Hospice nursing guidelines

[Steve RN BSN]

I had worked as a hospice CNA for about 5 years before I graduated nursing school. I've been working hospice PRN as an RN for about 8 months now. I'm curious as to where I can find Medicare/gov't guidelines pertaining to RN frequencies....ie what is the difference between 1 visit weekly and 1 visit every 7 days. I have always assumed(yeah I know) that 1 visit weekly means 1 visit between the companies selected work week.

For example the company selects Sunday through Saturday as the work week....the pts frequency is entered as 1 visit weekly...I make a visit on Monday and the following week I make a visit on Wednesday...I have been told that I am out of compliance because 1 visit weekly is the same as 1 visit every 7 days......I'm confused.

[kicnic]

What you was told is absolutely not true. I am a home health nurse. If you write your frequency for 1W4 or whatever that just means you will see the pt one time a week for 4 weeks, not every 7 days, it doesn't matter what day of the week you do your visit, just that it is only one time for that week. Now if you write your frequency for q 7 days then that means that you will do a visit every 7 days. I hope that clears things up for you. Kim