Abstract:
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Four publicly reported composite measures (care of patients, communication between providers and patients, specific care issues, and overall rating of care) are used to produce an overall summary measure for each agency. The "star" rating assignment process consists of three main steps: 1) computing the Euclidian distance of the measure scores between each pair of home health agencies, 2) grouping the measure scores into an initial set of clusters using Ward's minimum variance method, and 3) refining the selections to produce a final set of clusters. This presentation will describe the methodology used to produce five-star quality ratings for home healthcare agencies. Additionally, a review of the steps used to evaluate the ratings will be presented including a brief review of clustering methods considered, determining if five groupings was a good fit, and testing size limits for health care agencies. Potential improvements that may be taken will also be presented. Data from the Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) is used to demonstrate the clustering methodology.
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