Right Now in Quality Health
February 2021 – Issue 1
Newsletter Content Menu (click to jump to any section)
- A Message from the CEO
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Vaccine Tools
- Update on Nursing Home Star Ratings
- Keeping Residents Healthy during COVID-19
- Visit Your Department of Health COVID-19 Site for the Latest Updates
- In the Know
- Meet Mountain-Pacific’s Powerful Partners: Patient and Family Advisors
A Message from the CEO
Greetings!
I am excited to introduce you to the first Right Now in Quality Health newsletter. Everyone needs a helping hand and resources to go to when we have questions. We hope you will find most of the answers to your questions, right here!
Our goal: This newsletter becomes your go-to resource, providing the latest information from Mountain-Pacific and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to help you achieve more in health care.
In this first issue, let’s talk about heart health. February is American Heart Month and across the country, individuals and organizations are spreading awareness about heart disease, a top killer of Americans. The first Friday of American Heart Month (February 5) was National Wear Red Day in support of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women initiative. As you can see in the photos, Mountain-Pacific’s team, and members of the Take Heart Alaska Coalition, donned red in solidarity for the cause.
I know, that together, with you, your teams, and your organizations we will decrease the rate of heart disease and heart-related illnesses in our communities.
Stay safe and well,
Sara Medley
Mountain-Pacific Quality Health CEO
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Vaccine Tools
The CDC designed a toolkit to help educate communities about the COVID-19 vaccine. Click here to access the toolkit.
Update on Nursing Home Star Ratings
Staff ratings for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) nursing home five-star quality rating system will remain frozen. However, other domains within the rating system will update. Learn more in the CMS User Guide from January 2021.
Keeping Residents Healthy during COVID-19
When a nursing home in Wyoming noticed a decline in residents’ weights, staff leaped into action to identify the cause.
While reviewing a Quality Measurement report, one measure stood out to nursing home leadership: Across the board, residents were losing
weight. The Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) team conducted a root cause analysis (RCA) and determined the source of the decline was related to the ongoing social isolation, a result of the physical distancing policies put in place during the
COVID-19 pandemic. For many residents, there are expectations and excitement around mealtimes, because they offer an opportunity to socialize as well as eat.
To correct the situation, leadership deployed a strategy to create dining spaces allowing residents to safely socialize. They expanded the traditional dining area and used lobbies to create an open dining concept to better accommodate infection prevention and control protocols. The nursing home also increased meal service times and brought in activity staff during these periods to conduct trivia, singing and entertainment, which contributed to a festive dining atmosphere.
Other solutions for this nursing home included offering snacks during all activities, introducing calories more frequently and during times other than designated meals. Leadership and staff also began engaging residents in the preparation of favorite food items and used the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Compassionate Care guidelines to focus on residents’ consumption patterns.
Visit Your Department of Health Website for COVID-19 Updates
Are you regularly visiting your state health department’s website for resources about COVID-19 and the vaccine? These sites are updated frequently and will provide you with helpful information, resources and tools about state-specific restrictions, reporting and data and vaccination accessibility.
- Alaska: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/default.aspx
- Guam: http://dphss.guam.gov/covid-19-educational-resources
- Hawaii: https://hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine/
- Montana vaccine info: https://dphhs.mt.gov/covid19vaccine
- Wyoming: https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/infectious-disease-epidemiology-unit/disease/novel-coronavirus/
In the Know
- Registration is still open for the 2021 Quality Conference | March 2-3 | Learn more
- Be Aware of COVID-19 Scams | Read more
- View Mountain-Pacific’s full calendar of events | Click here
Meet Mountain-Pacific’s Powerful Partners: Patient and Family Advisors
Click to view all Patient and Family Advisors.
We are excited to introduce our Powerful Partner program. Mountain-Pacific’s Powerful Partners are the individuals, coalitions and organizations we simply could not do our work without!
The first featured Powerful Partners are an important group of volunteers, called patient and family advisors, who make up our patient and family advisory council (PFAC). This group of volunteers is dedicated to guiding Mountain-Pacific’s effort of improving the patient care experience, improving the health of all populations and reducing health costs. Some recent tools they have assisted with include a guidebook on medication management and safety produced by the Billings Coalition and a patient education campaign, “Be the Expert of Your Care” produced by the Guam PFAC.
Furthermore, coalitions are coming together to support local community health. For example, the Guam Diabetes Control Coalition is working on a 2021-2025 strategic plan for diabetes prevention and control with a focus on fostering a patient-centered care environment in their community that
- inspires and improves the approach to patient-centered care through new and different perspectives;
- fosters two-way education between patient/caregiver and health care providers;
- uses the patient journey to navigate the health care system and improve the patient’s health.
Meet our current PFAs and learn more about their activities here. Access more community coalition tools and resources here.