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A monthly newsletter highlighting events and resources for Nursing Homes & Partnerships for Community Health
In This Issue:
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Complete the CMS Nursing Home Emergency Preparedness Plans Assessment
Before the next hurricane, flooding, deadly tornado or COVID-19 surge strikes, make sure you review your emergency preparedness plans. Alliant Health Solutions, your QIN-QIO, is here to assist you! We are continuing to focus on emergency preparedness to support your organizations. Follow us on social media for updates.
Alliant Health Solutions can assist you in identifying where your facility plans may benefit from further refinement to ensure the plans meet CMS requirements for emergency preparedness, including:
- All-hazards risk assessment and emergency planning
- Development and implementation of policies and procedures
- A communications plan
- Training and testing
The self-assessment is a fast and easy way to request additional resources or coaching support on any element of your plan. CLICK HERE to take the five-minute Nursing Home Emergency Preparedness Self-Assessment or scan the QR code with your mobile phone.
Last month, all nursing homes received an email invitation to complete the Emergency Preparedness Self-Assessment. If you haven't completed it yet, please do! It only takes five minutes to complete the assessment to allow Alliant Health Solutions to validate your plan and provide requested resources or coaching support on any elements of your plan.
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Upcoming Learning & Action Network (LAN) Events
- Combined Partnerships for Community Health and Nursing Homes: Emergency Preparedness in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care
Thursday, November 10 at 12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT (30 min.)
Extreme weather events, natural disasters, and other emergency events are increasingly common in post-acute and long-term care. This session will review several practical strategies to help your team prepare for an emergency event. We will also discuss best practices to mitigate the effects of trauma on residents and staff.
Register Now | View Agenda
Register for Upcoming LAN Events
Last Month's Learning & Action Network (LAN) Events
- Combined Partnerships for Community Health and Nursing Homes: Learn Steps You Can Take To Reduce Dialysis Readmissions and Emergency Department Visits
Recorded on September 22
In this webinar, we discussed the real experiences of a patient. We also learned techniques from an end-stage renal disease (ESRD) expert for improving the transition experience across health care settings and the continuum of care.
View Slides | Watch Recording
Watch Previous LAN Events and Bite-Size Learnings
Were You Able to "Use Tomorrow" What You Heard During the LAN Events?
If Yes, Click Below.
Nursing Homes LAN Attendees: Click here
Partnership for Community Health LAN Attendees: Click here
Upcoming Infection Prevention Shop Talks
- November 2022 Shop Talk Call
Thursday, November 17 at 2 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. CT (60 min.)
**ANCC Contact Hours 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 review the COVID-19 Weekly Vaccination Module updates for long-term care facilities. 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.
Register Now
View Previous Shop Talks
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
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Leadership Lesson
Words of advice from leaders on the front lines.
This month’s leadership lesson is from Karen Little, AHS targeted response quality improvement and innovation lead.
Leading with Integrity
With everything going on in the world, it has become abundantly clear that integrity is a fundamental leadership quality.
Harvey Mackay once said, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters, and if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
Some leadership attributes include:
- Authenticity – Have self-awareness of who you are as a person.
- Accountability – Creates trust and allows growth. Remember that trust is earned, not given.
- Consistency – This is one of the strongest traits among the world’s greatest leaders. Why? Because people are watching.
- Being transparent – Being honest allows others to trust and respect you.
- Lead by example – I think about how our parents were our models in the home, and the same is true for our leaders. They should show us the right way to lead.
I may not be leading a team of people, but I am responsible for how I live my life. So, as I look at this list, I ask myself the following:
- Do I live a life of integrity? Am I being my authentic self?
- Do my words, actions and attitude consistently align with who I am?
- Do I take responsibility for mistakes, or do I make excuses?
- Am I consistent regardless of the situation, or do I tend to want to give up by allowing my emotions to lead?
- Am I transparent and willing to be vulnerable and brutally honest, even if it hurts?
- Do I lead by example or say one thing and do another?
The saying, “do as I say, not as I do,” may have worked in the past, but it has no place if you want to lead with integrity.
Read on our Website
Best Practice Corner
Each month Alliant Health Solutions collects exemplar practices from organizations across the seven-state region. Thank you for your leadership, creativity and perseverance.
