Keeping nursing home staff updated on the latest COVID-19 guidelines and directives is critical for continued improvement of resident and staff vaccination rates for the COVID-19 vaccine and booster. Quality Insights, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) is using a multi-faceted approach to educate its staff and update nursing homes in its two-state region about the latest COVID-19 vaccination and booster guidance.

One of the first nursing homes referred to Mountain-Pacific Quality Health (Mountain-Pacific) in December 2021 for assistance with improving its resident COVID-19 booster rate demonstrated a 44.1 percent increase following frequent and tailored one-on-one assistance.

The Health Quality Innovators (HQI) team recently led a five-month initiative aimed at reducing all-cause hospital-wide readmissions, enhancing equity, improving value and delivering person-centered care.

During the timeframe between January 9 and March 20, 2022, nursing homes participating in an education campaign led by Alliant Health Solutions (Alliant), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization, demonstrated a 15% or greater increase in resident and/or staff COVID-19 boosters.

Low resident and staff vaccination rates put the most vulnerable at risk.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Great Plains Quality Improvement Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) team worked to promote COVID-19 infection prevention and control best practices. When Great Plains was providing one-on-one technical assistance with nursing homes, the team identified an opportunity to improve how the facilities were using their data to related to COVID-19 infection prevention and control.

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched many health care professionals to their limits. The pizzas, parties and cheers that were common early in pandemic are no longer enough to ease burnout and address staff shortages. During the 2022 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Conference, Dr.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2022 Quality Conference virtually brought together nearly 5,000 health care leaders to share and hear promising practices for advancing health care quality, equity and safety at CMS and within the U.S. health care system.

The Health Quality Innovation Network (HQIN) team partners with health care providers in Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina and Virginia to support their quality improvement efforts. This includes spreading best practices to help others achieve similar successes.