This final rule sets forth an update to the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) rates, including: the national standardized 60-day episode rates, the national per-visit rates, the nonroutine medical supply (NRS) conversion factors, and the low utilization payment amount (LUPA) add-on payment amounts, under the Medicare prospective payment ...

Measurements of combustion product concentrations were taken in 30 homes where unvented gas fireplaces were used. Measurements of CO, CO(2), NO(x), NO(2) , O(2) (depletion), and water vapor were taken at 1-min interval. The analyzers were calibrated with certified calibration gases for each placement and were in operation for 3-4 ...

some cohort studies of ageing and health supplement questionnaire-based surveys with in-home measurements of biological parameters and others have required respondents to attend assessment centres. Centre-based assessments facilitate detailed measurements and novel technologies, but may differentially influence participation. The aim of this paper is to compare the characteristics of participants ...

A nursing shortage, the aging baby boomer population, an escalating need for home health care, and limited availability of health care dollars are threatening to undermine the quality of health care in the United States. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects a deficit of 275,000 full-time equivalents by ...

Numerous studies have demonstrated that housing interventions such as addressing structural deficiencies or lack of safety devices improve health. These successes, coupled with reports by health care and housing professionals of other health and safety issues in homes that they were unable to address, have renewed interest in promoting health ...

The U.K. government has committed to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, with housing accounting for 27% of total current emissions. There are several drivers both to reduce emissions from homes and to reduce fuel poverty, promoting a range of building and behavioural measures in homes. The health ...

The Home Health Aide (HHA) industry is challenged with low wages, little possibility of career advancement, and high turnover rates. Jewish Home Lifecare, Home Assistance Personnel Inc. (HAPI) is a home care aide agency that has developed a Peer Mentor HHA program. Peer Mentor HHAs mentor newly hired/trained HHAs within ...

Sense of coherence (SOC) is important for maintaining health. The aim of this study was to investigate if the SOC experience among home-dwelling physically active older people differs from that of hospital patients with the same age and sex. Data were collected with questionnaires and structured interviews containing Antonovsky's SOC ...

OBJECTIVES: We examined associations of attractiveness, size, and proximity of multiple neighborhood open spaces (NOSs) with recreational walking. METHODS: Adults participating in the Residential Environments (RESIDE) study (n=1366) in Perth, Australia, reported time spent engaging in recreational walking within their neighborhoods. Park audit data and geographic information systems were used ...

Goal setting is a common method for managers and leaders to set the direction of activities. Without clear goals, activities can continue for too long or never reach fruition. This article presents two simple templates for easy and straightforward goal setting that can involve health or other issues, and can ...

This report provides updated estimates on use of electronic medical records (EMRs) in US home health and hospice (HHH) agencies, describes utilization of EMR functionalities, and presents novel data on telemedicine and point of care documentation (PoCD) in this setting. Nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of US HHH agencies conducted in ...

AB With health care in flux, visiting nurses face new challenges.

Home health company Gentiva Health Services' proposed purchase of hospice provider Odyssey HealthCare highlights the growing movement of for-profit companies into the hospice sector. The deal is a "perfect marriage" for both, says Donald Schumacher, left, of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. "It is a part of what ...

BACKGROUND: Early supported discharge with continued rehabilitation at home (ESD) for patients with mild to moderate impairments has been compared to conventional rehabilitation in a randomized controlled trial. The aim of this study was to explore changes over time in perceived health status over the five years after stroke onset. ...

The objective of this study was to develop and test measures for assessing risk of violence toward staff during home visits. Home visiting health workers from public and private home visiting programs in a Mid-Atlantic state (n = 130) were surveyed to assess exposure to risky home visits, verbal and ...

As the patient-centered medical home model emerges as a key vehicle to improve the quality of health care and to control costs, the experience of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative with its medical home pilot takes on added importance. This paper examines the effects of the medical home prototype on patients' ...

OBJECTIVES: (1) To demonstrate average length of service (ALOS) bias in the currently used acute-care hospitalization (ACH) home health quality measure, limiting comparability across agencies, and (2) to propose alternative ACH measures. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Secondary analysis of Medicare home health service data 2004-2007; convenience sample of Medicare fee-for-service hospital ...

