Quality Improvement Info

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

check out: home health quality improvement (hhqi)

the right care, every time

the centers for medicare and medicaid services (cms), in conjunction with the home health quality improvement organization support center, quality insight of pennsylvania, launched the home health quality improvement (hhqi) national campaign on january 11, 2007. the campaign worked to unite the home care community under the shared vision of reducing avoidable hospitalizations to improve patient quality of care. the hhqi national campaign utilized a 12-month interdisciplinary approach to quality improvement that included key home health, hospital, and physician stakeholders. almost 5600 medicare-certified home health agencies participated in the year-long campaign.

free best practice intervention packages were provided monthly and included educational tools and resources, guidelines, success stories, and best practice education to assist agencies in reducing avoidable hospitalizations. all of these resources are now available on medqic as well to assist home care agencies in keeping their patients at home, where they prefer to be.

hospitalizations can create unnecessary financial and emotional burdens for patients and their families, and can negatively impact the health care delivery system. currently, 1 in 4 home health patient episodes will result in a hospitalization. quality improvement interventions can be effective in reducing avoidable hospitalizations across the continuum. join the effort to reduce avoidable hospitalization by downloading the free best practice intervention packages and utilize any portion(s) of the packages with your agency staff at a pace that is cohesive with your schedule.

learn more about the campaign.

schedule for best practice intervention packages

month

best practice topic

march 2007 hospitalization risk assessment

april 2007 patient emergency plan

may 2007 medication management

june 2007 phone monitoring and frontloading visits

july 2007 teletriage

august 2007 telemonitoring

september 2007 immunization

october 2007 physician relationships

november 2007 fall prevention

december 2007 patient self-management

january 2008 disease management

february 2008 transitional care coordination

this campaign has ended but info still valuable.

specific tools that were identified as especially valuable and helpful: (links included with tool name)

hospitalization risk assessment

my emergency plan

call me first

sbar

orthostatic hypotension assessment (leadership track page 27)

teletriage assessments (under associated resources)

telemonitoring checklist

fall assessment

beer's criteria

phone monitoring and frontloading visit checklist

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[caliotter3]

Thanks for the info Karen. I see plenty of things to download for use in my job.