The impact of one federal regulation on nursing productivity

The introduction of Medicare's Physician's Plan of Treatment Forms 485, 486, and 487 in September 1985 and the revised forms in Spring 1988, had the potential to impact home health staff productivity. In order to assess the impact of these forms on the A V/D, statistics were compared over a period of time. Data support the general impression that there was a drop in visits per day and an increase in office time with the introduction of the new forms.