Collecting, analyzing, and actively using performance measurement data to foster quality assessment and performance improvement in all areas of care and operations.

Framework

Performance measures play many roles in the strategic management of your organization.  As part of the Quality Partners Initiative, performance measures and checklists combine to support an assessment of your organization’s quality management. 

Checklists help organizations track what you are doing to implement or operationalize each component of quality.

EXAMPLE:   QAPI education is offered to all employees (for Workforce Excellence)

Performance measures quantify specific indicators of quality.

EXAMPLE:  72% of nurses have participated in the QAPI in-service and scored > 80% on the post-test (for the QAPI education element of Workforce Excellence)

Your commitment to quality demands an increasing amount of data and analysis.  Now is the time to determine what data you need, how you can collect and analyze it, and how you can effectively use it.

Self-Assessment

Member hospices can evaluate their organization and operation with respect to performance measurement through NHPCO’s Self-Assessment Checklist for Performance Measurement

Pathways to Success

Choosing the Right Measures

There is no one set of “right” measures. To determine the best list of measures for you to go forward with:

• Understand where you get relevant internal data now.
• Begin with performance measures you are using and databases to which you submit data.
• Identify where you need additional measures to assess components of quality.
• Refine your list of measures to meet your own strategic needs, address all components of quality, and utilize broadly-accepted measures where possible.

Helping to Build the List of Useful Measures

Quality Partners are encouraged to contribute ideas and resources for additional performance measures. Share Your Quality Experience

NHPCO Standards of Practice for Hospice Programs

Performance measurement in hospice is growingly increasingly sophisticated and standardized, however few nationally-recognized standards and preferred practices exist.   

Members can view the chapter on Performance Measurement

Resources and Tools

Members can view a wide range of documents and links to online information in Resources and Tools for Performance Measurement

Sources of Performance Measure Definitions and Comparative Data  Access the evolving performance measurement initiatives that actively support Quality Partners with databases, performance measures, data element definitions, data collection methods, analysis and reporting.

NHPCO Data Bases and Benchmarking Programs

• Family Evaluation of Hospice Care - reflects the quality of hospice care delivery from the perspective of family caregivers.
  • NHPCO Members may access the FEHC home page with comprehensive links.
  • FEHC Complete Survey, available to the public.
  • Codes for Data Entry
• NHPCO National Data Set - represents a valuable resource for strategic planning, communication, and management at the national, state, and individual agency levels.
• End Result Outcome Measures - focuses in on patient care and allows hospices to be able to determine what percentage of their patient population is admitted with pain and how well that pain is managed in the early days of care. Also, hospices are able to identify patients who specifically wish to avoid hospitalization and/or CPR and then determine whether those patients’ preferences are met.
• NHPCO Family Evaluation of Palliative Care - a post-death survey that captures family members’ perceptions about the quality of the palliative care that their loved ones received – whether that care was provided by a hospital-based consult service or by a hospice program offering palliative care.

Quality Partners@ InfoCenter Quality Partners @ InfoCenter offers members access to an online database with over 400 records of resources related to the ten components. Members can either search through the database or click on provided links that will conveniently display a listing of resources under the following headings:  Essential Materials, Background Materials, Performance Measures, NHPCO Resources, and Resources Categorized by NHPCO Standards.

Background Materials and Resources

The following resources from across healthcare and industry support Quality Partners and provide frameworks and methodologies for the developing the art and science of hospice performance measurement.

• The Institute of Medicine. Crossing the Quality Chasm: A new Health System for the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, c2001.
• The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, accelerating healthcare improvement worldwide through programs, tools and education
• The Society for Health Systems, supporting management engineers and performance improvement specialists with conferences, online education and other resources.          

Help Desk

If after reviewing the online resources you need additional assistance, contact quality@nhpco.org or the Quality Team at 703/837-1500.

Marketplace Availability

The following technical materials support the many aspects of Performance Measurement:

• A Pathway for Caregivers and Patients  (1997)