FOR OVER TWO DECADES OASIS HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY USED BY CLINICIANS AND HOME HEALTH AGENCIES
Home health agencies have been using OASIS as a basis for quality measures for quite some time now. This patient-specific assessment tool has existed for over two decades, with revisions done periodically to enhance quality and development, and with the goal of ultimately improving the care provided to patients. OASIS has proven to be of great help to home health agencies.
OASIS, otherwise known as The Outcome and Assessment Information Set, is a standardized assessment tool used to measure home health care outcomes comparatively. When we say comparatively, it is because it is done at two important points in a patients’ time when receiving home care – at the very beginning, and at the end. This is done to be able to determine a patient’s status before receiving home care, and after receiving home care at the end of a quality episode. By doing this, health agencies, physicians, and clinicians will have a quality measure report on patients’ improvement, unchanged condition, or worsening of condition with the end goal of having sufficient knowledge of the patients’ overall status and functional condition, and be able to apply these in improving patients’ overall quality of care.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN OASIS-E
On January 1, 2023, OASIS-E will finally be implemented. Looking back at the year 1999 when OASIS was first implemented, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services received a lot of feedback about the assessment tool as many experts suggested areas of improvement. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services first revised OASIS-E in 2020 with plans of implementing it in 2021 but unfortunately it got delayed because of the global health crisis that we faced since the start of 2020. A finalized version of the OASIS-E is said to be expected within this year. Nonetheless, providers should be preparing for the changes that comes with OASIS-E.
As of February 1, 2022, an updated draft of OASIS-E is posted on the CMS website. From what we learned from there, here are some of the updated fields on the new OASIS:
Section A Administrative Information
Item Removed:
- M0140 – Race/Ethnicity
Items Added:
- A1005 – Ethnicity
- A1010 – Race
- A1110 – Language
- A1250 – Transportation
- A2120 – Provision of Current Reconciled Medication List to Subsequent Provider at Transfer
- A2121 – Provision of Current Reconciled Medication List to Subsequent Provider at Discharge
- A2122 – Route of Current Reconciled Medication List Transmission to Subsequent Provider
- A2123 – Provision of Current Reconciled Medication List to Patient at Discharge
- A2124 – Route of Current Reconciled Medication List Transmission to Patient
Section B Hearing, Speech, Vision
Item Removed:
- M1200 – Vision
Items Added:
- B0200 – Hearing
- B1000 – Vision
- B1300 – Health Literacy
Section C Cognitive Patterns
Items Added:
- C0100 – BIMS: Should Brief Interview for Mental Status (C0200-C0500) be Conducted?
- C0200 – BIMS: Repetition of Three Words
- C0300 – BIMS: Temporal Orientation
- C0400 – BIMS: Recall
- C0500 – BIMS: Summary Score
- C1310 – Signs and Symptoms of Delirium (from CAM©)
Section D Mood
Item Removed:
- M1730 – Depression Screening
Items Added:
- D0150 – Patient Mood Interview (PHQ-2 to 9)
- D0160 – Total Severity Score
- D0700 – Social Isolation
Section J Health Conditions
Item Removed:
- M1242 – Frequency of Pain Interference with Activity
- M1910 – Falls Risk Assessment
Items Added:
- J0510 – Pain Effect on Sleep
- J0520 – Pain Interference with Therapy Activities
- J0530 – Pain Interference with Day-to-Day Activities
Section K Swallowing/Nutritional Status
Item Removed:
- M1030 – Therapies Received at Home
Item Added:
- K0520 – Nutritional Approaches
Section N Medications
Item Removed:
- M2016 – Patient/Caregiver Drug Education Intervention
Item Added:
- N0415 – High-Risk Drug Classes: Use and Indication
Section O Special Treatments, Procedures, and Programs
Items Removed:
- M1051 – Pneumococcal Vaccine
- M1056 – Reason PPV Not Received
Item Added:
- O0110 – Special Treatments, Procedures, and Programs
With these changes in mind, home health providers should prepare to undergo a lot of education and training strategy with the new information regarding OASIS-E before 2023 comes around. OASIS have been updated throughout the years since home health is ever-evolving. Until now, OASIS proves to be true to providing effective safety guidelines, timely and efficient assessment, and equitable and patient-centered documentation in quality home health measurement.
REFERENCES:
- OASIS Data Sets | CMS. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/OASIS-Data-Sets. Accessed 18 Apr. 2022.
- O’CONNOR, MELISSA, and JOAN K. DAVITT. “The Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS): A Review of Validity and Reliability.” Home Health Care Services Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 4, 2012, pp. 267–301. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1080/01621424.2012.703908.
