Earlier this month, on Jan.12, WiHPCA held its latest quarterly meeting with the WI Department of Health Services’ Division of Quality Assurance (DQA), providing our members an opportunity to engage with agency staff and learn about DQA regulatory activity during the fourth quarter of 2022.  

If you have not had an opportunity to attend one of our past DQA meetings, we would encourage you to attend the next meeting in April and help the hospice industry build and maintain a strong working relationship with DQA staff. The meetings also provide WiHPCA members with valuable regulatory information and updates, as well as a unique chance to ask questions and request guidance from the agency.

For members who were not able to attend the Jan. 12 meeting, please find below a high-level overview of DQA’s quarterly report for fourth quarter 2022:

• Hospice Surveys

Total Surveys:  9
Recertification Surveys:  1
Complaint Surveys:  8

Complaints Overview:

Complaints investigated: 8

Unique allegations: 11
Substantiated complaints related to:
·         Quality of care and treatment
·         Nursing services
·         Patient rights
Citations Overview
o   No health citations were written in fourth quarter 2022
o   Life safety code violations included:
K281 – Exit lights not working
K354 – Insufficient sprinkler outage plan
K712 – Fire drill timing deficiencies
Other Key Information
o   DQA is currently up-to-date on recertification and complaint surveys.
o   DQA provided an overview of their efforts to review the Hospice-Nursing Home Interface document for possible revisions. DQA asked for feedback from call participants and announced there would be more opportunities for input on possible revisions.
o   There were 2 new hospice applications during fourth quarter 2022.

For more data and information, please CLICK HEREto visit the DHS Hospice Statistics webpage.