September 2007 e-Bulletin

This month, the Best Practice Intervention Package concentrates on immunizations. As a health care professional, you can help your Medicare patients and others understand the importance of disease prevention through immunizations. For additional information, reference the CMS message on immunizations.

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Best Practice Intervention Package: Immunization

This package focuses on creating or improving upon a structured and effective immunization program, related to influenza and pneumococcal immunizations. Three components are addressed: ASSESS, ACCESS and ADMINISTER. Tools included in this package are:

• Influenza and Pneumococcal Immunization Patient Plan (Word)
• Influenza/Pneumococcal Notification Form (Word)
• Patient/Staff Immunization Tracking Record (Excel spreadsheet).

The Immunization BPIP uses the Home Health Immunization Toolkit 2007 – 2008 as a resource. A crosswalk is included in the BPIP to assist agencies in finding additional resources.

Continuing education continues for registered nurses and therapists for this package - 1.3 contact hours are available. In addition, LPNs/LVNs, PTAs and COTAs will now be able to complete the appropriate track for a certificate of participation.
 

Fast Track

As usual, a Fast Track is included for home health agencies that have limited time for this particular topic.

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Previous Best Practice Intervention Packages

The August Best Practice Intervention Package (BPIP) topic was telemonitoring.
July's BPIP focused on teletriage.
The June BPIP topic focused on phone monitoring and frontloading visits.
The May BPIP focused on medication management.
April's BPIP focused on emergency care planning.
The BPIP for March focused on hospitalization risk assessment.

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The HHQI Web site is updated weekly with additional information, tools and resources. Bookmark the Web site and visit it often. The Quick Links on the home page facilitates easy travel to important sites.

Improvements Made to HHQI Web Site

Recently, the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign Web site (www.homehealthquality.org) has undergone a facelift. Numerous changes and helpful advancements have been made to the site to make it that much easier to use. The HHQI Web site has always been a great resource for clinicians, physicians, home health agencies, and now even patients can benefit from the resources offered in the For Patients section.

The site has been enhanced with capabilities to make it more helpful than ever before. You will now be able to access frequently visited pages and categories faster with a redesigned homepage. Icons representing the featured pages contribute to the now effortless navigation. There are new resources for patients and practitioners alike, including an enhanced audio/video (A/V) page. The A/V page includes archived podcasts and video and audio interviews with home health professionals, and because nurses in home health care are constantly traveling back and forth, the recorded resources on the site are a perfect medium for further education.

Telemonitoring BPIP Survey

The survey results from the Telemonitoring BPIP are now available on the HHQI Web site.

The Best Practice Intervention Survey helps the HHQI team:

• improve the packages
• understand barriers to accessing the packages, etc.
• know whether we are on target with the materials
• recognize when there is a need to modify the materials.

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey. The next survey will be available September 4 through September 14, 2007.

Home Health Agency of the Month

Kearny County Home Health
Lakin, KS

“Thank you for the honor of being chosen as the agency of the month!! We appreciate the resources you provide to help us provide quality health care to our clients.” – Tracy Lamb, RN, Kearny County Home Health Director

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Spotlight on HHQI Campaign Champion

 
The Remington Report, Lisa Remington, Editor
This month we are highlighting the extraordinary support given to the campaign by Lisa Remington and The Remington Report. Not only was Lisa instrumental in assisting with planning for the campaign, she has continued to support the campaign through regular articles in her home health industry publication, The Remington Report. Sample articles can be found at www.remingtonreport.com (free registration is required to access some articles).

The following is a list of articles related to the campaign that have been published in The Remington Report:

• "Teletriage: A Strategy for Improving Quality," September/October 2006
• "Best Practices to Reduce Hospitalizations and Impact Change," November/December 2005
• "Hospitalization Risk Assessment: A Key Best Practice to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations," January/February 2007
• "Patient Emergency Plans: The Power of Quality and Consistency," March/April 2007
• "Project Management Strategies for ACH Success," May/June 2007
• "Patient Risk Assessment Tools Help Agency Reduce Hospitalizations," May/June 2007
• "Telehealth Reduces Hospitalizations: Creates Secondary Improvements for Other Quality Measures," July/August 2007
• "Physician Collaboration: Creating Cohesive Relationships to Reduce Acute Care Hospitalizations," July/August 2007.

• Almost Family, Inc.
• Amedisys Home Health
• Bayada Nurses
• Catholic Healthcare Partners
• Catholic Health East
• Catholic Healthcare West
• Gentiva Health Services
• Girling Health Care, Inc.
• Interim Healthcare SSC
• Intrepid USA, Inc.
• LHC Group
• Omni Home care
• Personal Touch Home Care, Inc.

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View the August 2007 Tips of the Week.
View the July 2007 Tips of the Week.
View the June 2007 Tips of the Week.

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