How to Set Targets

On the My Target Setting pages for each publicly reported quality measure, you can select various performance-based methods to see what your target would be with each method -- or you can enter a target of your own choice. Whatever target-setting method you choose, think critically about the target. Think about your current quality measure scores, your Home Health Compare or OBQI reports, and what your home health agency plans to focus on during the next year. What can your home health agency achieve in four quarters? Your targets should be achievable, but targets should also encourage your home health agency to "raise the bar" for quality.

Target-Setting Methods

• State Average

  On average, what are your peers accomplishing? Your peers may be local competitors or sister-organizations (if your agency is part of a home health chain). Choose the state average as your target to aim for what home health agencies in your state are already achieving. For example, if your state average for the Improvement in the Management of Oral Medications is 41%, your four-quarter target will be 41%. This method uses Home Health Compare data to determine your targets.
  
  

• National Average

  On average, what are home health agencies nationwide accomplishing? Choose the national average as your target to aim for what home health agencies nationwide are already achieving. For example, if the national average for Acute Care Hospitalization is 38%, your four-quarter target will be 38%. This method uses Home Health Compare data to determine your targets.
  
  

• Percentile Ranking

  What are high-performing home health agencies nationwide already achieving? The percentile ranking method allows you to see the cutoff scores for various percentile rankings of home health agencies nationwide (10th percentile, 20th percentile, etc.). For example, if you select the 10th percentile ranking for Improvement in Oral Medications, you will see the score you need to perform as well as, or better than, the top 10 percent of home health agencies nationwide. If the best 10 percent home health agencies are achieving 67%, your target will be 67% or higher. This method uses Home Health Compare data to determine your targets.
  
  

• Percent Improvement

  What will your target be if you improve your quality measure score by a certain percent? This method allows you to specify any percent of improvement (for example, 20%) and apply that to your current quality measure score. For example, if you apply a 20% improvement to an Acute Care Hospitalization score of 20%, your four-quarter target will be 16%. This method uses Home Health Compare data to determine your targets.
  
  

• Other

  Do you have another method for selecting a target? If your method is not reflected in either the performance-based or staff-selected targets, select this option. You can then enter your target and provide a brief description of how you chose it.

Submitting Targets