• NHPCO is committed to building provider capacity to ensure access to high quality hospice and palliative care for patients, families, and interdisciplinary professionals. The Quality Innovation Network represents a community of providers who share a commitment to establishing a culture of quality within their organizations.  By facilitating collaboration across organizations nationwide, the Quality Innovation Network supports sharing best practices and innovative solutions to the common challenges that many hospice and palliative providers face.
      • Members of the QIN will gather for monthly virtual working sessions to discuss their current performance improvement initiatives with members of the NHPCO Quality team and colleagues nationwide. In addition, NHPCO will facilitate connections between organizations focusing on similar challenges to allow them to engage offline.  Archived performance improvement project resources will be available to member organizations for use in planning future initiatives.
      • NHPCO is committed to providing timely and relevant resources that ensure continuous learning for member organizations. Toward that end, NHPCO reserves the right to use content from performance improvement projects, poster abstracts, and other submitted content to contribute to the establishment of this learning community. Please contact quality@nhpco.org with any questions or concerns.

Performance Improvement Project library

The projects listed below have been completed by members of the Quality and Innovation Network and additional members of the NHPCO Quality community. The purpose of publishing this list of initiatives is to allow members of the quality community to connect over shared projects and challenges.  To protect sensitive data, NHPCO is unable to publish project details publicly, but if you are interested in learning more about any of these initiatives please contact quality@nhpco.org and we will be happy to connect you with the relevant organization.

Administrative Operations   |   Clinical Operations   |   Documentation and Plan of Care Compliance   |   Family/Caregiver Satisfaction   |  Finance and Growth |   Hospice Visits in Last Days of Life   |   Infection Control   |   Medication Safety   |   Patient and Caregiver Safety   |   Reducing Hospitalizations   |   Poster Presentations

Administrative Operations

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
CO
West
2023
51-100
Employee Satisfaction
IA
Midwest
2022
Improving hospice staff morale
HI
West
2023
101-250
Redesign the Complaint and Incident Reporting Process
OH
Midwest
2022
Revitalizing hospice quality assurance and performance improvement program
OR
West
2022
Achieving and maintaining
state licensure
WA
West
2023
101-250
Improving Communication
with Facilities

Clinical Operations

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
IA
Midwest
2022
Improving hospice patient
symptom management in home and facility settings
IL
Midwest
2022
Improving and expanding bereavement services
IL
Midwest
2022
Reducing preventable live
discharges from hospice
MA
Northeast
2022
Increasing response rate for
Veteran Specific Questions
(VSQ) Evaluation of Hospice
Care
MI
Midwest
2023
101-250
Transitions of Patient Care
DE
Southeast
2022
Increasing patient-facing
volunteer service with targeted volunteer recruitment model
FL
Southeast
2022
Increasing compliance with
in-home hospice visit
requirements
CA
West
2022
Increase Rate of Referrals
to Hospice
MT
West
2022
Increasing hospice patient
length of stay
OR
West
2022
Improving rate of timely
Face-to-Face visits by
enhancing scheduling
efficiency
OR
West
2022
Increasing compliance with
required clinician supervisory
visits
TX
Southeast
2023
101-250
Improving CAHPS Pain Scores

Documentation and Plan of Care Compliance

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
AK
West
2023
51-100
Medication Modifiers
CA
West
2022
Improving compliance with timely
documentation
requirements
CA
West
2022
Improving compliance with live discharge documentation requirements
KS
Midwest
2022
Improving compliance with admission documentation requirements
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving compliance with timely
documentation
requirements for social workers and
chaplains
GA
Southeast
2022
Improving individualized interventions and measurable
goals in hospice Plan of Care
MA
Northeast
2022
Improving Point of Care Documentation
MI
Midwest
2023
251-500
Individualizing Care Plans
MN
Midwest
2022
Improving IDT meeting documentation to
enhance patient-centered care
MN
Midwest
2023
501+
Hospice Assessment, Care Planning, and Coordination
NY
Northeast
2023
51-100
Improving IDT Coordination
OR
West
2022
Increasing hospice aide missed visit documentation compliance

