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HHAs OFFER TWO APPROACHES TO EMPLOYEE TESTING

Published on Mon Jul 01, 2002 Print Friendly and PDF PDF

Just as there is more than one way to skin a cat, there is more than one way to test your employees' OASIS prowess.

One approach is to administer a standard, multiple-choice test to employees, notes Mary Newberry, director of Riverside Home Health Care in Kankakee, IL. Riverside's test includes the following questions, which Newberry has shared with Eli:

  • Data collection Time Points for OASIS are:
    a. Start of Care/Resumption of Care
    b. Follow-Up c. D/C
    d. Transfer to inpatient facility
    e. Death at home

  • The following is an example of an outcome measure of a patient's ability to ambulate:
    a. Patient able to ambulate >20 feet
    b. Improvement in ability to ambulate between admit and d/c
    c. Patient obtained a walker
    d. All of the above

    Another approach is to provide employees in a classroom setting with a module that encourages discussion about the OASIS items and how best to answer them, notes Estelle Wolfe, manager of regulatory compliance with Sharp Home Health in San Diego, CA. Sharp's module includes items such as the following:

  • (M0390) Vision with corrective lenses if the patient usually wears them:

    0: Normal Vision: sees adequately in most situations; can see medication labels, newsprint.

    1: Partially impaired: cannot see medication labels or newsprint, but can see obstacles in path, and the surrounding layout, can count fingers at arms length.

    2: Severely impaired: cannot locate objects without hearing or touching them or patient nonresponsive.

    Guidelines:

  • Measure patient's vision with corrective lenses.

  • Note that scoring is the same for partial and severe impairment. 6 pts.

  • Can this patient sign consents without assistance?

  • (M0420) Frequency of Pain interfering with patient's activity or movement:

    0: Patient has no pain or pain does not interfere with activity or movement
    1: Less often than daily
    2: Daily, but not constantly 5 pts.
    3: All of the time 5 pts.

    Guidelines:

  • Measure only pain that interferes with movement or activity. Observe the patient performing activities and assess for non-verbal clues.

  • Points awarded for box 2 and 3, no points for pain which occurs less often than daily.

    Check medication list. If the patient takes pain medication daily to enable activity, then number 2 or 3 applies.

  • Carefully check M0700 ambulation/locomotion. It could be considered inconsistent that a person who experienced pain that interferes with movement could be independent with ambulation.

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