Home Health & Hospice Week

Tip: Focus less on what your staff does and more on what your patient needs. At least 10 different types of government  agencies and contractors can now review your hospice records -- will your documentation stand up tothe scrutiny? Your hospice patient charts have to be strong enough to hold up to every single contractor or agency who has jurisdiction to comb through them, emphasized Debra Sellers, director of home care services for St. John's Health System in Springfield, Mo, at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice annual meeting in Las Vegas. (For a list of who can put your records under the microscope, see story,p. 315.)  Some documentation of the hospice patient's condition is "black and white, but a lot of it is interpretation," Sellers told attendees at her Oct. 4 education session, "The Devil's In the Details: Documentation for Hospice Success." Use these tips offered by Sellers, [...]