Team Kentucky and Partners Launch $1M Vaccination Campaign
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is partnering with Team Kentucky to roll out a campaign to encourage Kentuckians to get vaccinated for both COVID-19 and the flu. The campaign will cost $1 million, funded by a grant, and will include graphics, fact sheets and video testimonials from doctors and other Kentuckians who have already gotten both their COVID-19 booster and flu shot. All materials will be shareable online on social media and through streaming TV. Read More
NCDHHS Publishes Vaccine and Booster Fact Sheets
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has made COVID-19 booster facts sheets available to residents in seven languages. Download Booster Fact Sheets
Long-Term Care Grants Available in Tennessee
The Tennessee Department of Health published a list of funding opportunities on its website, including those for long-term care grants. Learn More
Do you have a promising practice to share? Please reply to this email, and we will feature you in an upcoming issue.
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AHSCAST - Making Health Care Better
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Everyone deserves quality health care.
Tune into the Alliant Health Solutions Making Health Care Better podcast every other Thursday as they interview guests committed to making health care better. If you are a health care consumer, provider, insurer, system or consultant, this is the podcast for you. View All Podcast Episodes |
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Resources
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Our team is collecting and curating the essential trainings, events, resources and vaccine updates about COVID-19 and other viruses on our website so you can find the information you need. We've also outlined the essentials below.
View All COVID-19 News & Resources
Training & Resources
- Take 5: Visit the Alliant Health Solutions website to find resources on COVID-19. We have a series of five-minute educational YouTube videos focused on the most requested topics related to COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine. Visit Website
Safe Visitor Policy and Cohorting Plan Assessment
CMS requested Alliant Health Solutions, your QIN-QIO, to work with nursing homes to understand emerging health care needs in the skilled nursing facility and ensure plans addressing safe visitors and cohorting are in place to achieve and maintain health quality and equity. Over the next several months, Alliant Health Solutions will be reaching out to your nursing homes via phone and email to answer two quick questions:
- Does your facility have a formal cohorting plan?
- Does your facility have a formal Safe Visitor Policy?
Or, take two minutes to complete the CMS requested now. Take the Assessment
We appreciate your timely response to this CMS-driven directive.
Checklist of Current Versions of COVID-19 Vaccination Guidance and Clinic Support Tools
Immunization.org has a checklist of current versions of vaccine guidance and support tools that are updated at least monthly and indicate when each guidance document was last updated. View the Checklist
FDA Authorizes Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines for Use as a Booster Dose
The Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to authorize bivalent formulations of the vaccines for use as a single booster dose at least two months following primary or booster vaccination. The bivalent vaccines, also referred to as “updated boosters,” contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other one in common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 18 years of age and older. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 12 years of age and older. Read More
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Prevent Opioid Overdose 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:
- Medicine Disposal - Use this resource to safely dispose of unused, unwanted and expired medications. Download Resource
- Do’s & Don’ts of Pain Medicine - Use this resource to learn how to safely use pain medicine. Download Resource
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Access FREE expert guidance on this topic: Contact Tanya Vadala |
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AHRQ’s My Medicines List Helps Patients Take Medicines Safely
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced a new My Medicines List to help people keep track of all their medicines, both prescriptions and over-the-counter. The list makes it easy for people to remember when, how much, and how often to take their medicines and share this information with health care providers. Available for free in both English and Spanish, the My Medicines List will come in handy for clinical visits and emergencies. Check it out and share it with patients, staff, and colleagues. Download the My Medicines List
Influenza Vaccination Coverage Among Health Care Personnel
The Influenza Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP) measure was finalized in the FY 2023 SNF PPS Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on August 3. As a result, most CMS-certified skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) must report annual HCP influenza vaccination summary data through the NHSN HPS Component for the 2022-2023 influenza season. To determine if your facility is required to report, contact CMS at SNFQualityQuestions@cms.hhs.gov.
- The 2022-2023 influenza season is from October 1, 2022-March 31, 2023.
- The deadline to report annual HCP influenza vaccination data is May 15, 2023.
- A single summary report for the season is required.
Reporting weekly influenza vaccination data in the LTC Component does not fulfill this requirement. Please direct all questions regarding CMS reporting requirements and deadlines to SNFQualityQuestions@cms.hhs.gov
Resources:
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Watch Our NHSN Shop Talk Shorts Series!
