The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program is dedicated to improving the quality of health care at the community level. Hospital Quality Improvement Contractors (HQICs) are strategic partners of the QIO Program that support this mission within hospitals by helping clinical teams increase patient safety, particularly preventing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

A small, 26-bed skilled nursing facility in California with an average daily census of 23 residents, was referred by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), for assistance with improving its resident COVID-19 bivalent booster rate.

An urban hospital in California worked with Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor (HQIC), to successfully decrease its catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), and Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) standardized infection ratios (SIRs).

A 118-bed nursing home located in suburban Illinois was referred by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to Telligen, a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), for assistance with improving its resident COVID-19 booster rate.

Nursing home residents are nearly all at risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death. Vaccination offers the best protection against severe outcomes and can prevent the spread of infection. However, developing treatment plans for each resident in case of infection and administering COVID-19 therapeutics at the onset of symptoms are additional strategies that support better resident outcomes.

HSAG Assists Critical Access and Rural Hospitals to Reduce HAIs Using TAP Reports and Interactive Dashboards

An urban nursing home in the Pacific Northwest was referred by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to Comagine Health, a CMS Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for assistance with improving its resident COVID-19 bivalent booster rate. By implementing the interventions recommended by Comagine Health, the nursing home increased its resident COVID-19 bivalent booster rate by 53.9 percent from the time the facility was referred to the QIN-QIO and the last report to the National Healthcare Safety Network in January 2023.