TIP OF THE WEEK
Best practice intervention package: phone monitoring & frontloading visits
The National Home Health Quality Initiative Campaign has released the June Best Practice Intervention Package on Phone Monitoring and Frontloading Visits. See below for the packet contents. Due to the file size of the “Full Contents,” you may want to right-click on the link and select "Save Target As" to save a copy of the file to your desktop.
- Leadership Track (PDF)
- Nursing Track (PDF) *
- Therapy Track (PDF) **
- Medical Social Worker Track (PDF)
- Home Health Aide (PDF)
- Fast Track (PDF) - The Fast Track package is ideal for the agency that finds it has limited time and resources in any given month and wants a "fast track" review of the tool and key points only.
- Full contents: BPIP - Phone Monitoring and Frontloading Visits
ASSOCIATED RESOURCES
- Phone Monitoring Checklist for Clinicians (PDF)
- Phone Monitoring Assessment Guides (5 included) (PDF)
- Phone Monitoring Patient Encounter Form (narrative) template (PDF)
- CHF Documentation template (Word)
- HHQI Phone Monitoring & Frontloading Visits Poster (PDF)
- Telehealth Poster (PDF)
- Electronic Post Tests (Word)
AUDIO RECORDINGS
Right-click on the audio file link below to select "Save Target As..." This will allow you to save the audio recording to your hard drive. You may then listen to the audio from your computer or burn it to a CD.
- Phone Monitoring & Frontloading Visits for Clinicians audio recording (MP3 - 3.90 MB)
- Phone Monitoring & Frontloading Visits for Home Health Aides audio recording (MP3 - 5.35 MB)
EDUCATIONAL WEBEX
The Phone Monitoring & Frontloading Visits WebEx provides a quick overview of this Best Practice Intervention Package. The presentation introduces clinician education resources and many national key tools are highlighted. The WebEx purpose is for a general overview for leadership of the package and/or for clinicians to learn more about the Best Practice Intervention Packages, specifically Phone Monitoring and Frontloading Visits.
Please read the instructions for downloading the WebEx software. Even if you have previously installed WebEx, you will need to download the software. Once you have installed the software, right-click on the WebEx file link below to select "Save Target As..." This will allow you to save the WebEx recording to your hard drive. You may then view the WebEx.
- Download the WebEx file (WRF)
- Download the handouts (PDF)
- Download the Power Point presentation of the WebEx (PPT)
RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
Phone Monitoring and Frontloading Visits Poster
Post this poster on your staff bulletin board or other staff area as a reminder to routinely schedule phone calls to patients at risk for hospitalization and provide more visits early in the episode of care.
REMINDER: Complete the 2007 Ohio Home Health Immunization Survey
Please take five minutes to complete the survey relating to your immunization practices. Ohio KePRO’s Home Health Team is re-measuring the immunization practices at Ohio home health agencies to compare with last year’s survey and we need your help. The results will be compared with last year’s survey to identify trends over time. Your answers are confidential.
IN THE NEWS
AHRQ RELEASES 2006 STATE SNAPSHOT DATA
The state snapshots provide state-specific health care quality information including strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The goal is to help state officials and their public- and private-sector partners better understand health care quality and disparities in their state. Go to www.statesnapshots.ahrq.gov for more information.
THE RIGHT CURE FOR AILING ELDER CARE?
June 11, 2007 -- Business Week -- Nurse practitioners, already used to serving poor and rural populations where doctors are scarce, may be more inclined to take on the aged. "They are filling in the gaps and are pretty much on the front lines in taking care of elders," says Dr. Wayne S. Saltsman, chairman of geriatric medicine at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. Read more >>
June 6, 2007 -- Kaiser Network -- Hospitals participating in a Medicare pay-for-performance pilot program were not significantly more likely than non-participating hospitals to provide better treatment, according to a three-year study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Wall Street Journal reports. For the study, researchers at Duke University compared the treatments and outcomes for five conditions at 54 hospitals participating in a Medicare pay-for-performance pilot program with treatments and outcomes at 446 hospitals not participating in the program. Read more >>
ELDERLY DIABETICS RAPIDLY LOSE MUSCLE STRENGTH
June 5, 2007 -- Reuters -- Elderly people with type 2 diabetes have an accelerated loss of skeletal muscle strength compared with their counterparts without diabetes, Korean and U.S. researchers report in the current issue of Diabetes Care. Read more >>
ADDING MEDICATION IMPROVES RECOVERY FOR ELDERLY WITH DEPRESSION, SAYS PITT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE STUDY
June 1, 2007 -- EurekAlert -- Adding a medication to a standard treatment regimen for major depressive disorder in the elderly improves chances of recovery in those who do not adequately respond to the first-course therapy or who relapse from it, finds a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. Up to 84 percent of the elderly who experience depression either fail to respond to first-course treatment or relapse during the first six to 12 weeks of treatment. Read more >>
CMS PROPOSES LIST OF NO-PAYMENT CONDITIONS
June 1, 2007 -- AHQA -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) suggests eliminating hospital reimbursement for a select group of preventable complications in a proposed rule published in the May 3 Federal Register. Read more >>
COMING ATTRACTIONS
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE CONFERENCE CALLS
June 12, 2007, 9:00am -- Pain
June 12, 2007, 3:00pm -- Oral Meds
June 13, 2007, 9:00am -- Telehealth
June 13, 2007, 3:00pm -- Organizational Culture
June 14, 2007, 9:00am -- Transferring
June 14, 2007, 3:00pm -- Acute Care Hospitalizations
Dial in: 1-877-326-2337
Conference ID: 2143198
HOME HEALTH QUALITY AFFAIR: CELEBRATION OF YOUR SUCCESS
June 27, 2007, 9:00am to 3:00pm
Northeast Conference Center, Westerville, Ohio
We will be spotlighting seven agencies that achieved remarkable improvement rates in 2006 in acute care hospitalizations, pain that interferes with activity, transferring, and/or oral medication management. Take this opportunity to renew and maximize your agency’s quality improvement efforts. Learn “what works best” and discuss successful strategies with your peers.
Keynote Speaker: Ronald A. Savrin, M.D., M.B.A., Medical Director, Ohio KePRO will discuss new healthcare transparency initiatives
Download the Event Flyer (PDF)