We know you're busy. Our new video series answers the most common questions we receive regarding navigating NHSN in a brief way. Available videos cover the following topics:
View NHSN Shop Talk Video Series
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Access FREE expert guidance on this topic: Contact Amy Ward |
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CMS Nursing Home Infection Prevention Has Never Been More Important Than It Is Now
Alliant Health Solutions and our training partner, Rainmakers Strategic Solutions, are reaching out to nursing homes with direct care staff who participated in infection prevention (IP) training to increase readiness for future pandemics and improve knowledge of direct care staff. Rainmakers is requesting confirmation that direct care staff received IP training that covered the following topics:
- Hand hygiene
- Standard and transmission-based precautions
- PPE
- Environmental hygiene
To minimize time away from your priorities, we created the following link to the training assessment for your facilities: https://bit.ly/NHIPAssessment.
Please complete this training assessment and attestation by November 15.
Got questions? Need help? Want more information? Contact Rainmakers Strategic Solutions at 800-950-5636 or email NHIPTraining@rainmakerssolutions.com.
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Access FREE expert guidance on this topic: Contact Amy Ward |
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Diabetes Care Is a Team Effort
November is National Diabetes Month, a time to raise awareness about the ongoing impact of this insidious, chronic disease on our nation. It’s also an opportunity to provide diabetes prevention education and resources to individuals at risk for diabetes and pre-diabetes while supporting individuals living with diabetes or pre-diabetes, their care partners and loved ones in their self-management efforts.
Research shows the best approach to reducing the risk factors of developing diabetes and minimizing the severity of diabetes-related health complications is carefully managing blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, maintaining a healthy weight, receiving regular eye and foot exams, and implementing timely treatment. In addition, improvements in access to self-management education, lifestyle change interventions led by health care professionals specializing in diabetes care, and coordinated multi-disciplinary team-based health care services have been cited as influential factors in enabling people to live longer, fuller lives with diabetes.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) has patient-facing resources that align with this year’s National Diabetes Month theme, “Diabetes Management: It Takes a Team,” encouraging collaboration between people living with diabetes and their multi-disciplinary team of health care professionals specializing in diabetes care.
Check out these National Diabetes Month resources:
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Hospital-Home Care Collaboration To Reduce Readmission in Patients With Prolonged ICU Stays
The Critical Illness Recovery Program (CIRP) at the University of Rochester Medical Center is designed to prevent readmissions in patients discharged from the hospital following a prolonged ICU stay by integrating home care before discharge and utilizing telehealth to conduct home visits with the specialists who treated the patients in the ICU. This increases the team’s ability to make changes to a home care plan to prevent readmission. Dr. Anthony Pietropaoli, medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit, described it as a privilege to see patients continue their recovery started in the ICU at intervals up to 90 days post-discharge. Watch a Two Minute Overview Video
Readmission Risk Assessment Tool
Alliant Health Solution’s new Skilled Nursing (SNF) Rehospitalization Risk Assessment Tool provides a framework for interdisciplinary review, discussion and individualized care planning for all admissions to a skilled nursing facility. Use the SNF Rehospitalization Risk Assessment Tool to proactively identify and implement mitigation strategies to reduce readmission risk. Download the Tool
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Increasing Immunization Rates: Resources for Community Collaboration
Alliant Health Solutions has created a new resource compiling toolkits for community immunization campaigns. The toolkits provide templates and guides for broad campaigns, as well as campaigns focused on a specific population. Click Here to Download the Resource and Watch a Brief Overview
Flu Vaccination Decision-Making Guide
The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention released Flu Vaccination Decision-Making Guides in English and Spanish. The guides include sample questions and talking points providers and patients can use to encourage shared decision-making, a fillable planning form to document shared decision-making conversations, and a patient education handout written in plain language and with engaging visuals. Download the guides here: English | Spanish
Latest NCRN Resource: Grownups Need Vaccines Tool
Alliant Health Solutions is a strategic partner in the Morehouse School of Medicine's National COVID Resiliency Network (NCRN). As we move through flu season, please remember to assess all patients for every immunization. Alliant developed a flyer to remind providers and patients that grownups need vaccines too. Download Flyer
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Members of the Beneficiary & Family Advisory Council are our partners in making health care better. To join us in this important work, contact Mel Brown or submit this referral form.
Browse resources our council has worked on below:
Enjoyable Activities For Seniors With Limited Mobility
Many older adults lose mobility due to conditions like stroke, severe arthritis or injuries from falls. When that happens, activities and hobbies they used to enjoy might now be too difficult. But the loss of mobility doesn’t mean the end of good times. There are many ways to have fun, boost your mood, and stay engaged in the world without needing to move around too much. Read More
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For archived issues:
Visit the News & Announcements section of the Alliant Health Solutions website.
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For more information about Alliant Health Solutions:
www.quality.alliantquality.org
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