New Training, New HH Compare

by | Sep 9, 2020 | CMS

New Training, New HH Compare

Home Health Quality Reporting Training

September 01, 2020

Introduction to the Home Health Quality Reporting Program Web-Based Training

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is offering a web-based training course for those who are new to the Home Health Quality Reporting Program. This course is designed to provide a general overview of the program as well as a variety of links and resources for additional information. Specific topics include:

Lesson 1: What is the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HH QRP)?

Lesson 2: The Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS)

Lesson 3: OASIS Data Submission

Lesson 4: HH QRP Resources

CLICK HERE to access the training

Submit technical questions or feedback to: PAC Training mailbox.
Submit content-related questions to: HH Quality Reporting Program Help Desk

 

 

Home Health Compare merged with all other “Compare” databases

On September 3, CMS launched Care Compare, a streamlined redesign of eight existing CMS healthcare compare tools available on Medicare.gov. Care Compare provides a single user-friendly interface that patients and caregivers can use to make informed decisions about healthcare based on cost, quality of care, volume of services, and other data. With just one click, patients can find information that is easy to understand about doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care services instead of searching through multiple tools.

For more than 20 years, Medicare’s online compare tools have served as the cornerstone for publicizing quality care information for patients, caregivers, consumers, and the healthcare community. Today’s announcement builds on the eMedicare initiative that first launched by the Trump Administration in 2018 to deliver simple tools and information to current and future Medicare beneficiaries.

Drawing on lessons learned through research and stakeholder feedback, Care Compare includes features and functionalities that appeal to consumers. By offering a user-friendly interface and a simple design that is optimized for mobile and tablet use, it is easier than ever to find information that is important to patients when shopping for healthcare. Enhancements for mobile use will give practical benefits like accessing the tool using a smartphone can initiate phone calls to providers simply by clicking on the provider’s phone number.

Currently, someone who is planning to have bypass surgery would need to visit Hospital Compare, Nursing Home Compare, and Home Health Compare individually to research providers for the different phases of their surgery and rehabilitation. Now, those patients can start their search at Care Compare to find and compare providers that meet their healthcare needs that includes information about quality measures presented similarly and clearly across all provider types and care settings.

Patients will also find helpful hints and guides throughout Care Compare. For example, when searching for a nursing home, patients have the ability to utilize a checklist with common questions and considerations when selecting a nursing home. While the measures and data used for Care Compare have not changed, the way information is displayed is now different. During a transition period, consumers and other stakeholders will be able to use the original eight compare tools while CMS continues to gather feedback and considers additional improvements to the tool. As new information about quality and cost are added to the compare tools, Care Compare will be updated to reflect that information.

©2020 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. This article originally appeared in Home Care Technology: The Rowan Report. Click here to subscribe. It may be freely reproduced provided this copyright statement remains intact. editor@homecaretechreport.com

New COVID Evidence Changes the Way Healthcare is Delivered

by | Aug 19, 2020 | Clinical

New COVID Evidence Changes the Way Healthcare is Delivered

​by Tim Rowan, Editor

In its August 12 edition, Smithsonian Magazine summarized new research conducted by epidemiologists and published both in The New England Journal of Medicine and a bulletin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What these scientists have discovered may have an impact on the way in-home clinicians, therapists, and other caregivers practice.

The report reveals findings that not only larger droplets but also microscopic aerosols can transmit the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. In fact, aerosols – measuring one-tenth the width of a human hair – can linger suspended in the air for hours. Droplets, which are expelled by sneezing or coughing, are much larger and fall to the ground or other surfaces much more quickly.

“While the difference is literally miniscule,” the report acknowledges, “knowledge of this route of transmission would result in significant changes in how the public can bring an end to the global pandemic. In the near term, it would inform social distancing and mask wearing recommendations from local governments, and in the long term, engineers and architects will need to rethink ventilation and air filtration in the design of everything from schools to cruise ships.”

Aerosols carry pathogens up to dozens of meters under the right conditions. How long a virus can remain airborne depends on the size of the droplet containing it. “That determines everything about how far it can travel, how long it can stay airborne before it falls to the ground,” says Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.

While suspended in the air for hours, some experiments have shown it is possible for the aerosols to remain contagious “for many hours.” says Marr. Different experiments have produced widely varying results, from “more than an hour” in the NEJM report, to “up to 16 hours,” according to CDC researchers.

New discoveries underscore need for familiar prevention activities

  1. Hand-washing kills aerosols that are picked up while suspended in the air.
  2. Masks block aerosol sprays to varying degrees depending on the type of mask worn.
  3. Social distancing remains important because the concentration of aerosols is heaviest near an infected person.

The Smithsonian report concludes that airborne transmission of microscopic aerosols raises the issue of how to protect workers in healthcare settings. When PPE and respirators are in short supply, they should go to healthcare workers first. Surgical masks offer some protection, but it may not be enough for workers who routinely interact with the public. When an in-home care worker enters a patient’s home, they should be aware of the possibility of airborne aerosols and affix their mask well before someone answers the door. The cough that happened an hour before their arrival could be as dangerous as the one that happens while they are in the home.

Read the entire Smithsonian report here.

©2020 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Home Care Technology: The Rowan Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com