AHHQI Announces Second Round of Home Health Research Projects

The research projects range in topic from policy to clinical innovation to caring for patients with dementia in the home

WASHINGTON – The Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (AHHQI) is proud to announce the awardees for its second annual home health research grant funding cycle to researchers from George Mason University and L&M Policy Research, LLC. The selected projects will focus on cultural sensitivity in home health care and implications of frontloading in home health episodes, respectively.

“The Alliance is once again excited to be funding necessary and exciting research in home health care,” said Donald Stelly, Chairman of the Alliance’s Board of Directors. “Through the Alliance’s grant funding the organization has been able to support researchers doing critical work in improving care delivered in the home and pushing forward toward the future of home health care benefitting patients, caregivers, providers, and the healthcare system at large.”

Researcher Mary Narayan, MSN, RN, HHCNS-BC, CTN-A, COS-C, a PhD student at George Mason University School of Nursing, will be looking at crucial elements of providing culturally sensitive care in the home setting, developing strategies to facilitate culture-sensitive, patient-centered assessments that support effective care plans. The project will aim to build, based on rigorous research, a modular training program for use in continuing education programs and inservice training for home healthcare clinicians; it will also serve to help update an existing cultural assessment and care planning tool. Ms. Narayan’s work will be supported by R. Kevin Mallinson, PhD, RN, an Associate Professor of Nursing and Division Director for the PhD in Nursing Program.

Additionally, researchers at L&M Policy Research, LLC will be tackling the use of frontloading in Medicare fee-for-service home health care by looking at the timing, number and type of home health health visits, and how frontloading is being operationalized currently. The goal of the research to serve as a backbone for future research on the impacts of frontloading and ultimately identifying the most effective approaches to frontloading for improving patient care. Julia Doherty, M.H.S.A., Senior Research Director, and Brant Morefield, PhD, Senior Researcher, both at L&M Policy, LLC, will serve as the lead researchers on the project.

The 2019 funding builds off the tremendous success established by the previous grant funding cycle. This year’s projects are amongst six ongoing research projects funded by the Alliance. Previous grant awardees focus on home health for patients with dementia, communication between providers of care, a hospital to home intervention program, and policy implications for home health care delivery.

All projects were selected for their excellence in improving the delivery of care at home, as well as aligning with the Alliance’s mission of demonstrating the value of home health care.

The 2020 funding cycle opened in mid-October and will close Friday, December 27, 2019. For more information about the open request for proposals, please visit the Alliance’s website at www.ahhqi.org or reach out to the Alliance’s Director, Policy Communications & Research, Jennifer Schiller, at jschiller@ahhqi.org.

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The Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (the Alliance) is comprised of leaders in the home health care community – including several of the largest home health care providers in the United States and the largest national trade association representing home health care providers. The mission of the Alliance is to foster research and education on the value of home health care to patients and the overall U.S. health care system. The Alliance is dedicated to improving the nation’s health care system through development of high quality and innovative solutions aimed at achieving optimal clinical outcomes. To learn more, visit www.ahhqi.org.

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