title: Correlation between home health resource utilization measures.
abstract: The study explored the strengths of the correlation between three home health resource utilization measures: number of visits, length of stay, and total direct care time. The setting was four home health agencies in the northwest; 2,788 home health episodes of care were studied. The results showed that although number of visits and total direct care time were highly correlated (r = .96), the strength of the correlation between number of visits and length of stay (r = .65) and total direct care time and length of stay (r = .63) were only moderate. Although visit counts and direct care time were redundant measures in the mostly fee-for-service reimbursement environment of the current study, in a prospective payment environment where visit length may show increased variation, researchers will need to confirm redundancy in the two measures.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, USA. ceadams@utep.edu
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Michel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D017050:Episode of Care; D018588:Fee-for-Service Plans; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006792:House Calls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs; D006278:Medicare; D008875:Middle Aged; D015205:Northwestern United States; D009939:Organizations, Nonprofit; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D014600:Utilization Review / Q000379:methods*