Home Health & Hospice Week

QIOs step in to promote 'seamless transitions.'

Home health agencies will play no small role in a quality-focused initiative on the near horizon.

The nation's quality improvement organizations (QIOs) will include an area called "Care Transitions" in their next "statement of work" (SOW), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced.

"The Care Transitions theme is designed to help improve coordination across the continuum of care," the agency says. "In particular, [to] promote seamless transitions from the hospital to home, home health care, or skilled nursing care."

Some QIOs, for example, will work to help reduce unnecessary readmissions to hospitals of Medicare beneficiaries being served by home health agencies.

Areas of focus will include the following:

• Medication management,
• Post-discharge follow-up, and
• Plans of care for patients who move across health care settings.

Reducing acute care hospitalizations has also been a target by QIOs in the current SOW.

Resource: For more information about the "QIO 9th Statement of Work" go to www.cms.hhs.gov/QualityImprovementOrgs.