HH Visit Frequency term

[MRSGOLABONTE]

i am in a debate with a co-worker over terminolgy. ;-) when writing visit orders, a lot of agencies seem to go with the sun-sat week. therefore if a patient is admitted on a wednesday, the first week is wed-sat and then sun-sat for the final eight weeks. what do y'all call this week, as in asking someone, "what is your ______ week?" i've always heard of it as a medicare start week. she claims it's referred to as an agency start week. what do y'all call it?

on a separate note, what is the week start at your agency. we actually had a rolling start week [soc date defined the start date], but i'm finding that's rare.

thanks for any feedback y'all could provide!!!!!

karen

[MN RN]

i've heard several different terms used, but i'm not sure what exactly it would be called besides a 60 day episode using one of the weeks below:

there's the "medicare week" which is the rolling start of care week and quite confusing when determining missed visits because you have to know what day of the week the episode started on and each client is different.

then there's the typical "calendar week" which is sunday through saturday. if the soc is on a wednesday then week one is wednesday through saturday and the remaining weeks sun-sat. you just have to watch the end day and make sure that it is 60 days.

finally, there's the "agency designated week". we use this. it runs wednesday - tuesday and coincides with our payroll and billing cycles. you have to watch the 60 days. for example if you do the admit on a monday, the 60th day actually falls in the 10th week making the frequency 2w1, 7w8, 2w1.

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I have seen everything under the sun to describe the weeks in agencies. I have seen every day of the week. Some companies to be simplied with match their pay day cycle/turn in time cards etc. Some go with the Sunday first day of the week. Some go with the first visit of the patient and move forward and count weeks.

renerian