NEW PPH measure is now Public on Care Compare
The Essentials:
The Potentially Preventable Hospitalization (PPH) measure, which includes observation stays, is being reported publicly for the first time. This new measure is also proposed to become the hospitalization measure to be used in the future for HHVBP.
Historically, the Home Health industry has used a proxy measure of quality of care called the Acute Care Hospitalization rate. This measure did not collect when a patient was in observation status, no matter how long their stay was. Now, the new PPH measure will be accounting for these observation stays, as well as the acute care hospitalizations. The industry expects to see a sharp rise in the new measure rate, compared to the prior measure.
Care Compare Quarterly Refresh – October 2023
The October 2023 quarterly refresh for the Home Health Quality Reporting Program is now available on Care Compare. For this refresh, Home Health (HH) Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) will be based on the standard number of quarters. The HH QRP claims-based measures have been updated for this refresh and, with the exception of PPR, are now based on the standard number of quarters.
The Refresh will add a new claims-based measure for public reporting:
Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations (PPH)
The Refresh will remove an OASIS measure from public reporting:
Drug education on all medications provided to patient/caregiver
What to Do Next?
ONE. Retrieve your agency’s PPH score, along with the other quality measures from Care Compare. Note that your agency does receive these scores in advance, in the iQIES Preview Report, one quarter prior to the public reporting.
TWO. Track your agency’s number of “real time” re-hospitalizations, as well as observation stays. Assess for trends in diagnoses, day of the week, case manager and physician to begin a root cause analysis in QAPI.
THREE. Implement and reinforce efforts used to decrease rehospitalizations. Use “Call us First”, practice “On Call”, PRN visits and train the clinical team on evidence-based disease management to improve clinical quality efforts.