Arkansas State Hospice and Palliative Care Association

 

 

 

What is Quality Partners?

Quality Partners is a national, cooperative effort, developed and directed by NHPCO, to build organizational excellence and improve hospice and palliative care delivery and outcomes. Designed “by hospice, for hospice,” Quality Partners is a national performance improvement initiative that provides tools and resources to help hospices assess and monitor the quality of care and services they provide and determine areas in need of improvement — participation is free and a benefit of membership for all NHPCO provider members. Quality Partners is a “work in progress” that, by design, will evolve in the months and years ahead as participants learn from each other, respond to new challenges and continuously strive to improve the quality of care provided to patients and their families.

*excerpt from NHPCO

Why should your hospice join
Quality Partners?

Hospice programs across the country are invited to work with NHPCO and their state hospice organization in a shared commitment towards promoting excellence and improving quality. This national quality initiative will provide your hospice with tools and resources to help with daily operations as well as compliance
with regulations, particularly the proposed Quality Assessment
and Performance Improvement (QAPI) requirements under the Medicare Conditions of Participation (COPs).  The greater the number of hospices that join Quality Partners, the stronger the initiative will be and the more likely that the hospice industry will have the opportunity to direct its own future with regard to performance measurement and improvement.

*excerpt from NHPCO

10 Components to Quality Partners

• Patient and Family Centered Care
  Providing care and services that are responsive to the needs and exceed the expectations of those we serve.
   
• Ethical Behavior and Consumer Rights
  Upholding high standards of ethical conduct and advocating for the rights of patients and their family caregivers.
   
• Clinical Excellence and Safety
  Ensuring clinical excellence and promoting safety through standards of practice.
   
• Inclusion and Access
  Promoting inclusiveness in our community by ensuring that all people — regardless of race, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or other characteristics — have access to our programs and services.
   
• Organizational Excellence
  Building a culture of quality and accountability within our organization that values collaboration and communication and ensures ethical business practices.
   
• Workforce Excellence
  Fostering a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment that promotes inclusion, individual accountability and workforce excellence, through professional development, training, and support to all staff and volunteers.
   
• Standards
  Adopting the NHPCO Standards of Practice for Hospice Programs and/or the National Consensus Project’s Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care as the foundation for an organization.
   
• Compliance with Laws and Regulations Ensuring compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and professional standards of practice, and implementing systems and processes that prevent fraud and abuse.
   
• Stewardship and Accountability
  Developing a qualified and diverse governance structure and senior leadership who share the responsibilities of fiscal and managerial oversight.
   
• Performance Measurement
  Collecting, analyzing, and actively using performance measurement data to foster quality assessment and performance improvement in all areas of care and services.

Helpful Links

• Getting Started
• 10 Steps
• Self Assessment

Hospices in Arkansas to Meet the Challenge!

• Hospice Home Care

• Arkansas Hospice

• St. Edward Mercy Hospice

• Hospice of the Ozarks

• St Bernard's Hospice

• Hospice of the Hills

• Washington Regional Hospice

• Peachtree Hospice