In response to HCA advocacy, the state Department of Health (DOH) is reducing the requirement for Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs) and Hospices to complete COVID-19 surveys.
DOH has decided that the Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) surveys will be required once per week (reduced from three times per week) starting next week and it will streamline the survey questions.
Based on feedback from CHHA and Hospice members, HCA had submitted comments to DOH on both surveys. As reported in Monday’s Situation Report, we requested the surveys be eliminated due to the dramatically decreased numbers of COVID-19 cases and increased availability of personal protective equipment (PPE).
We acknowledged that if the survey must be continued, then DOH should at least decrease the frequency and shorten the survey by eliminating questions about PPE and consolidating the questions on agency capacity, COVID-19 cases, and staff vaccinations.
There will be no survey tomorrow (Friday) and the next survey will be due on Wednesday, June 30.
Final decisions regarding potential changes in the survey are still to be determined at DOH, but progress is clearly being made to reduce the survey burden.