MassachusettsHome Health-Hospice Quality Measures Compared to Achievable Benchmarks

The NHQDR quality measures specific to Home Health-Hospice are compared to achievable benchmarks, which are derived from the top-performing States. Better performance of a State can mean higher or lower values of a measure, depending on the desired outcome. For example, low values are desirable for measures such as infant mortality, whereas high values are desirable for measures such as preventative screening. The categories of achievement have been standardized across the measure definitions so that:

Measures That Achieved Benchmark or Better

Measure	Estimate	Benchmark	Distance to Benchmark
Home health care patients whose management of oral medications improved	68.8	66.0	Achieved: 4% better
Home health care patients whose ability to walk or move around improved	72.3	71.5	Achieved: 1% better
Home health care patients whose pain when moving around decreased	73.8	73.8	-0.1%
Short-stay home health patients who had diabetic foot care and patient education	98.5	98.6	0.1%
Home health care patients whose ability to get in and out of bed improved	70.0	70.3	0.4%
Home health patients who had timely initiation of care	94.6	95.3	0.8%
Family members who definitely received trainings about taking care their family member from hospice care team	77.4	78.4	1.2%
Adults who did not have any problem with the care they received from their home health providers in the last 2 months of care	92.5	94.0	1.6%
Adults who reported that home health providers always treated them with courtesy and respect in the last 2 months of care	93.4	95.0	1.7%
Hospice patients whose hospice care team always treated them with dignity and respect, and really cared about them	90.3	92.1	1.9%
Family caregivers who received right amount of emotional and spiritual supports from hospice care team	89.2	90.9	1.9%
Adults who reported that home health providers always treated them as gently as possible in the last 2 months of care	90.0	92.5	2.7%
Adults who reported being told what care and services they would get when they first started getting home health care	88.6	91.3	3.0%
Adults who reported that home health providers always seem informed and up-to-date about all the cares or treatments they got at home in the last 2 months of care	65.4	67.6	3.3%
Hospice patients whose hospice care team always communicated well with their family caregivers about taking care them	80.4	83.3	3.5%
Adults who reported a home health provider talking with them about all the prescription and over-the-counter medicines they were taking when they first started getting home health care	85.0	88.2	3.7%
Adults who reported that home health providers talk about pain in the last 2 months of care	87.9	91.2	3.7%
Adults who reported that home health providers talked with them about the purpose for taking their new or changed prescription medicines in the last 2 months of care	34.6	35.9	3.7%
Family caregivers who would definitely recommend this hospice to their friends and family	85.1	88.4	3.8%
Home health care patients whose bathing improved	72.5	75.4	3.8%
Adults who reported that home health providers always explained things in a way that was easy to understand in the last 2 months of care	83.3	86.8	4.0%
Adults who reported that home health providers talked with them about when to take medicines in the last 2 months of care	32.5	33.9	4.1%
Adults who reported that home health providers always listen carefully to them in the last 2 months of care	84.3	87.9	4.2%
Adults who reported a home health provider talking with them about how to set up their home so they can move around safely when they first started getting home health care	76.7	80.1	4.2%
Home health patients who had improvement in upper body dressing	74.0	77.4	4.4%
Family caregivers who rated the hospice care for their family member best (9-10) on a scale of 0-10 (where 0 is the worst and 10 is the best)	80.2	83.9	4.5%
Hospice patients who always received enough helps for pain, sadness, breathing, or constipations from hospice care team	75.3	79.0	4.7%
Hospice patients and family caregivers who always got help as soon as they need from hospice care team	77.2	82.3	6.2%
Home health care patients whose shortness of breath decreased	71.9	77.0	6.7%
Home health patients who had influenza vaccination during flu season	78.9	84.8	7.0%
Adults who reported that home health providers always kept them informed about when they would arrive at their home in the last 2 months of care	77.4	83.3	7.1%
Adults home health patients age 18 and over who reported that home health providers talked with them about the side effects of medicines in the last 2 months of care	27.3	29.5	7.6%

Measures That Are Close to Benchmark

Measure	Estimate	Benchmark	Distance to Benchmark
Adults who reported a home health provider asking to see all the prescription and over-the-counter medicines they were taking, when they first started getting home health care	76.6	85.5	10.4%
Home health care patients who stayed at home after an episode of home health care	67.6	77.5	12.8%
Adults who reported getting the help or advice they needed when they contacted their home health providers in the last 2 months of care	26.1	30.4	14.2%
Home health patients who had pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccination	72.5	86.1	15.8%

Measures That Are Far From Benchmark

Measure	Estimate	Benchmark	Distance to Benchmark
Home health care patients who had to be admitted to the hospital	27.3	17.7	53.9%
Home health care patients who had an emergency department visit without a hospitalization	4.4	2.9	54.4%

Measures With No Available Benchmark Information or Supplemental Measures

Measure	Estimate	Benchmark	Distance to Benchmark
Short-stay home health patients who had drug education on all medications	98.3