Abstract
Health care in general, and home health care specifically, are information intensive. Today, success demands not only effective internal information management but also access to reliable aggregate information at the national, state, and local levels. Home care organizations need to compare their cost, quality, and utilization information to reference databases to evaluate their services and improve performance. But until recently achieving standardized national information was not easy. Currently several initiatives are underway that will help facilitate the availability of standardized information. These initiatives will be discussed in detail. Home care organizations need to develop an information strategy to meet their internal information needs as well as enhance their ability to contribute to the aggregate information about the ‘ industry. Home care organizations that are best able to collect, compile, obtain, and use information will be the most successful.
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