Any LTC Quality Assurance Coordinators out there?

Specialties Quality Improvement

Published

  1. Does your facility have an effective QA team in place?

    • 13
      yes
    • 9
      no

22 members have participated

Just wondering if there are any QA coordinators in LTC out there....

Who sits on your team, how do you audit... what function does your team have in the facility?

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Howdy - have done QA in LTC for five years - have now added ADON to my list of duties. We have a variety of teams - the Exec QA over sees them all - it has all the department heads and the medical director on it. We also have physical restraint, chemical restraint, incontinence, wound care, weight, wandering residents, behavioral management, laboratory monitoring, documentation, hydration, pain management, events/incidents. I really enjoy the QA aspect of LTC! :-)

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I think the QA piece would be interesting to get into. How were you able to get into QA/QI?

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In my past experiences, I worked for a long term care facilitiy that had a full-time ADON that took on the responsibilites of Quality Assurance/Infection Control with her other duties. When she stepped into the DON position, they combined QA/IC and Staff Development for a full-time position and I took that role. I began with the QA slowly. Thereby gaining the respect and cooperation of all staff. When I left after five years in that position, we had a team that knew how to spot a system problem and more importantly how to solve it. The company I worked for sent me through excellent training. I love it all! The system changes, putting the numbers on paper, the critical thinking, the team involvement, educating etc.... however, my favorite part of the QA process is having residents with smiles!!

In our facility we had a QA sub-committee that consisted of hands on staff members from each shift -- their prime responsibility was to audit and recommend change. From there it would go to the department head involved with that system change recommendation, and a copy would be given to the administrator. The coordinator coordinated all of the minutes, meetings, audits, etc.

Committees reporting to the Sub/QA included: Behaviors (restraint-physical & chemical, behaviors); ARC (At Risk Residents Committee-included discussion on resident based incidents, nutrition, wounds, infections); Safety (resident & staff incidents and preventions; QI's were reviewed by the coordinator, highlighted, and given to department heads. They were discussed every two weeks at the ARC committee meeting as well as used in care conference. Our QA committee included the DON/Admin/Risk Management/QA Coord/Medical Director and pharmacist

PhantomRN do you work in LTC now? Does your facility have a QA team? Get involved with that committee! With a little research on regs/policy/procedure you can learn all you need to know about QA!!! Go for it!!!

CoachCathy....how often do your teams meet? Have you been able to use your documentation to assist you with state surveys? Sounds like you're enjoying QA as much as I!!!

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Hello Rhonda.

I am also a QA Coordinator in LTC.Ihave worked 4years in a 300 bed facility. I also function as one of the MDS coordinators on one of our floors. (we have 3 floors, each with 100 residents) Counting myself, we have 3 MDS coordinators. Our facility functions very similar to yours. I have developed Auditing tools over the years and process improvement programs for the major QI's triggered. We audit our charts as we do our quarterly assessments but those that trigger our QI's are monitored monthly or bi weekly depending on the program. The one problem I have with our nurses is "good " documentation to support the programs. Do you have any ideas to help these nurses get on the ball!!? Thanks Jenna in KC Missouri

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Do the nurses understand their job descriptions? Have you given them a copy, educated them in the importance of care planning, documentation etc???

The single most effective thing I've ever done to educate nurses on the importance of documentation for use with the MDS.......is.....

Hold a Nurses meeting.....

Have an MDS ready for each nurse

Give each nurse one resident chart and have them fill out the MDS........

They will soon realize that ........ there's not sufficient documentation to properly fill out that MDS and will most likely have a hard time signing their name to it........ :o)

I'm a firm believer that education is the answer to nearly every problem we encounter! How can they understand what we are talking about unless they've walked in our shoes?

That reminda me of yet another lil tidbit for CNA's..... the repositioning dilema!!! During your next CNA or all-staff meeting, have a couple helpers hand out toothpicks every time the staff members shift their weight or move..... by the end of the 1 hour session, each will have nearly a box full of toothpicks & wonder what you're up to...... explain to them that is how many times they shifted positions in their chair, and that many of our residents can't do that alone. However, if every time we walk by a resident and assist them to reposition themselves, they will be less likely to develop pressure ulcers......

Do you work with a corporate or private owned facility?

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I work in a private owned facility -Actually it is owned by the Community of Christ/RLDS. Which is very large in the Independence Missouri area-actually World headquarters. I am not of their religion but it is the best facility I have ever worked. Check it out... http://www.thegroves.com. We have one floor recently reconstructed for 4 levels of Alzheimers.

We just bought the round color coded chart notifiers that you can switch when you want eve to chart or if their is a new order etc. that is on the binder part. I am hoping with this method I will be able to bring to the nurses attention , that certain residents need to be charted on for the programs. Please share any info that you have, and I will try and do the same-we both have a difficult job to do , but think goodness we love it! thanks JENNA

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I enjoyed surfing the site! The Alzheimer's unit sounds terrific! I'm not sure that I have heard of the type of chart notifiers you are talking about. Apparently you would need the correct binders to use them? Are they plastic & you just put them in the chart that needs to be charted on?

They remind me somewhat of a system we used in our M.A.R.s -- we had small cardboard squares color-coded for the medication passes. ie... pink for 7 am, blue for 12 am, yellow for 6 pm, green for HS.... and purple for 'any other time'... We had the med times highlighted on the med sheets and they corresponded with the markers... This helped reduce med errors.....

We also used the cards for treatments.... they were all white, had the treatment, name, time, and brief description written on them.... that way the nurses could set up treatments and be ready to run in an organized fashion..... we used trays and the nights would set up for the days, and days for nights etc......

Any other ideas?

Thanks! Rhonda

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rhonda, Haven't posted in a few months! Got Married! Well so what do you think about what CMS is doing about displaying our QI's to the public? Jenna

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