TIP OF THE WEEK
12 considerations for a good hospital risk assessment
The assessment form that your agency uses to determine a patient’s risk for hospitalization is an important care planning tool. Take out your form and look it over with the following considerations in mind:
- Your hospital risk assessment tool should identify the percentage of your population that is at least equal to your acute care hospitalization rate.
- The assessment should identify patient populations within the agency that continue to be re-hospitalized and include diagnoses specific to your agency.
- Make sure that you are truly capturing your high-risk population.
- Keep it simple.
- Add patients with polypharmacy (i.e., patients taking 5-8 medications or whatever the agency determines as a standard).
- Audit charts to be sure that staff members are using the assessment tool and that they are using it correctly.
- Use the risk assessment for all patients, not just a select group.
- All disciplines responsible for assessment at admission and resumption of care should assess for high-risk patients.
- If a patient is identified as high-risk at therapy admission, RN referral should be made.
- Be aware of patient end-stage disease (prognosis and life expectancy).
- Once a patient is identified as high risk, have guidelines for staff intervention and follow-up.
- Audit patient charts to be sure that staff members are following the intervention guidelines for high-risk patients.
RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
Assessment of Risk Factors for Hospitalization and Emergent Care
This assessment can be used at start of care (SOC) or resumption of care (ROC) to identify patients who are at higher risk for re-hospitalization. Clinicians can use this information when planning the care of patients.
Set Targets, Achieve Results
Need help setting your STAR targets? Looking for a quick OASIS reference source for information about the publicly reported quality measures? Call the Ohio KePRO Home Health Team at 1-800-385-5080.
IN THE NEWS
CDC UPDATES 2007 INFLUENZA RECOMMENDATIONS
July 13, 2007 -- CDC -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Prevention and Control of Influenza: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2007. This report provides recommendations on influenza vaccinations for 2007, an update to the 2006 recommendations regarding the use of influenza vaccine and antiviral agents. Read more >>
CMS SAYS PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE EXPERIMENT SHOWS REDUCED COSTS
July 12, 2007 -- Kaiser Network -- An experiment to gauge the efficacy of a pay-for-performance system showed that coordinating care and reducing hospitalizations can lower Medicare costs, Center for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) officials said on Wednesday, The New York Times reports. The study, which began in April 2005 and will run through April 2008, is an attempt by CMS to re-examine how Medicare reimburses physicians for care with a focus on quality, rather than the number of tests and procedures performed. Read more >>
SOME CHRONICALLY ILL ADULTS WAIT FOR MEDICARE
July 12, 2007 -- NY Times -- When uninsured adults with common chronic illnesses became eligible for Medicare, they saw doctors and were hospitalized more often and reported greater medical expenses than people who had had insurance. And their increased use of medical services continued at least until at least age 72, according to a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Read more >>
The Tip of the Week Archive is available on the Ohio KePRO Web Site.
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