Home Care NetWork
Home Care Literature Reviews 2004
Quality of Care:
The Journal of Healthcare Quality, May-Jun;26(3) 2004, contained an number of articles relevant to home care. The most important ones are reviewed below but the entire issue is worth reviewing.
Fortinsky RH, Madigan EA. Data, information, and quality indicators for home healthcare: rapid implementation, what's next? J Healthc Qual. 2004;26:44-51.
This article reviews and analyses the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS), the basis for current federally mandated quality indicators in home care, and discusses the roles of policy stakeholders in implementing and refining data, information, and quality indicators derived from these indicators. The authors find the OASIS data to be scientifically acceptable but offer several caveats. This article should be read by those interested in the theoretical and practical applications of OASIS.
Peterson LE. Strengthening condition-specific evidence-based home healthcare practice. J Healthc Qual. 2004 ;26:10-8.
This review discusses the evidence base for prevalent home healthcare diagnoses and conditions for which guidelines could be modified for applicability to home healthcare. This is an important topic for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants and others concerned with effective medical care in the home.
Tucker AL. A case study of operational failure in home healthcare. J Healthc Qual. 2004;26:38-43.
This article case study reviews a work system breakdown home healthcare and finds that failures stemming from (a) insufficient support from home health agencies and inadequate coordination with patients and their families are the most common. Factors that impede organizations from learning from employees' experiences with operational failures and steps that managers may take to overcome these hurdles are discussed. A good business model review for managers and providers.
Bakken S, Hripcsak G. An informatics infrastructure for patient safety and evidence-based practice in home healthcare. J Healthc Qual. 2004;26:24-30.
This review discusses the informatics infrastructure for patient safety and evidence-based practice (EBP) in home healthcare. Critical elements include: data acquisition methods, healthcare standards including standardized terminologies, data repositories and clinical event monitors, data-mining techniques, digital sources of evidence, and communication technologies. The challenges to institutions in implementing an effective EBP are discussed.
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