June 15, 2004

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to share the Home Health Services division of the Johns Hopkins Home Care Group’s May 2004 results reported on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) "Home Health Compare" Web site. For the third consecutive quarter, Home Health Services has demonstrated significant improvement in each of the categories for the majority of measures over the previous reporting period. Additionally, Home Health Services ranked above Maryland and National home health averages on most of the measures.

As you may recall, CMS first published comparison data in November 2003 on a newly created website intended to raise consumer awareness of the quality of care provided by home health agencies, promote consumer use of Medicare's home health information, and to encourage community based, quality improvement activities by home health agencies.

The 11 home health quality measures chosen for public reporting are among the 41 Outcomes and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) outcome measures used by home health agencies since 1999. Information about a patient's health status is collected by home health agency staff using OASIS at the start of care, at discharge or transfer, at follow up (60 day re certification) and at resumption of care.

CMS selected quality measures include:

• Four measures related to improvement in mobility (improvements in walking or moving around, getting in and out of bed; getting to and from the toilet and having less pain when moving around);
  
• Four measures related to meeting basic daily needs (improvements in dressing, bathing and taking oral medicines correctly; staying the same and not getting worse at bathing);
  
• Two measures related to medical emergencies (had to be admitted to the hospital and needed urgent, unplanned medical care); and
  
• One measure related to improvement in mental health (being confused less often).

The Web site can be found at www.medicare.gov and then clicking on Home Health Compare.

Congratulations to Linda Scott, Laura Hughes and the entire Home Health Services team for their contributions in improving the outcomes of our patients. Our number one goal! We will continue to strive for improvement each day.

Daniel B. Smith
Acting President
Johns Hopkins Home Care Group