Risk & Quality Management Assessment Summary
Jennifer Swan
HCS/451
September 09, 2014
Charriet Womble

Risk & Quality Management Assessment Summary

Amedisys home health & hospice care organization has been an accredited business since August 15, 2008 with the BBB. At Amedisys these skilled nursing individuals can assist family and loved ones with recovering from surgery, illness, living with a chronic disease such as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) or Diabetes. They can even go further and aid in the preparation of walking with an individual’s family member while they go through their own journey living out their last days with dignity. Amedisys staff works closely with the individuals personal physicians and they decide the best route to take with their care.
• Risk & Quality Management
Nurses notes, physician’s notes, and even aides notes these are all forms of communication that will be needed in order to properly care for any individual as they progress through the home health or hospice program. When a new patient is enrolled they are given a folder with all the specific information needed to keep track of their medications, nurse’s visits, physician visits, aides, and even if they receive light housekeeping these are all essential to how they are cared for throughout this program. Without communication the jobs of the employee’s cannot be fulfilled to their fullest and our organization cannot meet its goals properly. As a team each of the staff as they visit add their notes upon finishing their visit with a patient then they initial and leave the folder in a place where it can be found for the next visiting staff member. Each week a member from our Human Resources Department and our Social Worker will visit with the patient just to check in and see how the patient is doing if there are any complaints or if they need anything that has not already been ordered by one of the other visiting staff members prior to the administration visits. If things are left out or not properly done then this is where problems start to happen and the patient’s life and quality of care starts to be placed at risk. The number one goal is the patient and their comfort how well are they doing, do they need/want anything and can the staff make it better.
• Identify & Manage Risks
Home health care and hospice have a different set of rules at times but with those rules there are risks for both the company and the individuals involved. When treating individuals whom are on hospice and ultimately will take their last breathe at some point staff must leave family members with a box that contains medications that will aid in the patients comfort, the staff will educate the family members on the box of medications and how to administer them as well as have the family sign the waiver stating that if they decide to administer these drugs they will not hold Amedisys liable for any mishaps that may happen in the case of an overdose or loss of life as an outcome. Falls are another large risk for home health care in fact they are a larger risk than in a facility due to the fact that there is no constant supervision for the patient and this can at times lead to many incident reports the nursing staff leading to the admission into a facility where Amedisys will then pick up the patients care along with the constant supervision of the staff in a facility.
• Three Risks in the Organization
Staff usually does not have to come in to the home base unless they are picking up supplies or checking in for their scheduled dates or unless there is a meeting. Amedisys supplies staff with laptops in order to log their mileage, time spent with the patient, how many patients seen, days on and days off, etc. Staff is expected to be professional at all times and show up at their scheduled times with patients. Recently there have been issues where staff members thought it would be okay to go to a patient’s house late not a few minutes or