Hospice Data Analytics Tools and Visualization Can Help You Increase Quality and Reduce Compliance Risk

CMS hospice survey overhaul highlights need for timely data insights

“Hospices should be paying close attention to effective development and adherence to care plans when it comes to compliance in 2023.” This warning in a Hospice News article earlier this year was in response to new rules from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that overhaul the way surveyors evaluate hospice programs.

This redesign of the hospice survey process was instigated to address growing concerns about quality of care in hospice. Deficiencies in care plan, especially related to visit frequency, are among the top issues cited by surveyors. And it’s no surprise, given the labor shortage and the high volume of terminally ill patients many hospice providers are juggling. As Susan Mills, senior program director with the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), told Hospice News, “I know why a lot of these [deficiencies] happen; it is because they’re so stressed now. Everyone’s short-staffed, and they just have a lot more responsibilities.” 

Hospice providers can head off compliance problems at the pass with upgraded data analytics

Growing regulatory scrutiny, declining reimbursements, rising costs—it all adds up to the fact that hospice providers have to do more with less. Leveraging technology is the key to doing so.

Surveyors want to see that you have systems and processes in place to detect and correct issues as they happen. But without automation, proactively detecting and correcting compliance failures is nearly impossible. By leveraging business intelligence technology backed by a robust data warehouse, organizational leaders gain the sightline they need to enable continuous process improvement.

Business intelligence tools automatically pull data from other key systems and translate those data points into critical key performance indicators (KPIs), displayed in easy-to-read dashboards. As a result, clinical workers are able to function at the top of their licenses because they have timely and reliable data at their fingertips to address patient issues in real-time rather than having to wait months after the fact. Meanwhile, the FTEs who otherwise would need to perform these processes manually are free to focus on higher-value, more productive tasks.

Perhaps most important, business intelligence tools for hospice providers enable clinical leaders to triage upcoming issues and bring their organizations back into compliance long before the auditor or surveyor shows up. For example, if a patient’s care plan calls for three visits a week, and the patient has only been seen twice, do you have a way to find out about that potentially missed visit before it’s too late? Whereas most electronic medical systems in use today lack the capability to inform leaders about upcoming deficiencies, business intelligence tools proactively “nudge” clinical leaders with data insights they need to identify and rectify these problems before they are actually out of compliance.

Become a data-driven organization by leveraging hospice data analytics

Now more than ever, hospice providers need strategies and tools to help achieve and maintain compliance efficiently and effectively. Become a data-driven organization to unlock efficiencies and turbo-boost your organization’s productivity.

Contact Maureen M. Lehsten, CPA, for a complimentary consultation to learn how our hospice consulting services can help your hospice or palliative care organization develop a strategy to navigate industry change.