With public reporting looming in the future, hospices have more reason than ever to place a strategic focus on quality improvement. Hospice leaders must gain a clear understanding of performance, identify gaps and overcome any deficiencies before this information becomes available to the community and valuable referral partners. But, in an environment where resources are strained, budgets are limited and priorities are constantly changing, how does an agency go about being more proactive in managing hospice quality? While managing hospice quality is a best practice for understanding what clinical improvements are needed to enhance the patient and family experience, it has long been a fairly unstructured area for many hospices with QAPI programs ranging from those who only captured FEHC survey data to those who monitor a laundry list of outcome measures, process measures and satisfaction data. The days of complying with somewhat vague CoPs are quickly being overshadowed by…
