Proven Results Using National Benchmarks

Children seen in speech therapy at Waldo County General Hospital make more progress than children seen in other settings across the United States. Click here to see proven results for children.   

National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS)

The Speech Language Pathology Department at Waldo County General Hospital documents speech therapy treatment outcomes using the National Outcomes Measurement SystemFamilies talk about speech therapy at Waldo County General Hospital (NOMS) 1.

Our Goal: B.E.S.T.

Our goal is to assure speech therapy services children receive at Waldo County General Hospital (WCGH) are as good as or better than any in the United States.

We would want no less for our own families and it's a goal we continuously strive toward in our community.

The NOMS Quality System

Each speech-language pathologist at WCGH has completed a national competency test to use this system.

The treatment outcomes for all children ages three to five who are discharged from speech therapy at WCGH are anonymously entered into the national reporting system.

The NOMS system compares speech therapy outcomes achieved at WCGH with other facilities across the United States.

The outcomes represent children who were at least three years of age assessed and discharged from speech therapy in the last year.

  • NOMS: A study funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has named NOMS as one of four patient assessment tools suitable for CMS testing in the development of Medicare Part B outpatient payment policies.

Speech Therapy Results

NOMS documents changes/progress by at least one level of improvement for each child as measured on NOMS Functional Communication Measure (FCM) 2 and then compared to national outcomes  for other children.

Speech therapy services provided at Waldo County General Hospital exceed national performance measures, established through NOMS.

Children seen in speech therapy services at WCGH make, on average, more significant gains than children seen by other providers in other reporting settings across the United States.

Continued National Benchmarking

WCGH is accountable in national benchmarking to assure parents, physicians and referring agencies of:

  • highest quality service.
  • best value service being provided.
  • most preferred practice patterns.
  • comparable treatment outcomes to aggregated national results.
  • compliance with state/federal licensing and regulatory agencies.

High Quality Service for Maine Children & Families

Data will be used to support appropriate treatment for young children when dealing with changes in state regulations defining quality and frequency of service.

Endnotes

1. The National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS) is a data collection system developed to illustrate the value of speech-language therapy provided to children with communication disorders.

2. The Functional Communication Measures (FCMs) are a series of disorder-specific, seven-point rating scales designed to describe the change in a child's functional communication over time. Based on an individual's treatment plan/IEP, FCMs are chosen and scored by a certified speech-language pathologist on admission and again at discharge to depict the amount of change in communication abilities after speech and language intervention. By examining the scores from admission and discharge, the amount of change and, thus, the benefits of treatment can be reviewed.

3. As trends to contain costs by reducing/limiting services to children emerge, WCGH recognizes the efficacy of providing appropriate levels of treatment to children. Data from the National Outcomes Measurement System report that children seen individually and who receive more treatment are "much more likely to show measurable gains…"

4. Data from the National Outcomes Measurement System reports that children who receive 40 hours or more treatment make the greatest measurable functional gains.

For more information, contact the Speech-Language Pathology Department.


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