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Home Care Performance Measures
There are differences in how Home Health agencies operate and one may meet your needs better than another. Performance measures give you information about how well home health agencies provide care for their patients.
Performance measures provide information about patients’ physical and mental health and about their ability to perform basic daily activities. Quality information can be used to help you compare home health agencies. You can use the quality measures found in Home Health Compare to review the measures that matter most to you and compare those measures in Home Health agencies.
Why is this information important?
Most people would rather stay at home and take care of themselves rather than go into a nursing home or hospital. If a high percentage of a home health agency's patients stay at home after an episode of home health care ends, the home health agency has done its job of checking their patient's health status at each visit to find and treat problems early. Home health staff can help you stay at home by doing things like checking to see that you are getting the treatment and medicine you need and are eating and drinking properly, and by letting the doctor know of any changes to your health.
OUTCOME and ASSESSMENT INFORMATION SET (OASIS)
OASIS is a group of data elements that represent a comprehensive assessment for each adult home care patient and is used to calculate the Home Health performance measures. OASIS is a key component of Medicare's partnership with the home care industry to foster and monitor improved home health care outcomes.
Performance Measures available include:
- Measures related to improvement in getting around:
- Percentage of patients who get better at walking or moving around
- Percentage of patients who get better at getting in and out of bed
- Percentage of patients who have less pain when moving around
- Measures related to meeting the patient's activities of daily living:
- Percentage of patients whose bladder control improves
- Percentage of patients who get better at bathing
- Percentage of patients who get better at taking their medicines correctly (by mouth)
- Percentage of patients who are short of breath less often
- Measure related to who stays home after home health care ends:
- Percentage of patients who stay at home after an episode of home health care ends
- Measures related to patient medical emergencies:
- Percentage of patients who had to be admitted to the hospital
- Percentage of patients who need urgent, unplanned medical care
Performance Measures is only one factor to consider when you are making your choice of Home Health agencies. Other factors include asking your doctor, hospital discharge planner, or social worker. You can ask friends about their home health care experiences. Our patients routinely give us a 100% in overall patient satisfaction.
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