Quarterly OASIS Update

Linda is a physical therapist with a Masters in Health Sciences. She has worked in the home health industry since 1988, is a nationally recognized expert on OASIS, the Hospice Item Set and quality measurement and improvement. She also serves the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its contractors, assisting in home health and hospice quality measures development, data set refinement, and maintenance and updating of Guidance Manuals and other key provider education resources for the Hospice Item Set and OASIS. She provides oversight and subject matter expertise to manage contracts for CMS’s Home Health Quality Reporting Program, CMS’s Hospice Quality Reporting Program, and the CMS Home Health Value Based Purchasing Technical Assistance Contract. She served as the President and a Founding Member of the OASIS Certificate and Competency Board (OCCB), and continues to oversee the COS-C Exam as Chair of the Exam Review Task Force. Linda is President and Founder of OASIS Answers, Inc.

Marian is a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience in home health, hospice, and community-based services. Marian served as the Director for the Home Health Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (QIOSC) for Pennsylvania’s Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), and served as Director for the 2007 Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign to reduce avoidable hospitalizations. As a recognized expert in developing and supporting quality improvement activities at the local, state and national levels, Marian has served on numerous CMS technical expert panels and quality improvement committees. She currently supports OAI’s Post Acute Care initiatives, including providing subject matter expertise to OAI’s CMS contract work and OAI’s provider quality initiatives. Marian holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and serves as Chief Quality Officer for OASIS Answers, Inc.

Megan is a physical therapist with a Masters in Physical Therapy. She has worked in the home health industry since 2010 as a field clinician, as well as in supervisory and administrative positions supporting home health quality improvement, regulatory compliance, clinical documentation, and operations. Megan currently supports OAI’s post-acute care work with provider education, guidance manual work, and CMS Help Desks support that provides guidance on data collection of OASIS, the MDS, the IRF-PAI and the LTCH CARE Data Set. She has a passion and appreciation for the critical need for OASIS accuracy and is a knowledgeable and passionate national OASIS educator.  Megan holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and serves as a Post-Acute Care Senior Clinical Manager with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Kerry is a physical therapist with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She has worked in the home health industry since 2007, as a field clinician, as well as in roles supporting coding and documentation for compliance and quality. She has over 15 years of experience conducting detailed reviews of clinical documentation for home health and hospice providers, focusing on OASIS and diagnosis coding accuracy, as well as regulatory compliance and documentation to support Medicare coverage. Kerry is a certified coder. Kerry currently supports OAI’s CMS contract teams’ post-acute care work with public reporting, quality measure reports, guidance manual work and CMS help desk support, as well as serving as a member of OAI’s Blueprint Presenter Team.  She holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and is a Senior Clinical Lead with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Lori is a physical therapist with a Master’s in business administration. She has been practicing for 25 years. Initially focused in an outpatient setting, she transitioned to home care in 2009. Lori’s experience includes positions as a field clinician, quality educator and clinical manager. By focusing on high-quality outcomes and performance improvement, Lori’s work emphasizes the critical need for OASIS accuracy in measuring and achieving clinical success. Lori currently supports OAI’s CMS contract work related to OASIS data collection guidance and serves on OAI’s Blueprint Presenter Team. Lori holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist- Clinical (COS-C) designation and is a Clinical Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Elaine is a registered nurse, practicing in home health since 1981. She has held a variety of clinical and management positions at hospital-based, local government, and non-profit agencies. Most recently, Elaine served as Quality Improvement Manager at large, urban private non-profit certified home health agency where she provided staff education, and monitored aggregate and patient-level data to meet the agency’s financial and quality objectives. Elaine has been a clinical instructor in the nursing programs at Loyola University of Chicago, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and Northeastern University, and is has presented at the state, regional and national level on home health clinical practice, including issues related to caregiver needs and patient engagement.  Elaine is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse (CHPN). She holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) and serves as Senior Clinical Manager with OASIS ANSWERS, Inc.

Wendy is a physical therapist since 1989 with experience in home health, acute care, rehab, outpatient, and skilled nursing. She is an Associate Professor at the School of Physical Therapy at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Wendy is a Geriatric Clinical Specialist (GCS) and Certified Wound Specialist (CWS), has a Geriatric Training Certificate (GTC), and serves on the editorial board of Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation.  She has co-authored books on home health rehabilitation and has published hundreds of articles on home health therapy in peer-reviewed and trade publications. She provides training nationally on geriatric strengthening, wound assessment and management, falls prevention, and competency testing for home health physical therapists on the drug regimen review and pharmacology. Wendy has earned the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and is a Senior Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.