Home Health Quality Initiative Statement
by AHQA Executive Vice President David Schulke

The HHS Health Quality Initiative began with nursing homes last year, and is now expanding to include home health agencies. Under the initiative, the federal government will for the first time provide patients and their families with nationally standardized, comparative information on selecting health care providers based on the quality of care they provide.

Of greater near term value to the public is the new national support system to help providers systematically evaluate and improve care. A major part of the HHS Quality Initiative is a CMS-sponsored program to provide health care professionals in hospitals, nursing homes, and now home health agencies with assistance from Quality Improvement Organizations -- also known as QIOs – in every state. We believe the combination of public reporting and technical assistance from the QIOs will motivate and support providers in their efforts to improve care.

So, while today marks the beginning of national public reporting on the performance of home health agencies, the Home Health Quality Initiative quietly started last year when QIOs began offering training in quality improvement to agencies across the nation.

We are beginning to see clear signs that these initiatives are making a difference.

We don’t have a complete accounting yet—because some states are not due to report until later this year -- but I can tell you that from mid-2002 through October 2003, QIOs have already trained nearly 5,000 Medicare certified home health agencies in quality improvement techniques. That’s about 70% of all Medicare-certified agencies that have agreed to voluntarily participate in the QIO quality improvement program. In some states all home health agencies have completed the training. Even with incomplete data, we know that already more than 2,500 agencies have developed plans of action to improve care processes and are now actively working with QIOs to implement those plans.

In your press packet you will find information about agencies all over the country that have documented the delivery of better care and better patient outcomes. I urge you to follow up with these agencies and tell their stories as examples of what can and must be done to improve the quality of care.