The latest update to Home Health Compare is in — with nearly all measures seeing improvement.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officially updated its Home Health Compare results Wednesday.
Home Health Compare is an online tool where consumers can look up quality of care and other information about home health providers. CMS typically updates Home Health Compare data on a quarterly basis.
In terms of quality of patient care, 13 measures saw improvement, while one worsened, according to an analysis by Northampton, Massachusetts-based consulting firm Fazzi Associates. In a change that mirrors the previous quarter, improvement in bed transfer saw the biggest gain at 1.4%.
Improvement in management of oral medication got a 1.2% bump, according to the Fazzi analysis. Meanwhile, depression assessment conducted worsened slightly, dropping by 0.1%.
Overall, the national average for the quality of patient care held steady at 3.5 stars.
Acute care hospitalizations remained at 15.8%, according to Fazzi. Urgent, unplanned care in the emergency room worsened slightly, increasing from 12.9% to 13.0%.
The data collection period for the update ranged from Jan. 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2017.
Home Health Care Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) measures were also updated; national averages for the metric remained the same.
Fazzi serves more than 1,400 agencies across the United States, providing coding services as well as consulting, training and a variety of other offerings. The firm was acquired by TPG Capital-backed software company WellSky, formerly Mediware, in July; Mediware rebranded to WellSky last month.
Written by Robert Holly
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