TIP OF THE WEEK
Make a New Year’s resolution to commit to quality
With the New Year, many of us reflect on the year that has passed and set goals for the future. Take a moment to reflect on the quality of care delivered at your nursing home during 2006.
- Did you improve in focused areas like pain management, wound care, physical restraint reduction, minimizing depression, workforce retention, and person-centered care?
- If you set quality measure goals on the Nursing Home STAR Site, did you meet them? Are you happy with your performance?
- What do you want to accomplish in the New Year?
TAKE A STAND FOR QUALITY IN 2007
Join your fellow Ohio nursing homes that are already part of the national Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Home Campaign and help to promote improved quality of care and quality of life for residents and staff in America’s nursing homes.
Your nursing home may already be working intensely with Ohio KePRO to improve quality, so joining the campaign is a way to earn more recognition for your ongoing QI work without any additional burden on your staff. Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign measures quality efforts most facilities are already working on, looking at some of the same clinical quality improvement goals, while adding concrete measures and new organizational improvement goals aimed at improving customer satisfaction and staff retention.
The campaign brings existing efforts together along with consumer support, new resources, and more ways to help foster continuing quality improvement for your residents and staff. One of the added benefits to joining the campaign is that your commitment will be publicly acknowledged when your facility is added to the campaign Web site as a participating provider—a feature searchable by state.
While your participation in the campaign may not change your current focus and efforts if you are already committed to QI work with Ohio KePRO, joining the campaign may strengthen it. But remember, joining the campaign is not automatic -- sign up today!
The Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign is fully supported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS is encouraging nursing homes to enroll in the campaign, as per the letter from Thomas E. Hamilton, Director of CMS Survey & Certification Group, transmitted to your QIES mailbox on September 11, 2006. It is important to remember, however, that CMS will not have access to the campaign data or individual provider data information, except what is already available on Nursing Home Compare.
CURRENT CAMPAIGN PARTICIPANTS IN OHIO INCLUDE:
|
|
SIGNING UP FOR THE CAMPAIGN IS EASY
- Visit www.nhqualitycampaign.org
- Commit to working on 3 or more of the 8 campaign goals, including at least one clinical quality goal (pressure ulcers, restraints, long-stay or short-stay pain) and one organizational improvement goal (target setting, staff retention, measuring resident satisfaction or consistent assignment).
- Join the campaign by filling out the provider registration form. Please have your 6-digit Medicare / Medicaid provider number available, and remember to select 3 or more goals to qualify as a Participating Provider. Important note: Data collection and reporting for the clinical quality goals (Goals 1-4) is automatic; however, additional steps are required to collect data on the organizational improvement goals (Goals 5-8).
- Begin work on your selected campaign goals by using campaign tools and resources available by clicking on the “For Nursing Homes” tab on the left navigation bar, then clicking “Technical Assistance”. Also, connect with your Local Area Network for Excellence (LANE) to find other local and regional community members committed to improving the quality of care and quality of life for residents and staff in America’s nursing homes.
Please call any member of Ohio KePRO’s Nursing Home Team at 1-800-385-5080 or e-mail ltc@ohqio.sdps.org if you have questions about participation.
RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
“Look at Me” Staff Sensitivity Video (3:48 min)
Use this brief video in an upcoming staff in-service to discuss how we see our residents.
IN THE NEWS
NURSING HOMES DO WELL IN STATE’S POLL
January 10, 2007 -- Columbus Dispatch -- Ohio’s 2006 Nursing Home Family Satisfaction Survey showed that, overall, families are generally satisfied with the nursing homes caring for their loved ones. More than a third of the state’s roughly 1,000 homes were rated above the statewide average score of 86.6.
More than 23,000 family members completed the survey of 54 questions designed to gauge their satisfaction about care, cleanliness, activities, meals, admissions and other factors.
Read More >>
January 5, 2007 -- Kaiser Network -- A 2005 study funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging and conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the United Hospital Fund Foundation found that as many as 1.3 million to 1.4 million children in the U.S. ages eight to 18 provide care for a family member with a chronic illness or disability, and more than 400,000 child caregivers are younger than age 12. Read More >>
OTHER INDUSTRY EVENTS
Teleconference: Support for Nursing Homes in the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign
January 31, 2007, 1:00-2:30
Teleconference: Ohio Immunization Partners for Healthy Adults
January 18, 2007 1:00-2:00 p.m. Please call Liz Simpson at 1.800.385.5080 for more information.
Roadmap for Change: 2nd Annual Person Centered Care Coalition Conference
March 20, 2007 – Columbus, Ohio
Alzheimer’s Association Training Events
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Courses
Ohio Department of Health, Technical Assistance Program – New Programs
Ohio Health Care Association Events
An archive of The Nursing Home Weekly Update is available on our Web site. Click here >>
