Exploratory analysis of the relationship between home health agency engagement in a national campaign and reduction in acute care hospitalization in US home care patients.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: To determine whether US home health agencies that intensively engaged with the 2010 Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign were more likely to reduce acute care hospitalization (ACH) rates than less engaged agencies.

Method: We included all Medicare-certified agencies that accessed Campaign resources in the first month of the Campaign and also responded to an online survey of resource utilization at month two. We used the survey data and item response theory to estimate a latent construct we called engagement with the campaign.