The Care Coordination Team from Superior Health Quality Alliance developed a FREE Home Care toolkit to prevent emergency department visits and hospital readmissions through timeliness of care of home care services. The Timeliness of Care Toolkit (described below) includes a Home Care Intake Scripting Tool (HIS Tool), and Home Care Acceptance Tracking Tool (HAT Tool).  

• Timeliness of Care Toolkit: 
• • The HIS (Scripting) Tool can be used to guide your initial and ongoing discussion with potential clients and/or caregivers. It normalizes home care as a crucial component of health care to improve well-being and prevent relapses and readmissions. 
  • The HAT (Tracking) Tool is an Excel spreadsheet that is very easy to use, requiring only 2 checkmarks (if services were accepted or declined,  and if the scripting tool was used). There are (optional) drop-down responses (why services were declined, and suggestions for improvement). The HAT Tool provides weekly and monthly comparisons of home care acceptance rates, correlating with the use of the HIS (scripting) Tool.

Home Care Agencies can download, use, and share the links to the Timeliness of Care Toolkit with other agencies. You can start by viewing the 30-minute Instructional Video, refer to the PowerPoint, and use the Example HAT Tool to practice before you begin using the toolkit. 

• Time for implementation: The Excel tool is very easy to use and implement. It may add a minute (or two) to your intake process, and it calculates acceptance rates automatically.