Home health agencies (HHAs) that are accredited are more likely to perform better on several national indicators of quality of care, according to new research from New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing.
HHAs currently can seek accreditation from three organizations — the Joint Commission, Accreditation Commission for Health Care and Community Health Accreditation Program — to recognize their quality of service. To derive results for the study, researchers used five years of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and analyzed 7,697 agencies in the United States.
They found that accredited HHAs performed better on the three commonly used quality indicators: timely initiation of home care, preventing hospitalization and preventing emergency department visits. They also found that agencies that were for-profit, urban, not-hospital-affiliated, single-branch, Medicare enrolled only, and without hospice programs were more likely to have accreditation.
The researchers say their findings may help individuals who are looking for an HHA for themselves or their loved one, as they may choose to consider accreditation status as one of the quality indicators for decision-making. At the same time, the researchers also suggest the importance and necessity of timely revising and updating accrediting standards and criteria by the accrediting organizations. The findings were published online this week in the journal Home Health Care Services Quarterly.
