Nurse-Physician Communication in the Long-term Care Setting: Perceived Barriers and Impact on Patient Safety
This Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded study indicated that, when physicians ignore nurses’ concerns about a patient, the patient may be harmed.
National Speakers to Appear at Valley Care Transitions Educational Conference on
January 21
Aging Texas Well (ATW) Community Assessment Toolkit from DADS Now Available Online
Draft Healthy People 2020 Objectives: Opportunity for Public Comment
National Transitions of Care Coalition Releases Health Care Tools in Spanish and French
CAHPS® Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy
Newly Revised Nursing Home Tools: Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT II.)
Finding Your Way: Talking About End-of-Life Treatment Decisions
Emergency Department Visits for Injurious Falls among the Elderly, 2006
Examination of How a Survey Can Spur Culture Changes Using a Quality Improvement Approach
CMS Approves Press Ganey as a Qualified Home Health Care CAHPS Survey Vendor
National Speakers to Appear at Valley Care Transitions Educational Conference on January 21
Save-the-Date: January 21, 2010 the Texas Care Transitions Project is planning a Care Transitions Educational Conference that will be the talk of the Rio Grande health care community. Two keynote speakers— Department of Health, Chronic Disease and Cancer Community Health Administration Bureau Chief Joanne Lynn, MD, MA, MS, of Washington DC; as well as National QIO Support Center Project Director Alicia Goroski, MPH, of Colorado—headline a list of highly-informed and informative presenters. Also planned is a panel discussion led by representatives of the Rio Grande Valley’s own healthcare community. January 21, 2010, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Brownsville, Texas.
Aging Texas Well (ATW) Community Assessment Toolkit from DADS Now Available Online
The Department of Aging and Disability Services has made this community assessment toolkit available for communities to use online early, although DADS technical assistance won’t be available until field testing of the toolkit is finished in 2010. Those interested can use the toolkit to assess their community’s capability to serve an aging population and plan ahead for a community that is more “aging-friendly.”
Draft Healthy People 2020 Objectives: Opportunity for Public Comment
You can help to determine the government’s health care agenda and goals for the future. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services invites you to comment on the DRAFT set of objectives for Healthy People 2020. Over the last three decades, Healthy People has provided a set of national 10-year health promotion and disease prevention objectives aimed at improving the health of all Americans. Comments will be accepted through December 31, 2009.
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Nurse-Physician Communication in the Long-term Care Setting: Perceived Barriers and Impact on Patient Safety
This Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded study indicated that, when physicians ignore nurses’ concerns about a patient, the patient may be harmed.
Thinking Outside the Pillbox: A System-wide Approach to Improving Patient Medication Adherence for Chronic Disease
The New England Healthcare Institute estimates $800 billion spent on healthcare in the U.S.—fully one third of expenditures—could be saved while still maintaining the quality of care. One of the primary sources of health care inefficiency, the Institute says, is poor medication adherence. This NEHI report recommends methods for promoting medication reconciliation and encouraging improved pharmacist counseling to enhance patient outcomes, among other recommended interventions.
National Transitions of Care Coalition Releases Health Care Tools in Spanish and French
Two NTOCC tools, Taking Care of MY Health Care and My Medicine List, now available in both Spanish and French, are designed to improve patient satisfaction and outcomes. The tools can help patients and their caregivers communicate better with providers and also supply a handy, orderly way to keep health care data up-to-date.
CAHPS® Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy
The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy, published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is designed to give health care professionals a clearer perception of how well they communicate with patients. The 29-item set is designed for use with the CAHPS Clinician & Group Survey and offers health care providers data for improving their health literacy practices (in English and Spanish). It is especially useful for detecting areas for quality improvement, ways to strengthen effective communications, and how to create an environment where patients feel comfortable speaking up about their health care concerns.
Newly Revised Nursing Home Tools: Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT II.)
Note that the Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT II.) clinical tools have been revised. These tools are useful for reducing the frequency of transfers to acute care hospitals. Transfers are often emotionally and physically hard on residents, can result in complications associated with hospitalization, and are expensive. In the future Medicare may financially reward facilities with lower hospitalization rates for certain conditions. INTERACT II are tools refined by frontline staff as well as national experts and found to be effective at improving identification and evaluation of residents, and communication of changes in resident status.
Finding Your Way: Talking About End-of-Life Treatment Decisions
According to this AARP Bulletin Today article, written by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Director, Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., more doctor-patient discussion about advance directives is needed. As many as 75 percent of physicians whose patients have advance directives are unaware of it, she says. Yet AHRQ-funded studies show that patients 65 years and older who talk with their doctors about advance care planning experience increased satisfaction. Ideally, these conversations should happen long before stroke, terminal illness or life-threatening events occur.
Emergency Department Visits for Injurious Falls among the Elderly, 2006 (PDF)
Direct medical costs tied to injuries resulting from adults aged 65 or older falling is estimated at $20 billion annually. These costs are accelerating as the population ages. This Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief presents and discusses data comparing ED visits for injurious falls with other types of ED visits among the elderly. Because many falls are preventable and their cost significantly impacts our health care system, the authors advocate a better understanding of injuries linked to elderly adults falling, which are more closely examined by sex and nature of injury in this report.
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U.S. Losing Ground on Preventable Deaths: Despite High Medical Spending, Results Trail Other Wealthy Countries
This Washington Post article sites nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund research stating that the U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations on “preventable deaths” due to illnesses and injuries that should not be fatal at an early age. Specifically, the U.S. ranks close to the bottom on preventable deaths due to diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers and pneumonia—even though we spend more per capita on medical care than similar countries.
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Medicare Coverage and Reimbursement Rules for the H1N1 Vaccine and Seasonal Flu Coverage and Reimbursement (PDF)
This article in a special edition of MLN Matters clarifies Medicare coverage and reimbursement rules for the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccine. Medicare will pay for both. However, if the Medicare provider receives free vaccine, then Medicare will only pay for administration of the vaccine. If you administer flu vaccine, you’ll find this article helpful. Make sure your billing staff sees it, too.
Examination of How a Survey Can Spur Culture Changes Using a Quality Improvement Approach
This article, published in the September-October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality, examines safety climates using a sample of staff from 25 western Pennsylvania hospitals. The study is used to gauge the effectiveness of a survey at measuring health care workers’ perceptions related to their hospital’s safety reporting, feedback and problem-solving systems.
CMS Approves Press Ganey as a Qualified Home Health Care CAHPS Survey Vendor
To meet eligibility requirements for home health agency full annual payment update (APU), agencies must contract with a qualified survey vendor and participate in the national Home Health Care Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HH-CAHPS) survey. A proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule states agencies must participate in the April 2010 national implementation of the survey—which measures patient satisfaction with the care provided by Medicare-certified home health agencies— to qualify for their full APU. Agencies can participate in a “dry run” of the survey between January and March of 2010 in preparation for the April implementation. In addition to help administering the survey, Press Ganey offers tools and consulting services to help home health agencies improve. Home health agencies wishing to contact Press Ganey about survey options should call 1-800-232-8032.
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Care Transitions is a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quality improvement project for Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley administered through TMF Health Quality Institute. It is a regional, collaborative effort to reduce avoidable hospitalizations by improving patient care transitions.
http://caretransitions.tmf.org | 1-866-439-6863 | 512-334-1775 fax | caretransitions@tmf.org
This material was prepared by TMF Health Quality Institute, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Texas, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. 9SOW-TX-CT-09-115