Short Takes The Hospice Compliance - Quality Connection Hospice providers are required to be compliant with federal Medicare hospice regulations and state hospice licensure regulations, but a hospice provider can be compliant with regulation and not provide satisfactory quality care to patients and families. Quality care provision happens when a hospice provider strives to perform above and beyond the requirements of regulation. Excellent quality patient and family care can only happen when a hospice provider intentionally develops a culture of compliance within the organization. This serves as the foundation for the establishment of quality standards and performance improvement. In an organization that is committed to following all regulations and providing excellent patient care, compliance and quality are linked. William A Foster said, "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives". There is nowhere that this is more important than providing end of life care to individuals and their family as hospice providers only have one chance to get it right. ...a hospice provider can be compliant with regulation and not provide satisfactory quality care to patients and families. 32 Newsline / Fall 2019 The Medicare Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) is the compliance-based part of hospice quality and is standardized for all hospice providers. The Hospice Item Set (HIS) and the hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) comprise the HQRP program and have links to Medicare hospice regulations. Quality assessment performance improvement (QAPI) is the parts of hospice quality where a hospice provider self-assesses their organizational performance in all areas to pinpoint areas for performance improvement. Together, both parts help the hospice to continuously improve the hospice experience for patients and their families through the provision of high-quality care. NHPCO understands the connection between compliance and quality and the need for hospice providers to incorporate strong commitments to both within their organization. Just as we have developed programs and resources to support hospice compliance, we will be introducing new resources and programs in the near future to support hospice quality so that our members have all the tools they need to integrate the compliance - quality connection in their organization.