Why Participate in NOMS?

Payers, legislators, administrators, and consumers have asked our professions, like many others, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the services we provide. Our participants know that the most effective and powerful way to answer questions related to treatment outcomes is to use aggregated local and national outcomes data. NOMS data are an invaluable tool for clinicians, administrators, and the professions that can be used for many purposes.

Advocate for audiology, speech, and language services

National outcomes data are essential to advocating for the services we provide. Clinicians and administrators can use NOMS data to negotiate reimbursement from third-party payers for audiology and speech-language pathology services. In addition, data can be used to secure valuable treatment minutes shared by team members from other disciplines.

Provide information to accrediting bodies

Many accrediting bodies, such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), have placed a greater emphasis on health care organizations to collect outcomes data and use the data to improve the quality of services provided.

Benchmark your organization’s outcomes

NOMS data provide a standard to which you can compare your organization’s performance. Benchmarking is both a persuasive marketing tool and an effective quality control measure. Our reporting tool allows your organization to not only compare the organization as a whole to the national data but also benchmark individual facilities against your organization’s overall performance (if applicable).

Identify staffing patterns

Too often, administrators are asked to make decisions about how many staff members they need and what kinds of expertise the staff should have—without data to support those decisions. Administrators can make educated decisions related to staffing by analyzing facility-specific information such as the

number of patients seen per disorder type,
amount of treatment provided in specific treatment settings, and
trends in your patient population.

In doing this, your organization can recruit and hire staff members with the expertise you need while better allocating limited financial and personnel resources.

Improve the quality of services

National data can help us analyze patterns of care and identify how we can improve services. NOMS data assist administrators and clinicians with caseload planning and management and can help speech language pathologists (SLPs) with functional goal writing.

Provide prognosis and expected functional outcome of treatment for patients receiving audiology services

Using national outcomes data, audiologists can track progress and performance over time and get treatment information on patients with hearing, tinnitus, and vestibular difficulties. Examples include the following:

On average, how many maneuvers are needed to resolve benign paroxysmal positional vertigo?
What are the top treatment recommendations for management of hearing loss and tinnitus?
On average, how many visits does it take to confirm a patient’s hearing status?
What percentage of patients have experienced a benefit or improvement with the use of amplification on the HHIA/HHIE/THI patient-reported outcomes?

Provide prognosis and expected functional outcome of treatment for patients receiving speech, language, and swallowing services

Using national outcomes data, SLPs can determine the average amount of treatment that is required to show functional change in communication and/or swallowing skills for patients with a particular disorder or diagnosis. Examples include the following:

On average, how many sessions are needed to treat an adult with aphasia or dysarthria, or to treat a child with a language impairment?
On average, how much gain will a patient demonstrate during a given time period within a specific treatment setting?
For an adult or child with dysphagia, how long will it take to get from a non-functional skill level (all nutrition and hydration by non-oral means) to a functional level (nutrition and hydration by mouth)?
Will the patient become more functional/independent as a result of speech-language pathology services?