OASIS Alert

Heads up: Beginning next fall, home health agencies will find the following outcome measures reported to the public on Home Health Compare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says:

1. Improvement in ambulation/locomotion

2. Improvement in bathing

3. Improvement in transferring

4. Improvement in management of oral medications

5. Improvement in pain interfering with activity

6. Improvement in dyspnea

7. Improvement in urinary incontinence

8. Acute care hospitalization

9. Discharge to community

10. Emergent care

NQF-Endorsed Measures Not Adopted

Good news: You won't have to worry about publicly reported outcomes that aren't risk adjusted when the major revision to Home Health Compare hits this fall. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has decided not to adopt these five of the 15 measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum for CMS' comparison of home health agency patient outcomes:

1. Improvement in status of surgical wounds

2. Increase in number of pressure ulcers

3. Emergent care for wound infections, deteriorating wound status

4. Emergent care for improper medicationadministration, medication side effects

5. Emergent care for hypo/hyperglycemia