This exploratory study investigated the differences in the means of quality measures between for-profit and nonprofit Medicare-certified home health agencies in Michigan. The research question was: Do nonprofit agencies provide higher quality of care than for-profit agencies? Twelve publicly available quality measures were retrieved in May 2009 and used for ...

This study examines the association between home health agency characteristics and quality improvement in home health care after Home Health Compare (HHC), a public-reporting initiative in the Medicare program. We examined the changes in seven quality measures reported in HHC from 2003 to 2007. We used a linear regression model ...

OBJECTIVES: This report provides an overview of the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS), the first national probability survey of home health aides. NHHAS was designed to provide national estimates of home health aides who provided assistance in activities of daily living (ADLs) and were directly employed by agencies that ...

OBJECTIVES: Whether medical services received by children and youth with behavioral health conditions are consistent with a Medical Home has not been systematically studied. The objectives of this study were to examine the variation among four behavioral health conditions in regard to services related to the Medical Home. METHODS: Cross-sectional ...

As we begin a new decade, hospital-based home health agencies have been waning over the last one, and for a number of reasons. An examination of hospital-based home health since its beginnings in this country yields some answers, but also reveals the importance of many of these home health programs ...

This article presents a profile of household-resident U.S. adults using wheeled mobility equipment (WME) in 2005, trends in WME use from 1990 to 2005, and data on accessibility features and problems from 1994-97. Data were obtained from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the National Health Interview ...

The aim of this study is to look into the social utility of personalised electronic health using the home-based healthcare as a case study. For this purpose research was carried out based on a review of the literature, resulting in a drawing of the following conclusions: (a) the existence of ...

Population ageing needs health-enabling technologies for delivering pervasive health care. Home care plays an import role in pervasive health care. In this paper, we aim to construct a home-centered health information system architecture which can efficiently manage multi sensors, actuators and decision support systems. Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGI) was ...

By 2050, about one third of the French population will be over 65. Our laboratory's current research focuses on the monitoring of elderly people at home, to detect a loss of autonomy as early as possible. Our aim is to quantify criteria such as the international activities of daily living ...

The date, 7 February 2009, will be known forever in Victoria, Australia as "Black Saturday". In the worst bushfires in Australian history, 173 lives were lost. Townships were razed. Over 1800 homes were destroyed, resulting in >7000 people being made homeless. The provision of health care to the injured, and ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether there are disparities in utilization of outpatient and home care services after stroke. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: The Kaiser Permanente of Northern California health care system, which provides health care for approximately 3.3 million members. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 11,119 patients hospitalized for a stroke ...

The Preventive Health Education and Medical Home Project (PHEMHP) is a predictive and contextual model intended to reduce low levels of health services utilization and improve preventive health techniques and disease self-management for low-income families in South Central Los Angeles, with the ultimate goal of attaching each child to a ...

OBJECTIVE: The Medicare home health benefit is predicated on physician referral and involvement. In this study, we investigated (1) the frequency and (2) implications of home health patients' evaluation and management by community physicians. METHODS: The 2005 and 2006 Medicare 5% Standard Analytic Files were linked to the Outcome and ...

The Environmental Health/Home Safety Education Project (Proyecto de Salud Ambiental y Seguridad en el Hogar) has been developed in response to a wide array of severe and often preventable environmental health issues occurring in and around homes on the U.S.-Mexico border. Utilizing well-trained community members, called promotoras , homes are ...

Chronic, long-term exposure to indoor air pollutants is increasingly being recognized as a threat to health. Vulnerable populations, such as those with cognitive disabilities, the elderly, and children, are frequently at increased risk from these hazards. This study assessed home environmental health hazards, home characteristics, and household practices that create ...

Ms. J. is a 60-year-old woman with severe Raynaud's phenomenon, bibasilar pulmonary fibrosis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with dysphagia, and muscle weakness. What is a possible rheumatological diagnosis and what might the home health clinician do next?