Family/Caregiver Satisfaction

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
AK
West
2022
Improving CAHPS survey family
satisfaction Scores Related to Anxiety and Sadness
AR
Southeast
2022
Improving CAHPS survey family
satisfaction scores
CA
West
2023
101-250
Improve CAHPS “Overall Rating of Care”
to top quartile by 2025
CA
West
2023
251-500
Improve CAHPS “Overall Rating of Care”
score
CA
West
2022
Improving CAHPS survey family
satisfaction scores related to hospice team communication
CA
West
2022
Improving CAHPS Survey Family Satisfaction Scores Related to Anxiety and Sadness
CA
West
2022
Increasing pediatric patient family
satisfaction scores
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving CAHPS survey family satisfaction scores
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving CAHPS Survey Return Rate
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving CAHPS survey family
satisfaction scores related
to hospice team communication
KY
Southeast
2023
501+
STAR Success
MO
Midwest
2022
Improving Caregiver Experience with
End-of-Life Anxiety or Sadness
NC
Southeast
2023
501+
Improving CAHPS Scores for the Caregiver Training Composite
OR
West
2023
251-500
Improving CAHPS Overall Rating of Care
Scores
OR
West
2022
Improving CAHPS Survey Return Rate
OR
West
2022
Improving CAHPS Survey Family
Satisfaction Scores Related to timeliness
of care
SC
Southeast
2023
51-100
Improvement of CAHPS Scores
WA
West
2023
101-250
Hospice CAHPS #39 Rating of the Agency
WI
Midwest
2023
101-250
Caregiver Training

Finance and growth

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
CA
West
2023
51-100
Reducing Non-admits on the Palliative Care
Service Line

Hospice Visits in Last Days of Life

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
AR
Southeast
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life measure
CA
West
2023
Improve Hospice Visits in the Last Days
of Life
CA
West
2023
Improve Hospice Visits in the Last Days
of Life
CT
Northeast
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life measure
HI
West
2023
101-250
Improving HVLDL Scores
IN
Midwest
2022
Increasing number of patients placed on Enhanced Services protocol
MD
Southeast
2023
501+
Improving Hospice Visits in the Last Days
of Life
MD
Southeast
2023
101-250
Improving HVLDL Scores
MD
Southeast
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life measure
MI
Midwest
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life measure
NC
Southeast
2023
251-500
Improving HVLDL Scores
NY
Northeast
2023
251-500
Hospice Visits in the last Days of Live
NY
Northeast
2023
501+
Enhancing Visits at End of Life
OR
West
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life measure
SC
Southeast
2023
51-100
Improving Hospice Visits in the Last Days
of Life
TX
Southeast
2022
Improving performance on Hospice Visits
in Last Days of Life measure
WA
West
2023
251-500
Improving HVLDL Scores

Infection Control

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
FL
Southeast
2022
Increasing compliance with infection
control practices in clinical care settings
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving compliance with infection control
risk assessment and plan procedures
OR
West
2022
Reducing infection rates in hospice patients

Medication Safety

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving medication reconciliation in
facilities
MD
Southeast
2022
Ensuring Medication Review during IDG Meetings
WV
Southeast
2022
Increasing safe comfort kit use by hospice caregivers
WY
West
2022
Reducing controlled medication
count errors in an IPU

Patient and Caregiver Safety

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
CO
West
2022
Improving Hand-off processes to increase
patient
safety and CAHPS scores
FL
Southeast
2023
501+
Fall Prevention
FL
Southeast
2022
Improving compliance with incident
reporting
procedures
GA
Southeast
2022
Improving clinician reassessment after
hospice patient
falls
MD
Southeast
2022
Reducing falls in hospice patients
SC
Southeast
2022
Reducing falls in the hospice home care
setting
OR
West
2022
Reducing caregiver injuries in the home
setting
OR
West
2022
Creating a culture of safety
OR
West
2022
Reducing serious safety events
OR
West
2022
Improving safe patient transport and
handling

Reducing Hospitalizations

State
Region
Project Year
Organization
ADC
Project Title
IL
Midwest
2022
Reducing hospitalization of patients enrolled
in hospice
MT
West
2022
Reducing 60 Day Rehospitalization Rate in
Home Health Patients

Poster Presentations

NHPCO facilitates virtual poster sessions with a focus on quality and performance improvement (PI) in tandem with our educational conferences.

Poster PowerPoint slides and project summaries for all submissions and poster winners in each category can be accessed via the following categories: