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The launch of the Home Health Quality Initiative (HHQI), the public reporting of home health agency specific data, in November 2003, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) represented a major milestone for the Medicare-certified home health agencies of Rhode Island. These Rhode Island agencies have a longstanding tradition of providing quality home care to the citizens of Rhode Island that became measurable for the first time and more visible. Now physicians, hospital discharge planners, patients and their families have objective quality data to use when choosing a home health agency.
In November 2001, Secretary Thompson announced the Quality Initiative and his commitment to assure quality health care for all Americans through accountability and public disclosure. The initiative aims to empower consumers with quality of care information to make more informed decisions about their health care, and to stimulate and support providers and clinicians to improve the quality of health care. The first health care setting to have quality data published nationally was nursing homes in November 2002 (http://www.medicare.gov/). The National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative was launched this past February. (http://www.medicare.gov/Hospital/Home.asp).
The Home Health Quality Initiative aims to further improve the quality of care given to the millions of Americans who use home health care services. The initiative combines new information for consumers about the quality of care provided by home health agencies with important resources available to improve the quality of home health care. It is a four-prong effort that consists of the following:
* improved consumer information on...