title = "Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement"

content = """
Quality assurance (QA) in home health is a continuous, structured process of measuring patient
outcomes, clinical processes, and patient experience against benchmarks, then identifying and
implementing improvements. Coordinators are active participants in QA — both as data sources and
as owners of corrective actions within their operational domain.

**HHCAHPS (Home Health Care Consumer Assessment)**
The Home Health Care Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) is a
standardized, publicly reported patient satisfaction survey. It measures: communication about
medications, communication about care, specific care issues, rating of home health agency, and
willingness to recommend. Survey results are publicly posted on Medicare's Care Compare website
and affect the agency's Star Ratings. Coordinators support HHCAHPS performance by ensuring every
patient experiences consistent, clear, and respectful communication throughout their episode.

**Star Ratings and Quality of Patient Care Measures**
CMS calculates Star Ratings based on OASIS-derived outcome measures including:
- Improvement in ambulation
- Improvement in bed transferring
- Improvement in bathing
- Acute care hospitalization rate
- Emergency department use without hospitalization
- Discharge to community (successful episode completion)

High-quality OASIS completion and strong clinical intervention drive these metrics. Coordinators
support quality outcomes by ensuring care plans address the measured functional domains and that
clinical staff have sufficient visit frequency to drive improvement.

**Internal Chart Audits**
The agency conducts scheduled and random chart audits to assess: OASIS timeliness, 485 signature
completion, HHA supervisory visit frequency, visit note completeness, and care plan update currency.
Coordinators may be asked to pull records for audit, respond to audit findings, and implement
corrective actions for deficiencies within their caseload.

**Incident Reporting**
All adverse events — falls, medication errors, hospitalizations, patient complaints, workplace injuries —
must be entered into the incident reporting system within 24 hours. The quality director reviews
incidents weekly, identifies patterns, and initiates root cause analysis for significant events.
Coordinators are responsible for timely submission and for following up on incident-driven care plan
changes.

**Performance Improvement Projects**
When a quality gap is identified — elevated hospitalization rates, low medication management scores,
high missed visit rates — the agency may initiate a formal performance improvement project (PIP).
Coordinators participate by providing operational data, testing workflow changes, and tracking
outcomes over the improvement cycle.
"""

version = "0.0.1"
