Implementing a Home Health Outcome-Based Quality Improvement Pilot Project

Abstract

Home health agencies (HHAs) have been collecting OASIS data and submitting it to their state agencies since 1999. As a result of these submissions, it is anticipated that agencies nationwide will receive their first set of risk-adjusted outcome reports in spring 2002. These reports will enable each agency to identify outcomes on which it can focus its quality efforts through the Outcome-Based Quality Improvement (OBQI) process. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services funded a pilot project to provide OBQI training and technical support to HHAs in five states through their quality improvement organizations (QIO), formerly known as peer review organizations (PROs). Since April 2000, the PROs have trained approximately 417 volunteer HHAs in the five states. This article describes the implementation of this pilot project, provides an overview of the OBQI process, and discusses the implications for national OBQI implementation.