January 2016

brought to you by the Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Campaign

Congratulations to the new HHQI Agency of the Month

Benton County Health Department Home Health Agency is honored to receive this recognition from the HHQI National Campaign for our efforts in Oral Medication Management. Our desire to fulfill our mission statement drives our commitment to give each patient we serve the ability to achieve their fullest health potential in their own home. Our team is dedicated to making sure that our patients come first. We thank HHQI for recognizing our

efforts in the health care arena.

Kelli Daleske

Home Care Program Coordinator

Gloria Smith

Home Care Assistant Administrator

Be in the spotlight. If your home health agency is active in the HHQI National Campaign and close to the national, risk-adjusted ACH 20th percentile and/or Oral Medication Improvement 80th percentile (or better), your agency is eligible for random selection as HHQI Agency of the Month. Nominate your agency today!

Free Home Health QAPI Courses Available NOW

Quality Assurance & Performance Improvement (QAPI) is at the center of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' proposed changes to the Home Health Conditions of Participation (CoPs). Four new free courses that provide guidance and tools for the development of your QAPI plans have been added to HHQI University.

The foundational course -- QAPI 101 -- provides education on the 5 QAPI Standards. Three subsequent courses focus on topic-specific Performance Improvement Projects (PIPs) that are high priorities in home health: Hospitalizations, Medication Management, and Cardiovascular Health.

Each course includes free tools and 1.5 hours of nursing continuing education credit approved by the Alabama State Nurses Association, an accredited approver of the American Nurse s Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

LEARN HOW TO ENROLL NOW

Save the Dates: New "Third Thursdays" Event Schedule

Home health professionals are busy. Now, there's an understatement. In order to make the most of your limited time, HHQI's three primary online Networking events - LiveChat, Cardiovascular Learning & Action Network (CardioLAN) webinars, and Underserved

Populations (UP) webinars - will each be held quarterly, rotating to always occur from 2-3pm (ET) on the third Thursday of the month.

Click on the Networking Event type below for specific dates and available registration or reminder links. You can also browse our online event calendar.

CardioLAN Webinars: March, June, Sept, Dec
UP Webinars: Jan, April, July, Oct
LiveChat: Feb, May, August, Nov

January 21 @ 2pm ET: Quarterly Underserved Populations Network Webinar

Hospital Discharge & Rural Transitions Planning

Rural residents experience both a "mortality and morbidity penalty" when compared to their urban counterparts. Urban-based discharge planners are often unfamiliar with services and resources available in outlying rural communities, and many rural health providers, researchers, and advocates have come to see discharge from a regional hospital to a small town or rural community as a point at which rural health care disparities are most apparent.

During this free webinar, you'll learn how an enhanced discharge and rural transitions model incorporates the patient's perspective and builds on community strengths to support a patient's transition back home and back into the natural systems of support.

Pre-registration is required. If you have questions ahead of time, you may email them to us so we can ensure they are answered during the webinar.

Key Dates: Home Health Compare & Star Ratings Reports

The Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings Preview Reports are now available in the CASPER folders. These reports contain data that will be publicly reported on the Home Health Compare website in April 2016. The deadline to submit a request to have the star rating data suppressed is January 25, 2016. Please follow the directions laid out in the Preview Reports to submit a suppression request.

Below is calendar of key dates for the next three quarters of Home Health Compare updates:

	JAN 2016	APR 2016	JUL 2016	OCT 2016
Preview reports available in CASPER	9/30/15	1/7/16	4/7/16 (or before)	6/30/16 (or before)
Quality of Patient Care Star Rating suppression request deadline	10/17/15	1/25/16	4/25/16	7/18/16
Deadline for submitting missing or corrected data	11/20/15	2/19/16	5/20/16	8/19/16
Home Health Compare updated	1/28/16	4/13/16	7/13/16	10/5/16

Source: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/HHQISpotlight.html

Free CME Course:

Lipid Management and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction

Join the National Association for Continuing Education (NACE) for this one-hour live webinar. After completing this program, participants should be able to: Discuss the benefits of LDL-C lowering with pharmacologic therapies that improve cardiovascular outcomes

Recognize and understand the role of alternative or additional therapies in conjunction with statins
Recognize the strengths and limitations of the 2013 ACC/AHA cholesterol guidelines and how to optimally implement the recommendations
Recognize the potential role of emerging pharmacologic therapies to further lower LDL-C in those at high risk for cardiovascular disease
Recognize and develop appropriate treatment strategies for special populations (women, elderly, ethnic minorities) that would benefit from lipid-lowering therapy

Two sessions are available. Select a date/time below to register.

January 13, 2016 @ 1pm ETSpeaker: Laurence O. Watkins, MD, MPH, FACC; Director, Healthy Heart Center
January 19, 2016 @ 12pm ETSpeaker: Karol E. Watson, MD, PhD; Co-director, UCLA Program in Preventive Cardiology; Direcotr, UCLA Barbara Streisand Women's Heart Health Program

Geriatric Home Health Resources from CHAMP

Champ logo

The Collaboration for Homecare Advances in Management and Practice (CHAMP) Program was the first national initiative to advance geriatric home care excellence. CHAMP's valuable resources and e-presentations are still available online.

Join HHQI's Mailing Lists

STAY CONNECTED

This material was prepared by Quality Insights, the Medicare Quality Innovation Network-Quality

Improvement Organization supporting the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign,

under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services. The views presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy.

Publication number 11SOW-WV-HH-MMD-010716