With the October 1 payment changes behind us, the post-acute industry is waking up to the next hot topic: Outcomes Reporting.
Up until recently, nursing homes have been largely off the radar for direct readmission scrutiny. That could all change with a new policy currently proposed by the Obama Administration, one given the nod by The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, a trade organization representing for-profit providers. If the proposal passes, everyone – including hospitals and nursing homes with high readmission rates – will be squeezed.
Demand is on the rise for Outcomes Reporting as the new must-have core competency by the C-Suite. Execs are turning to IT and Clinical to team up, mine data, and do detective work to answer questions like: who are we sending back to the hospital? Why? And importantly…what could we have done to keep them? “The data they’re looking for goes way beyond what can be mined from MDSs,” explains Tina Schrader-Berte, RAC-CT, Industry Financial & Performance Operations expert with Pro Ed Continuum, LLC. “Providers must be ready to take a 360 degree view of their operation – to root out every possible cause of readmission, and challenge interdisciplinary teams to proactively drive programs that have measurable results. Data-driven decision making will be essential.”
Outcomes Reporting, must, as a result, come from every corner of the operation – and be creatively used to challenge the status quo. Outcomes reporting is like a Swiss Army Knife; it has many uses. As a marketing tool, outcomes show hospitals your readmit rates, but the real power lies in dozens of other reports you can use across the spectrum of your clinical operations to drive quality and continuous improvement. The ability to easily mix and match many reports across your operation is key.
Need more information? Download a white paper “ Marketing Your Outcomes: How to Make Your Most Strategic Information Assets Work to Your Competitive Advantage to Win Medicare Census.”
