Hospital Home Health 2003-04-01

Take this patient NOW! Avoid the pitfalls of hospital-affiliated referrals

You have to take this referral. How many times have your admissions staff heard this line? Unfortunately, they most often hear it late on a Friday afternoon and in connection with a referral that they know or suspect is inappropriate for home care referral. How do your staff handle this situation when the referral source is the hospital with which you are affiliated?

Benchmark program sees improved infection rates

Preventing, diagnosing, and treating infections in home care patients require careful surveillance and a high level of awareness of infection control on the part of a home health nurse. You may think your agency is doing a good job of preventing infections, but how can you tell?

Is your caregiver starting to experience burnout?

Half of the population in the United States will have a chronic condition in 2020, a total of 157 million people, according to a study conducted by the Rand Corporation in 2000.1

Asking questions: Assess a caregivers’ burnout

Paying attention to a myriad of small signs in both the caregivers and the patients behavior can alert the home health nurse to a need for intervention, says Nancy Stallings, MAM, program manager for caregiver support for Salt Lake County Aging Services in Salt Lake City.

HIPAA Q & A: Know HIPAA’s definition of business associates

Editors note: This is a periodic column that will address specific questions related to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability HIPAA) implementation.

LegalEase: Medicaid changes may affect nursing ethics

This is the second of a two-part LegalEase column that addresses home health agency concerns related to changes in state Medicaid programs. This column looks at nursing implications and violation of ethical principles. Last months column presented background on the Medicaid reimbursement crisis and described Medicaid program changes that can affect home health agencies with charges of fraud and abuse, risk of legal liability, and loss of professional licensure.

News Briefs

CMS reports home health claims problem; Random unannounced survey topics identified.

Hospital Home Health Archives – April 1, 2003

April 1, 2003