Outcome-Based Quality Improvement in the Information Age

Abstract

The outcomes movement in home health care is expanding rapidly, with strong support from both the industry and Medicare. The Federal government has proposed requiring all Medicare-certified agencies to collect data items from the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) to form the basis for standardized riskadjusted outcome reporting as part of a systematic outcome-based quality improvement (OBQI) approach. In addition to contributing to improving patient outcomes, OASIS data items, when combined with other assessment information, utilization data, and cost information, can provide home health care agencies with a powerful integrated information set for internal management and strategic planning.