Home Health Care Need to Stay Accredited

When you have hundreds of policies and procedures that guide your home health care agency, staying on top of compliance with the various regulatory bodies can be a burden without policy and procedure management software. PolicyStat can help your home health care agency align itself with National Patient Safety Goals as well as help keep you in compliance with requirements from your various governing bodies to ensure patient care is adequate, effective and efficient. Here are just some of the accreditation bodies for home health care:

• The Joint Commission Accreditation for Home Health Agencies
• CMS Home Health Agency (HHA) Center
• HIPAA Home Health Care Privacy
• CDC Home Health
• Your state board of health

Regulatory compliance audits for home health care

In most cases, a regulatory compliance evaluation consists of an overall policy and administrative review and a clinical record review. This process ensures patient documentation is consistent with your home health care agency’s policies and procedures. During the review, compliance auditors will not only ask staff about policies and procedures, but in some cases even probe patients to see if they were informed of particular policies and procedures. Below are some examples of questions asked by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services):

1. What is the policy and procedure for informing patients of their privacy rights?
2. How does the home health care agency receive, record, investigate and resolve patient grievances and complaints?
3. How does the home health care agency inform the patient about changes in the plan of care and solicit the patient’s participation prior to the change being implemented?
4. How do home health agency employees implement advance directives requirements?
5. What policies and procedures address password assignment and use?
6. How does the home health care agency implement its policy or procedure for reporting changes in ownership and management information to the State?
7. What is the home health care agency’s policy related to facilitating exchange of information among staff?
8. What is the home health care agency’s policy for drug regimen/medication review?
9. What is the home health care agency’s policy and procedure regarding advance directives?
10. How does the home health care agency implement its policy or procedure for reporting changes in ownership and management information to the State?
11. What are the procedures for submitting clinical and progress notes, scheduling of visits, and periodic patient evaluation?
12. What written policies and procedures govern the use, removal, and release of clinical records?
13. What are the procedures for payment for services furnished under the contract?
14. What are the home health care agency’s basic procedures for infection control?
15. Do staff know the emergency procedures, and are those procedures adequate?

How PolicyStat can help you get and stay accredited

PolicyStat helps keep staff informed on changes to policies and procedures, so your home health care providers never get blindsided during an accreditation evaluation. Physicians, non-physician practitioners and aides can all access policies and procedures quickly and at any time to stay informed. PolicyStat features for home health agencies include:

• Web-based delivery, so caregivers can access policies and procedure anytime, anywhere, and on any mobile technology including iPads and tablets and handhelds.
• Tagging capabilities, so users can easily sort policies and procedures by their applicable statute, standard or regulation.
• Versioning and archiving, which mean caregivers only see the most recent version of a particular policy or procedure, but policy authors can still access older versions.
• Automated reviews, which make it fast and easy to update a policy or procedure to get it reviewed and approved.
• In-browser editing and collaboration allows authors/editors to make changes easily and make comments to other editors, all using their web-capable device/tablet and without having to download Microsoft Word documents.

Want to view the product and see how PolicyStat can help your home home health care agency stay compliant? Sign up for a demo today.