Hospital based agency

URanurse · Jun 17, 2007

I am an Intake Coordinator for our hospital based home health/hospice agency. Twice a week I meet with the Charge Nurse and we review patients that might need home health assistance after discharge. We are considered a rural area (50 miles from another hospital) and happen to be the only home health agency in our area. After the meeting with the Charge Nurse, I check the chart and if appropriate place a form on the chart asking the doctor if the patient would benefit from home health/hospice. Issues have been brought to the CEO's attention/Compliance Officer/Etc that what I am doing is violation of HIPPA. They state that because I am not involved in direct patient care we should not be allowed that information.

1. They want Social Services to continue discharge planning. I find this lacking since they are not medically driven and sometimes do not check charts sometimes for >4-5 days or not at all. We were asked several years ago not to attend Discharge Planning.

2. Utilization Review is not in direct patient care either and they have access to the patient's charts.

3. Can it be a conflict of interest if we suggest home health after discharge and our agency happens to be the only agency in the area? If another agency was in the area, the patient could then choose which one they want.

4. Why is not considered continuity of care?

I hope this is not too lengthy. Are you involved in hospital discharge planning at all? I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks.

URanurse · Jun 17, 2007

I am sorry, I forgot to reply to your question. Our hospital-based home health nurses make the same pay if they work in the hospital or home health. All are based on years of experience/education/certifications.

Cattitude · Jun 17, 2007

I hope this is not too lengthy. Are you involved in hospital discharge planning at all? I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks.

I, personally am not. We have separate Liason coordinators that do that job inside the hospital. They review charts and then refer pt's to home care. Where I live there are many agencies so the pt. actually could choose a different agency if they wanted, so no conflict of interest.

yaya1 · Jun 20, 2007

I am also from a hospital based agency. We are treated as hospital employees as far as wages and benefits.

caliotter3 · Jul 10, 2007

All of the hospital based home health agencies that I have visited looking for the possibilities of work have only had listings for RNs, and some of the job postings stated that BSN was preferred. Since I'm only an LVN, I have to stick with the agencies that utilize us.

bgogal · Aug 3, 2007

Do any of you work for a hospital based agency?
As most of you may know, I do , I've posted it before. It seems I'm the only one that does however. Where I live, there are several hosp. based agencies. I just wonder if they pay better/offer better benefits?

I used to work for a hospital based home health agency. The pay was the same as hospital staff if not higher coz we were exempt and the hospital staff were union.

bgogal · Aug 3, 2007

I am an Intake Coordinator for our hospital based home health/hospice agency. Twice a week I meet with the Charge Nurse and we review patients that might need home health assistance after discharge. We are considered a rural area (50 miles from another hospital) and happen to be the only home health agency in our area. After the meeting with the Charge Nurse, I check the chart and if appropriate place a form on the chart asking the doctor if the patient would benefit from home health/hospice. Issues have been brought to the CEO's attention/Compliance Officer/Etc that what I am doing is violation of HIPPA. They state that because I am not involved in direct patient care we should not be allowed that information.
1. They want Social Services to continue discharge planning. I find this lacking since they are not medically driven and sometimes do not check charts sometimes for >4-5 days or not at all. We were asked several years ago not to attend Discharge Planning.
2. Utilization Review is not in direct patient care either and they have access to the patient's charts.
3. Can it be a conflict of interest if we suggest home health after discharge and our agency happens to be the only agency in the area? If another agency was in the area, the patient could then choose which one they want.
4. Why is not considered continuity of care?
I hope this is not too lengthy. Are you involved in hospital discharge planning at all? I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks.

When I used to work for hospital based agency, we had continuing care coordinators who does those things. Since you're the only provider in that area, dunno why it would be an issue. :uhoh3: