National Home and Hospice Care Survey, 2007

The National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) was reintroduced into the field in 2007 after a 7-year break. During that time, the survey was redesigned and expanded to include a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) system, many new data items, and larger sample sizes of current home health patients and hospice discharges. All agencies that participated in the survey were either certified by Medicare and/or Medicaid or were licensed by a state to provide home health and/or hospice services and currently or recently served home health and/or hospice patients. Agencies that provided only homemaker services or housekeeping services, assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), or durable medical equipment and supplies were excluded from the survey. The 2007 NHHCS included a supplemental survey of home health aides employed by home health and/or hospice agencies, called the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS). The 2007 NHHCS data were collected through in-person interviews with agency directors and their designated staffs; no interviews were conducted directly with patients or their families and/or friends. Agency data collected, available in agency administrative records, included information on the year an agency was established, the types of services an agency provided, referral sources, specialty programs, and staffing characteristics. Data collected on home health patients and hospice discharges, available in medical records, included age, sex, race and ethnicity, services received, length of time since admission, diagnoses, medications taken, advance directives, and many other items. The National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS), the first national probability survey of home health aides, was designed to provide national estimates of home health aides employed by agencies that provide home health and/or hospice care. The NHHAS survey instrument included sections on recruitment, training, job history, family life, management and supervision, client relations, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, workplace environment, work-related injuries, and demographics.