How do quality standards for long-term care and home health care vary in comparison to quality standards for other types of health care organizations?

Many health care organizations are part of a general network or group of health care facilities that may include urgent and acute care centers as well as long-term care or home health care centers. Within the context of health care delivery, the focus usually tends to fall on hospitals and acute care centers. However, with advances in health care organizational structures and strides taken with the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, most health care organizations are more a reflection of integrated health systems that offer services for urgent, acute care and long-term care and home health care services.

For this Discussion, review the quality indicators for long-term and home health care organizations in the resources for this week. Reflect on the measures obtained and how this may relate to your role as a health care executive in promoting effective and efficient health care delivery.

Post an explanation of how quality standards for long-term and home health care facilities might differ. Then, explain how you, as a health executive at a hospital, might determine potential partners for an integrated health system that includes long-term care and home health care. Explain how the potential partners may help to reinforce the mission and vision of your health care organization. Then, explain how this type of partnership or integration may be reflective of social change for consumer-driven health care. Be specific and provide examples.

Resources

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (n.d.-a).About home health care compare data Links to an external site.. Retrieved from https://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/Data/About.html
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2015b). Nursing home quality initiative Links to an external site.. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/NursingHomeQualityInits/index.html
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2016b). Home health compare datasets Links to an external site.. Retrieved from https://data.medicare.gov/data/home-health-compare
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2016d). Nursing home compare Links to an external site.. Retrieved from https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html