A nursing home located in rural Nebraska with an average daily census of 58 residents and a nursing home located in rural Arkansas with an average daily census of 45 were referred by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to TMF, a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), for assistance with improving their resident COVID-19 bivalent booster rate.

A New England nursing home known for embracing its “outdoorsy” residents by involving them in activities that allow them to enjoy the rural area in which they live was referred by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to IPRO, a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), for assistance with improving its resident COVID-19 booster rate.

A small, hospital-based skilled nursing facility (SNF) was referred by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to Alliant Health Solutions (Alliant), a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), for assistance with increasing its resident COVID-19 booster rate. The QIN-QIO conducted a root-cause analysis (RCA) and helped the SNF use the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method to create an action plan to address the barriers uncovered by the RCA.

A small nursing home in a Midwest suburb struggling to increase its resident COVID-19 booster rate was referred by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to TMF, a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for assistance. With TMF’s help, the nursing home demonstrated a 53.5 percent increase in its resident COVID-19 booster rate from when it was first referred to the QIN-QIO and the last report to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) database in October 2022.

Navigating a Gatekeeper

Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Innovation Network–Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) helped more than 634 nursing homes in its two-state region improve the accuracy of their COVID-19 vaccine data in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

Nestled among the rolling hills of New England sits a 93-bed nursing facility that is home to many of the area’s former priests and nuns. The facility, known for having embraced person-centered care long before the term was common, was struggling to increase its resident COVID-19 booster rate. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) referred the nursing home to IPRO, a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for assistance.