The March 2024 issue of Alliant Health Solutions Cares & Shares: A monthly newsletter highlighting events and resources for those caring for Medicare beneficiaries.

• Register for Upcoming Events
• Leadership Lesson: Advice from the Frontlines
• Resources and Information on:
  • COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness 
  • Opioid Utilization and Misuse
  • Patient Safety
  • Training 
  • Chronic Disease
  • Care Coordination and Partnerships for Community Health
  • Immunization 
  • BFAC

Events

Give the Boost a Shot: Education and Office Hours
*ACCME and NAB credits awarded for the live event* *ACCME credit only for the recording*
Thursday, March 7, 2024, at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT
During this Boost Education and Office Hours event, participants can engage with subject matter experts, ask questions, and get instant, real-time answers. This event offers a unique opportunity to enhance your knowledge and gain insights in a collaborative environment.
Register Here

Nursing Home Readmission Affinity Group: Root Cause Analysis 
*NAB credits awarded* *CE for physicians and nurses available*
Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. CT
If you have ever hit a “roadblock” during the root cause analysis (RCA) process or if you just want to enhance your current RCA process, you’ll want to join this session where QAPI expert Lynn Wilson, MS, will share helpful tips for RCA success using real-life examples.
Missed our RCA Session 1? No problem! You are still invited to join this session. We’ll provide a brief recap to bring you up to speed, or if you prefer, you can watch the recording of our Session 1 Here.
Register Here | View Agenda

Nursing Home ADE Affinity Group: Oral Anticoagulation 101: What You Need To Know! 
*CE for physicians and nurses available*
Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT
This educational event will take us back to the basics of oral anticoagulant medications. Anticoagulants are considered high-risk in the Medicare population, but they are still necessary. In this presentation, we will discuss oral anticoagulant medications, common adverse drug events (ADEs), and tips for preventing ADEs. 
Register Here | View Agenda

Nursing Home and Partnership for Community Health LAN Event: Bridging Acute and Post-Acute Care to Improve Outcomes
Wednesday, March 28, 2024, at 12:30 p.m. ET/11:30 p.m. CT
*NAB credits awarded* *CE for physicians and nurses available* 
Join Esther Pandey, DNP, MS, RN, the system vice president of caretransitions at Mount Sinai Health System, to learn about the hospital's journey in defining relevant measures and building skilled nursing facility collaboration.

Esther has built a bridge between post-acute care facilities and the acute care setting, resulting in reduced readmissions, shorter SNF length of stay, and optimized post-acute spend. During this event, you will learn how electronic integration, root cause discussions, and weekly rounding can help improve clinical outcomes. Discover how to establish a culture of shared learning, educational dissemination, and best practices between health systems and skilled nursing facilities.
Register Here | View Agenda

Give the Boost a Shot: Office Hours Follow-Up
*ACCME and NAB credits awarded for the live event* *ACCME credit only for the recording*
Join us and invite your clinical colleagues to our Boost educational events. In this session, we'll take a deeper dive into your challenges and questions from our earlier office hours session.
Register Here

Thursday, March 21 at 2 p.m. ET | 1 p.m. CT (60 min.)
 **CME and NAB credit awarded**

Join the monthly Shop Talk sessions hosted by the Alliant patient safety team. Attendees will receive updates on the NHSN database and CMS requirements. This month, we will discuss new updates to NHSN reporting and annual influenza vaccination reporting.

There will also be a live question-and-answer session to help with your immediate needs. Submitting data accurately into NHSN will help you more confidently plan your risk assessments and quality improvement initiatives.   

Join the Alliant Health Solutions-LTC NHSN Group!
Joining the group and conferring rights to Alliant Health Solutions-LTC to view NHSN data allows for seamless support and technical assistance.
View Step-By-Step Guide

Leadership

Driving Patient-Centered Care Through Meaningful Conversations

Leaders have a profound impact on organizational culture. In health care, culture includes how centered our organizations are on what matters most to the patients we serve. Engaging patients in meaningful goals-of-care discussions is critical to providing patient-centered, individualized care. High-quality care can only be achieved when a patient’s care is aligned with their goals, preferences, and values.*

What can we do as leaders at all levels in our organizations to shift the paradigm from a task approach that obtains DNR status on admission to centering care around meaningful conversations held throughout a person’s stay?

Participate in National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) on April 16 and join health systems and communities across the country in inspiring, educating and empowering the public and our own teams about the importance of advance care planning. Alliant Health Solution’s Demystify Health Care Decision-Making:  NHDD Ready, Set, Talk! Event Planning Calendar has a planning framework and resource links to make participation easy and meaningful.

• Spring into action. Event day is around the corner.
• Prepare event participants and gather materials.
• Utilize multiple channels to promote your events.

• Set goals for what you hope to accomplish.
• Established a process to monitor progress.

