Hospital Quality Improvement

OVERVIEW:
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges and intensified systemic health disparities that have pushed the conversation around health equity from “why is this important?” to “how do we do this?” Based on regulatory requirements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC), hospitals have a critical opportunity to be at the forefront of building more resilient communities and addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) across readmissions, chronic diseases, and other patient harm areas. This session will highlight best practices and examples for successfully implementing health equity strategies within hospital settings. Rosa Abraha, MPH, Alliant HQIC’s health equity lead, will address frequently asked questions from hospitals and engage in a discussion with participants.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. Discuss a model for embedding a health equity champion to meet the current regulatory requirements.
2. Describe how to expand on the collection of Race, Ethnicity and Language (REaL) data and begin to analyze health-related social needs, e.g., health literacy, transportation needs, food insecurity etc.
3. Discuss a framework for community and hospital partnership to advance health equity needs and improve patient outcomes.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2022, the strides made toward improving patient safety were quickly and severely reversed amid the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic that swept the nation indicating that the healthcare system lacks a sufficient resilient safety culture and infrastructure. This has brought to light an opportunity and obligation to reevaluate healthcare safety with an eye toward building a more resilient healthcare delivery system. Successful and sustainable patient safety improvement rests heavily on an organizational culture of patient safety, in which leadership supports systemwide attitudes, actions, teamwork, and technology to reduce the risk of patient harm.

IP Chats are quarterly networking events to build knowledge, share experience and provide support for hospital infection preventionists. Have questions or ideas for content? Contact Amy Ward at Amy.Ward@Allianthealth.org.

Alliant HQIC developed a series of bite-sized learnings to assist hospital infection preventionists with some of their most frequently asked questions regarding the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) database. Topics include:

• NHSN New User Introduction
• Adding, Assigning Rights and Deactivating Users in NHSN
• Location Mapping and NHSN Training
• NHSN Annual Survey and Monthly Reporting Plans
• LabID Reporting

Join this exciting webinar to learn how the Alliant Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor (HQIC) program has improved patient outcomes for our 147 enrolled hospitals in the past two years. This webinar will also focus on patient and family engagement (PFE) and strategies to improve the five structural metrics. Hospitals will present their accomplishments and barriers to restarting and engaging their patient and family advisory councils (PFACS) to improve quality and patient safety. In addition, we will discuss educational and networking opportunities in 2023.

OBJECTIVES:

Review performance to date and, 30-month target goals.
Discuss the five structural metrics for patient and family engagement and opportunities for improvement among the enrolled hospitals.
Learn how hospitals are restarting their patient and family advisory councils (PFAC) after suspending activities during the COVID pandemic.
Discuss upcoming educational and networking opportunities in 2023.

Community of Practice (CoP) hosted by CMS

CMS releases Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings which include clinical metrics for hospitals on an annual basis. Hospitals that achieve better outcomes and higher ratings tend to foster a patient safety and leadership culture in their organizations. During this webinar, we will provide an overview of the star ratings. We will also hear from a Risk, Compliance and Quality Director who will discuss his hospital’s quality dashboard that mirrors dimensions of the quality measures in the hospital star ratings. In addition, we will hear from Don Avery, President/CEO of Fairview Park Hospital (GA), who will discuss how his hospital team has successfully reached a five-star rating based on safety across the board, daily leadership huddles, and driving accountability.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) show a significantly higher incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) in 2021 compared to 2019. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, prevention of CAUTIs remains a patient safety priority in hospitals to reduce patient harm and costs and improve outcomes.

This presentation will feature real world examples of effective CAUTI prevention strategies shared by Alaska Native Medical Center and Campbell County Health infection prevention leaders. Our speakers will share their experiences developing staff education, optimizing surveillance, engaging physician champions and much more!

It’s time to celebrate! Join this exciting presentation and discussion to learn how hospitals improved their processes and outcomes during their six-month cohort participation. Each cohort reviewed data and implemented improvements based on the most effective interventions among HQIC enrolled hospitals. Hospital cohorts began in May/June and included the following patient safety topics:

Readmissions and Health Equity
Adverse Drug Events (ADEs)
CAUTI/CLABSI
MRSA
Sepsis

OVERVIEW:

Data from the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) show a significantly higher incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in 2021 compared to 2019. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, prevention of CAUTIs and CLABSIs remains a patient safety priority in hospitals to reduce patient harm and costs and improve outcomes.

Join this exciting presentation and discussion to learn how Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center changed its healthcare-associated infection (HAI) review process from one person to a group of clinical and health care professionals, resulting in better outcomes in CAUTI and CLABSI prevention. This is Part 1 of a two-part series on strategies to prevent CAUTI. Part 2 webinar will be held in October.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. Understand how changing the HAI review process resulted in better patient outcomes
2. Gain insight into how the Root Cause Analysis process is used to identify missed opportunities to prevent CAUTI and CLABSI
3. Learn how the team “shops at The Gaps” to implement best practice interventions

Join us for part three of the Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) Learning & Action Network Series. Over the last two years, progress toward eliminating HAIs has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDROs) remain a significant risk to patient safety. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on any given day, about 1 in 31 hospital patients has an HAI.

This dynamic webinar will share strategies for getting “back to basics” when it comes to preventing MDROs, particularly hospital onset C. difficile and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteremia.