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.