

Page Last Modified: 08/23/2006 9:19:00 AM
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