Program Description: This program has been developed to assist experienced home health managers to enhance the operational performance of their home health agency.  Our introductory Home Care 101 course provides the basics of home care operations.  Home Care 201 is the next level.  Improving clinical performance and financial management in a Medicare skilled home health agency is the focus of Home Care 201.  Essential to improving agency operations is identifying clinical issues that impact performance.  This program will provide strategies to refine and improve billing performance as well as explain the important relationship between clinical and financial areas of the agency.  This focus is important as the future viability of home care operations will be determined by the agency’s ability to remain current with changing regulations, the ongoing focus on patient outcomes, declining reimbursement, and closer scrutiny by auditors that can lead to denials.  Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring to the program a written description of at least one problem that they need to resolve within their agency; the goal is to best serve the individual's purpose for attending the class. Program Objectives:

• Recognize clinical issues impacting performance management
• Discuss how to manage the relationship between clinical and financial areas of the agency to optimize performance in each area
• Identify the challenges and strategies to improve billing performance and reimbursement issues
• Describe how to enhance financial performance through sound financial decisions in order to ensure the future of the agency
• Identify useful data management techniques through the use of dashboards and benchmarking
• Discuss current audit activities and strategies to minimize denials
• Discuss additional current issues impacting home health agency operations

Who Should Attend:  This virtual workshop is best suited to individuals who have a minimum of 1 year experience in home health management and operation of an established Medicare certified agency. Presenter Kathy Royer, RN, MBA, DMin, CHPN, CHPCA is the Regulatory Director for the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice.  She is a registered nurse with more than 22 years of experience in hospice.  She served as a corporate division director with a demonstrated history of improvement in quality scores.  She has expertise in hospice and hospital environments.  Kathy is skilled in corporate leadership development, operations management, regulatory consultation, coaching, Palliative Care, team building, and as a cultural change agent.

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This is a Virtual Event Program Overview: This course, designed for nurses preparing to take the certification exam for hospice and palliative nurses.  However, if you are already certified you can use this class as part of your continuing education requirement.  The program is additionally intended to benefit any nurse working in hospice, home health, oncology or other settings who are caring for patients with end stage disease processes. The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association offers a “Clinical Review for The Generalist Hospice and Palliative Nurse” as a means of preparing the practitioner for certification.  Nurses who participate in this 2-day review can expect a general presentation of the course material via multi-media tools, handouts and lectures, as well as individual and group exercises to reinforce the information. The goal of this presentation is to promote and review the special knowledge of hospice nursing care as well as disease progression.  Regulatory aspects of the Medicare benefit are also included.  The material is presented congruently with the study guide for the generalist hospice and palliative nurse.  To be eligible for the exam, an applicant must hold a current registered nursing license, and it is recommended that candidates have at least 2 years of experience in hospice and palliative nursing practice. Program Objectives:

• Describe methods of establishing care goals for hospice and palliative care settings.
• Define the components of treatment decisions.
• State the principles of effective pain management.
• Identify the components of a thorough pain assessment.
• Define common symptoms present at the end of life.
• Describe pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for common symptoms that can be included in the plan of care at the end of life.
• Discuss the management of dying, grief and bereavement in any care setting.
• Describe examples of self-determined needs in end of life care.

Exam Registration: The certification examination for hospice and palliative nurses is computer based, offered at various times throughout the year.  For more information and for an exam application, contact the National Board for Certification of Hospice & Palliative Nurses (http://hpcc.advancingexpertcare.org). Presenter: Kathy Royer, RN, MBA, DMin, CHPN, CHPCA, CEHCH is the hospice regulatory director for the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice.  She is a registered nurse with more than 23 years of experience in hospice.  She served as a corporate division director with a demonstrated history of improvement in quality scores.  She has expertise in hospice and hospital environments.  Kathy is skilled in corporate leadership development, operations management, regulatory consultation, coaching, Palliative Care, team building, and as a cultural change agent.

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