Resources

COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness

Stay Up to Date and Protect Yourself and Others From Flu, COVID-19 and Rsv
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to provide up-to-date resources for partners and providers and post weekly updates on the respiratory illness season. Download Resource

COVID-19 Vaccine Myth-Busting Resource in English and Spanish 
Alliant Health Solutions has created a resource to debunk COVID-19 vaccine myths and provide facts. Download and share the resource, available in English and Spanish, with everyone you know. Download English Version | Download Spanish Version

Emergency Preparedness: March is #It’s Not Luck Month
In association with St. Patrick’s Day, the #It’s No Luck Month campaign asserts that no one should rely on luck when preparing for disasters and emergencies. Don’t leave disaster prep to chance. Sample social media posts and graphics can be found here.

Emergency Preparedness: SAMHSA Resource for Supervisors of Disaster Responders 
Disaster response work is a unique experience with both stressors and rewards. It can be challenging for responders to return to their regular duties after completing a disaster response assignment. Additionally, co-workers who maintained the office's ongoing operation during the response period may have also experienced stress. To help ease the transition for disaster responders returning to work, supervisors can manage their employees' stress levels and encourage them to gain perspective on their experience. By recognizing and reducing potential difficulties in the workplace, supervisors can enhance positive consequences for all of their staff. Learn More

Emergency Preparedness: TableTop Exercise Examples
As we are making our way through the year, it is essential to remember that you may need to complete a tabletop or full-scale exercise. Sometimes, deciding what to do or creating injects can be a lot of work. To assist, here are some example exercises and scenarios:

• CISA Tabletop Exercise Packages
• For other general exercise templates on disasters: Exercise Program | ASPR TRACIE

You can tailor these samples to fit your facility's needs. 

Opioid Utliziation and Misuse

SAMHSA Overdose Prevention and Response Toolkit
SAMHSA’s updated Overdose Prevention and Response Toolkit provides guidance to a wide range of individuals on preventing and responding to an overdose. The toolkit also emphasizes that harm reduction and access to treatment are essential aspects of overdose prevention. Download Toolkit

SAMHSA and HHS: Medications for Treating Opioid Use Disorder
The final rule from the Department of Health and Human Services was published on February 2, 2024, and will become effective on April 2, 2024, with a compliance date of October 2, 2024. View the Final Rule 

Resources To Help Clinicians Treat Pain and Manage Opioid Use Disorder
The CDC developed trainings to educate clinicians about the 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain and assist them and other health care personnel in providing patient care. View Trainings

Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths With Naloxone

Clinicians play an important role in raising awareness about naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose when given in time. Visit the CDC’s naloxone website to learn how to talk with patients about naloxone and reduce their risk of opioid overdose. You can also earn free continuing education credits. Visit Website

Opioid Resources: 

• Medication Reconciliation Tips for Providers & Staff – Use this resource as a guide to completing med rec. Download Resource

• Medication Review Tip Sheet for Patients – Email or print this resource to give to your patients. Download Resource

• Medicine Disposal - Use this resource to dispose of unused, unwanted and expired medications safely. Download Resource

• Do’s & Don’ts of Pain Medicine - Use this resource to learn how to use pain medicine safely. Download Resource 

• My Med Bags:

  • Bite-Sized Learning

  • Ordering Website

Patient Safety

Training

Infection Prevention Training: Creating Educational Partnerships with Agencies and Contractual Staff
Many nursing homes face barriers when working with agency and contractual staff as they work to provide and document infection prevention training. Alliant created a bite-sized learning video that focuses on using the PDSA cycle for quality improvement so nursing home administrators, infection preventionists and education or staff development specialists can overcome common barriers. Watch Video  

• For information on infection prevention training, visit quality.allianthealth.org
• Complete your updated nursing home IP training assessment

Chronic Disease

Care Coordination & Partnerships for Community Health

Immunization

Healthy People 2030
Every year in the United States, many people get diseases that vaccines can prevent. Healthy People 2030 focuses on preventing infectious diseases by increasing vaccination rates. Strategies to ensure more older adults are vaccinated in our communities include partnering with our state and local health departments, school districts, barbers and salons, faith-based organizations, and local nonprofits. Teaching people about the importance of vaccines, sending vaccination reminders, and making it easier to get vaccines can help increase vaccination rates. 

Seasonal Immunization Campaign Calendar – READY SET GO
For March milestones on immunizations, it’s not about Leprechaun luck; it’s about action. We need to continue to focus on “It’s Not Too Late to Vaccinate” and one more round of re-approaching patients/residents and staff who remain unvaccinated. Monitor state and local health department directives. Follow up with pharmacy to pre-order influenza vaccine for the next 2024-2025 season.

The Seasonal Immunization Campaign Calendar has resource links for planning and easy reference to meet your goals. In addition, the comprehensive Toolkit for Increasing Influenza Vaccination Rates in Nursing Homes is a great resource.

Beneficiary & Family Advisory Council (BFAC)