Using Grit to Rebuild a Resilient Workforce
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. Lee Fleisher, CMS Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Center…
Pharmacy Builds Vaccine Confidence by Spreading Culturally Appropriate Information
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. One such partner, NOVA ScriptsCentral in Virginia, was recognized with a 2021 Health Quality Innovator of the Year award for tackling…
Improving COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Uptake
Q&A with Donna Thorson, Shannon Finegood and Linda Griskell at Comagine Health COVID-19 vaccine access and uptake has been identified as a challenge for nursing homes. What was your vision and plan to improve vaccine access and uptake? At Comagine Health, we are aiming to increase access to, uptake of and confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine, including the booster, among long-term and…
Improving Vaccine Uptake Among Nursing Home Staff Through Motivational Interviewing Techniques
Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for Arizona and California, started working on Motivational Interviewing in the spring of 2021 as a tool to help nursing homes improve uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.Slow vaccine uptake at nursing homes has been identified as a key challenge. Given that, how did you choose Motivational…
Behind the Scenes of Project Firstline
Q&A with Cheri Fast, RN, BSN, CIC, Project Lead Infection prevention and control is fundamental to safer care, improved health outcomes and a reduction in costs. Great Plains Quality Innovation Network (Great Plains QIN) and Project Firstline Leads in South Dakota are working together to help prevent, mitigate and respond to infections through education, resource sharing and technical…
Behind the Scenes of the Nursing Home Command Center
Q&A with Craig Bagley, CMS Nursing Home Command Center Lead Why was the CMS Nursing Home Command Center developed? What are its goals? The Nursing Home Command Center was formed in November 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to bring CMS data analysts, the Independent Evaluation Contractor (IEC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)…
Quality and Health Equity During a Pandemic
A Q&A with Comagine Health What has been the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) community? The AIAN communities have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data the AIAN population infection rates are over 3.5 times higher than non-Hispanic whites,…
Opioid Interventions in Nursing Homes and Community Coalitions
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic continues to rage, fueled in part by the mental health challenges that have accompanied COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported an average increase in opioid overdose deaths of 30% during 2020 as compared to the previous year.During this period, IPRO, the Quality Innovation Network-Quality…