The QIRN 4 website recently received a new look. Please visit the new site and check out valuable information and tools to help you improve the quality of care for your renal patients.

Find your facility name and win a pizza party.
As a fun way to get facilities interacting with the new site, we've "hidden" two random facility names in the Providers section of the website. If you find your facility's name listed in the Providers section, please notify us and let us know. You could win a pizza party for your facility staff, courtesy of QIRN 4.

The video and slides from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Town Hall meeting Introducing CROWNWeb 4.7 are now available. 

CROWNWeb 4.7 was released on May 10, 2015. CROWNWeb 4.7 contains three enhancement requests, five design updates, and more than 50 overall updates to system functionality and behavior.

Some examples of changes to system functionality and behavior in CROWNWeb 4.7 are listed below:

Area		Previous Behavior	New Behavior
Clinical	Phosphorus	Users entered phosphorus value and date of lab.	Users now also specify if phosphorus method was Plasma, Serum, or Unable to be Determined (UTD).
Action List	Notifications and Accretions	Users needed to manually take action on each item, even if the tasks required to correct the action list item were already complete.	System will now remove action list items that have already been addressed by previous user actions in CROWNWeb.
CMS-2744	Validations	Incorrect validations occurred on the CMS-2744 form.	Incorrect validations have been corrected.
Action List	Notification	Duplicate notification shows in the Single user Interface for the same Patient/Element	Duplicate notifications no longer display in the Single user Interface
Action List	Notifications and Accretions	Duplicate action list items created and loaded in the system for the same event.	Only one action list item now created per event.

  

For a full list of system functionality and behavior changes included in CROWNWeb 4.7, please visit the MyCROWNWeb.org website. 

The American Nephrology Nurses' Association (ANNA) has completed a series of online tools to educate non-nephrology and non-dialysis healthcare personnel in caring for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.  The seven modules are cumulatively worth 7.8 CE hours.  The modules will be available online through mid-April 2017. 

The month of May offers a variety of opportunities to raise awareness about diabetes prevention and management. In observance of Older Americans Month, Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, and Healthy Vision Month, the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) encourages you to share helpful and practical diabetes resources for older adults and Asian-American Pacific Islanders, and increase awareness about diabetic eye disease.

Ever wondered how to use the Dialysis Facility Compare website? Do you know how to use the site, but have more questions? Learn more about Dialysis Facility Compare from these Frequently Asked Questions.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published a revised version of its booklet Resources for Medicare Beneficiaries, which includes locations and short descriptions of hundreds of other Medicare booklets on more specific topics.  View the booklet here.     

The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) has announced a new patient education conference call in its HealthLine series:

• Can We Slow the Progression of Kidney Disease? - A variety of ways that may help slow the progression of kidney disease, such as managing risk factors, understanding your condition and the importance of diet and exercise.  May 19, 2015, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. PDT.  

View recordings of previous HealthLine presentations.