Nursing Homes | Behavioral Health | Patient Safety | Chronic Disease Self-Management | Care Transitions | Community Coalitions

Increasing Patient Safety Initiative

Qsource encourages nursing homes and community coalitions to join us in this initiative to increase safety for all patients. Through technical assistance, program development, and data analysis, we can enhance your ability to prevent medical errors.


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Anticipated Impact

  • Fewer deaths and hospitalizations related to adverse drug events (ADEs)
  • A reduction in prescribing errors
  • Improved patient satisfaction
  • Increased use of non-pharmacological interventions for pain management in nursing homes
  • Standardized data collections for ADEs
  • Increased awareness of ADEs in community coalitions

Who should get involved?

Identifying and addressing care concerns are essential in making improvement and involves incorporating the knowledge and experience from a variety of care providers, such as:

  • Physicians
  • Nurse Practitioners
  • Physician Assistants
  • Pharmacists
  • Nursing Home Administrators and Staff
  • Quality Directors
  • Safety Officers
  • Infection Preventionists
  • Directors of Nursing 
  • Training Coordinators
  • Healthcare Consumer and/or Patient Safety Advocates

Benefits

The assistance we provide is free. 

Reduced Time and Administrative Burden

  • Guidance on requirements regarding Infection Prevention programs
  • Support in addressing staffing shortages, high-turnover, burnout and frustration
  • Support in developing and maintaining a continuity plan for QIP staff
  • Assistance with improving your organization’s current processes and workflow
  • Help to prioritize focus areas for your safety and quality activities

Billing and Reimbursement Assistance 

  • Support toward achieving regulatory compliance, increasing staff competency and providing safer care
  • Increased awareness of regulatory compliance issues

Data and Benchmarking Assistance 

  • Data reports for peer-to-peer comparison
  • Expert analysis comparing data collected by providers, CMS and outside data sources
  • Status reports outlining how your facility is making progress toward meeting established quality and safety targets

Free Tools, Resources and Education 

  • On-demand learning online
  • In-person technical assistance 
  • In-service training
  • Best practice educational resources and tools

Improved Patient Outcomes by:

  • Understanding potential complications of high-risk medications and know signs and symptoms of ADEs
  • Building confidence in discussing medications with a physician and/or pharmacist

Requirements

Participation is voluntary. However, we ask that participants commit to the following:

  • Focus on multiple high-risk medication classes like anticoagulants, opioids and diabetic agents. 
  • Track process measures and rates of ADEs over time by using specific elements of the CMS and IHI Trigger Tool in the community.
  • Conduct root casue analysis to determine causes of issues. 
  • Evaluate and make process improvements around anticoagulant monitoring.
  • Document new processes on patient transfer communication.
  • For Nursing Homes:Implement CDC Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship.
  • Track infections (C.difficile and UTI) in NHSN.