ARTICLEHOME HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT & PRACTICE / April 2004 Measuring Outcomes in Home Health Care: Beyond the OASIS Data Set

The dramatic changes in health care during the last decade encouraged nurses to measure the effectiveness of their practice. In addition, the shift to a Prospective Payment System in 2000 forced home health care agencies to become more cost efficient while demonstrating improved patient care outcomes. Tools to measure out-comes include the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) and the Omaha System. As part of the federally mandated, outcome-based, quality monitoring process, home health agencies use the collected OASIS data to identify target areas of service or care that indicate a need for improvement and compare their data to other home care agencies. This article describe