Frequently Asked Question of the Month:
What types of quality measures are used in the Home Health Quality Reporting Program?
The following three categories of quality measures are used in the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HH QRP):
- Outcome measures
- Process measures; and
- Patient reported outcome measures
Questions about home health quality measures may be sent to HomeHealthQualityQuestions@cms.hhs.gov.
Spotlight on: Patient Reported Outcome Measures
The HHCAHPS measures are derived from a 34-question survey. The survey:
- Collects feedback from current or recently discharged home health agency patients (or their family or friends) about their experiences with a home health agency
- Is the first national standard for collecting information on home health agency patient experiences that allows for valid comparisons between home health agencies
- Has a core set of questions
- Allows home health agencies to add their own customized questions to the survey to support internal customer service and quality-related activities
CMS groups the HHCAHPS measures by topic into three composite measures and two overall measures. CMS publicly reports the HHCAHPS measures, and they are called “patient survey results” on the Care Compare website. The five measure areas are: (1) Care of Patients, (2) Communications between Providers and Patients, (3) Specific Care Issues, (4) Overall Rating of Care, and (5) Patient willingness to recommend HHA to family and friends. For more information on the HHCAHPS measures and the HHCAHPS survey, visit https://homehealthcahps.org/.
Symbria is committed to maintaining a high standard and level of communication with our clients and employees regarding clinical education, PDGM understanding, patient assessment, home health regulations, and coding efficiency. As a result, the Home Health Insider was born. In this monthly offering, we hope to provide some valuable information that can foster a quality level of care that meets the needs of the patients that we serve.