In an ageing world, maintaining good health and independence for as long as possible is essential. Instead of hospitalization or institutionalization, the elderly and disabled can be assisted in their own environment 24h a day with numerous 'smart' devices. The concept of the smart home is a promising and cost-effective ...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the post-rehabilitation experiences of First Nations persons with spinal cord injury who returned to live on reserve using a wheelchair. METHOD: A phenomenological approach with purposive sampling was employed to recruit participants with spinal cord injuries who used ...

People who perform paid work may benefit from psychological restoration afforded by a leisure home and its natural surroundings. This may hinder the development of some forms of life-threatening illness. Using longitudinal register data for 108,114 employed Swedes, we assessed the prospective association between leisure home ownership and death before ...

BACKGROUND:: In response to the evolving nature of potential disasters, both human made and natural, this research identifies predictors of individual emergency preparedness and compliance with government requests. METHODS:: A survey of a nationally representative sample of US adults (1629 respondents) revealed which emergency supplies and plans they had in ...

There is the potential for home health nurses and other home care clinicians to be subjected to intrusive and possibly stalking behavior by current and former clients. Most healthcare clinicians do not receive training on the risk of intrusive interactions or stalking, nor on strategies to manage this objectionable client ...

Intervention in the home environment to reduce asthma triggers theoretically improves health outcomes for asthmatic children. Practical benefit from application of these interventions has proven difficult. This single-blind study tested the effectiveness of simple low-cost home interventions in improving health scores of children with asthma. Families with at least one ...

PURPOSE: Studies suggest peer-led self-management training improves chronic illness outcomes by enhancing illness management self-efficacy. Limitations of most studies, however, include use of multiple outcome measures without predesignated primary outcomes and lack of randomized follow-up beyond 6 months. We conducted a 1-year randomized controlled trial of Homing in on Health ...

There is an enormous impact of home conditions both on the health of an older person living with a long-term illness, and their ability to remain independent in the face of disability. Geriatricians are often called upon to give advice to older people with a new illness about where to ...

The aims of this study were to test the Norwegian version of Goldberg's 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) in a group of older, care-dependent individuals living at home; to describe self-reported mental health; and to relate mental health to receiving home nursing, home help, and family care. A sample of ...

The aging population and the associated rise in the prevalence of chronic conditions suggest that the home health population is increasingly complex and challenging to manage. The purpose of this study was to use national administrative data (Outcome and Assessment Information Set assessments of persons discharged in 2004 and 2005) ...

The ballistocardiogram (BCG) measures the reaction of the body to cardiac ejection forces, and is an effective, non-invasive means of evaluating cardiovascular function. A simple, robust method is presented for acquiring high-quality, repeatable BCG signals from a modified, commercially available scale. The measured BCG waveforms for all subjects qualitatively matched ...

Home e-health systems and services are revealed as one of the most important challenges to promote Quality of Life related to Health in the Information Society. Leading companies have worked on e-health systems although the majority of them are addressed to hospital or primary care settings. The solution detailed in ...

Daily monitoring of health condition is important for an effective scheme for early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of lifestyle-related diseases such as adiposis, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other diseases. Commercially available devices for health care monitoring at home are cumbersome in terms of self-attachment of biological sensors and self-operation of ...

PURPOSE: It is considered good practice that amputees remain in a wheelchair until fitted with a prosthesis. However, this practice is not evidence based. In the first of a series of studies in pre prosthetic mobility, this study will explore the individual amputees' perspective. METHOD: A total of 25 participants ...

Eunuchs in India, commonly known as 'Hirjas', are under-represented and marginalized. They rarely access conventional health-provider systems due to mistrust and fear of censure. This is the story of Asha, who was brave enough to approach a community medicine resident in a municipal hospital for medical aid and counselling, and ...

In Andalusia, Spain, the pandemic influenza A(H1N1)v virus has spread throughout the community, being the dominant influenza strain in the season so far. The current objective of the Andalusia Health Service is focussed on the mitigation of the health and social impact by appropriate care of the patients at home ...

The actual mechanisms that maintain the individual disparities in home computer use and internet access that are collectively termed "the digital divide" remain unclear. We hypothesized that geographic accessibility to IT retailers would independently influence community clinic patients self reported use of computers at home thus limiting their ability to ...