The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) recently published Staffing Guidelines for Hospice Home Care Teams (Staffing Guidelines), in which they report current benchmarks established through their National Data Set (NDS) of information gathered from organization members and contributing non-members throughout the country. The NDS is updated annually. The Staffing Guidelines provide comprehensive worksheets and comparative data sets to help the hospice administrator determine the ideal RN patient caseload for the individual hospice organization.

 

Additionally, in 2012 the NHPCO published Facts and Figures: Hospice Care in America in which they report current national average hospice RN caseloads. The current NDS statistics are supported by similar findings from the National Association for Homecare and Hospice (NAHH), Robert J. Simeone’s report Hospice Financial Benchmarks, and the Hospice Association of America report Hospice Facts and Statistics. Multi-View Incorporated Systems publishes a series of workbooks to facilitate hospice administrator efficiency and financial profitability. This assessment utilized Model Curriculum – All Staff, Workbook #6 (Model Curriculum) to help determine staffing caseloads and models.

 

Other resources include documents and reports provided by Hospice, including the Profit and Loss Statement FYTD 2013, Medicare Cost Report 2012, Arizona Department of Health Services Hospice Uniform Accounting Report 2012, Payroll Summary Report FYTD 2013, individual payroll records FY 2013, individual employee timesheets 2013, Employee Handbook 2006, and Policies and Procedures 2013. Additionally, the organization’s director supplied information and clarification through numerous personal interviews.