Working with input from measurement experts, the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, and a diverse group of home
health industry stakeholders, CMS has adopted and is publishing
a set of home health quality measures on every Medicare-certified
home health agency in the United States. The 11 quality measures
for the HHQI are a subset of a larger
set of OASIS outcome measures that are well known to the home
health agencies. They have been extensively tested and studied,
and more information on the measures is available at
www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hhqi.
The consumer language below explains the OASIS measures in
plain language and accompanies the quality measures found
on Home Health Compare at
www.medicare.gov.
Consumer
Language
OASIS
Outcome Measure
Patients who get better at getting dressed
Improvement in
Upper Body
Dressing
Patients who get better at bathing
Improvement in
Bathing
Patients who stay the same (don't get worse) at bathing
Stabilization in
Bathing
Patients who get better getting to and from the toilet
Improvement in
Toileting
Patients who get better at walking or moving around
Improvement in
Ambulation/Locomotion
Patients who get better at getting in and out of bed
Improvement in
Transferring
Patients who get better at talking their medicines
correctly
(by mouth)
Improvement in
Management of
Oral Medications
Patients who are confused less often
Improvement in confusion
frequency
Patients who have less pain when moving around
Improvement in
Pain Interfering
with Activity
Patients who had to be admitted to the hospital
Acute
Care Hospitalization
Patients who need urgent,
unplanned medical care
Any
Emergent Care Provided
Health
Services Advisory Group (HSAG), the Medicare-contracted quality
improvement organization (QIO) for the state of Arizona, is
actively involved in promoting consumer use of this information.
HSAG is also assisting Arizona home health agencies with Outcome-Based
Quality Improvement (OBQI) activities that will help the agencies
improve their performance on the quality measures.
