Integrating Preventive Cardiovascular Healthcare Into Home Health: A Pilot Study.

The viability of measuring and integrating preventive cardiovascular care into home healthcare was investigated through a pilot study fielded during 2013 and 2014. The study tested the feasibility of using a data registry to measure preventive cardiovascular care delivered in home healthcare, examined opportunities for quality improvement, and looked at the association between exposure to evidence-based tools and improvement in aspirin use and blood pressure screening and control among a convenience sample of 20 agencies. Based on promising results, the home healthcare cardiovascular quality initiative continues in alignment with Million Hearts® and offers tools that clinicians can use to understand the risks for heart attack and stroke within their agency's population of patients and respond with best practices.

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.