Home Health & Hospice Week

The upcoming transition to OASIS C has agencies looking at how to update practices and processes to meet new challenges. Before you jump in, you must spend time planning and assessing your proposed changes.

Any home health agency that has tried a new strategy based on a conference presentation illustrating what worked for one HHA knows that the same strategy often is unsuccessful at another agency. A broad range of factors, both within and outside your agency can affect the process of implementing innovations, says Brian Mittman, director of the Veterans Affairs Center for Implementation Research and Improvement Science.

Tip: Before you try your next innovative idea for improving your agency's quality or outcomes,learn more about the ins and outs of innovation.

When planning an innovation, apply a comprehensive approach to address the complex factories that can sabotage your efforts, Mittman advises. Some factors you need to consider are how appropriate the innovation is for your agency, how ready your agency is to adopt the innovation, and how to plan and implement the innovation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality tells providers.

One source Mittman recommends is AHRQ's Innovations Exchange. Free Webinars available at the exchange focus on different facets of change, such as learning from your disappointments or making data work for you.

Planning guide: Another resource to take you through the entire planning process is a guide developed by the Research Triangle Institute about adopting innovations -- Will It Work Here -- available from AHRQ.

Will It Work Here considers four questions in detail:

1. Does the innovation fit?

2. Should we do it here?

3. Can we do it here?

4. How will we do it here?

For each of these questions, the guide takes you step-by-step through questions you should consider, why they matter, and even the separate components of each question. It also links you to relevant case studies. You can choose the level of detail that works for you and consider each module as you need it. The guide comes in pdf format with quick links to related sections.

Example: If you're wondering whether you can implement an innovation on a small scale, select that question from the list on pages three and four and it will take you to the part of Module IV that guides your thinking process to help you decide.

Other resources: If you need a postacute transfer tool, falls prevention information, or an intervention package to help you improve your relationships with physicians, these and many other innovation resources and tools are available in a searchable database at www.innovations.ahrq.gov.

Note: To download the Will It Work Here guide, go to http://innovations.ahrq.gov/resources/InnovationAdoptionGuide.pdf.