Monthly news & updates for Direct Difference, Inc abstractors
February 2019


Happy Birthday!

Denise Blakeley - February 3
Whitney Burris - February 9
Colleen Dobkin - February 15
Margaret Thibodeaux - February 15
Catherine Ronda - February 23
Holly Rowley - February 24

Know Someone That Could Use Our Services? Earn a Referral Bonus!

You can get $100 referral bonus for referring someone to Direct Difference. You can get another $500 if they sign a contract with us. WOW!

Did you know we provide abstraction services for core measures, non-core measures, registry, OPPE-FPPE, NHSN, peer review, pharmaceutical studies and others? If you know a facility that has ANY data abstraction needs please contact us for more information. All you have to do is respond to this email to get started!
Health IT Update

Verizon evaluated over 53,000 cyber security incidents that occurred across nine industries, including health care, last year and found that 536 data breaches resulting from 750 incidents were in health care, 79% of which mainly targeted medical information, 37% personal information and 4% payment data. Fifty-six percent of breaches reported by health care entities were caused by insiders, while 43% were attributed to external sources, 35% to errors and 24% to misuse.

Outreach and Education


Chest Pain – MI Registry Version 3 is now available and accepting patient records with discharge dates of Jan. 1, 2019. Learn more about features of the new version and get familiar with the dataset, resources and all aspects of data abstraction in the on-demand course,  Chest Pain – MI Registry Introduction to Version 3 , from the NCDR Learning Center. Version 3 documents and data collection forms are available on the  Chest Pain – MI Registry participant website , under "Resources," and then "Documents."


Accreditation Services will host a series of Heart Month webinars throughout February. Topics will cover  Heart Failure Awareness Week  and  how cardiovascular teams can partner with emergency medical services to improve STEMI care . Visit  CVQuality.ACC.org   for additional topics. 


Quality Reporting News
Inpatient :

Selected for validation? Don't miss this webinar!

Hospital IQR Program FY 2021 Chart-Abstracted Validation Overview for Randomly Selected Hospitals , will be presented to share information regarding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital IQR Program chart-abstracted data-validation process for fiscal year (FY) 2021.

The webinar slides will be available for download from  Quality Reporting Center  under Upcoming Events the day before the presentation.

The webinar will be presented on Thursday, February 7, 2019, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET.
You may register for the webinar  here.
American Heart Association GWTG Stroke PMT Update

AHA had an update to the Stroke Patient Management Tool® on January 30 th , 2019.  Here is a summary of the updates and enhancements but please see the attached Release Notes for more details. 

Enhancements:
  • Updated “t-PA” to “alteplase” in all elements of the PMT (all users)
  • Added elements related to imaging and advanced imaging to all user groups
  • Imaging Prior to Transfer (MER layer)
  • New options for “Brain Imaging at your Hospital (all layers)
  • Updated and new elements “Advanced Imaging at your Hospital (all layers)
  • Added elements for STK-OP-1 and CSTK-01 to STK users
  • Including a new “Outpatient” tab
  • “Pre-Stroke Modified Rankin Score” element has been added to CSTK users
  • PCSK 9 Inhibitors added as Cholesterol Reducing Tx at discharge
  • Updated options for users with the MER layer active related to following questions:
  • Reasons for not performing mechanical endovascular reperfusion therapy
  • Reasons for delay
  • Statin at Discharge:
  • Additional statin and dosing combinations have been added
  • New element “Documented Reason for Not Prescribing Guideline Recommended Dose?”
  • Reasons for not prescribing guideline recommended dose enabled in:
  • Patients >75 who receive dose less than moderate.
  • Patients <=75 who receive dose less than intensive.
Fixes:
  • Update to form logic eliminating auto population of “Did the patient receive IV or IA alteplase at this hospital or within 24 hours prior to arrival?” = Yes, when “Catheter-based stroke treatment at this hospital?” = Yes.
 
Operations (Technical):
  • “Intensive Statin Therapy?” moved to Historic Tab
 Happy Anniversary!
A big thank you to these valuable team members for their commitment to make Direct Difference, Inc the leader in healthcare abstraction services!

Marcell Robertson - 2 years
Billie Jo Butler - 2 years
Ashley Dinanath - 3 years
Karen Armada - 4 years
Candice Legan - 7 years
Julie Ferrieri - 9 years


American Heart Association Heart Failure

State of Get with the Guidelines-Heart Failure 2019 webinar on Feb 11, 2019 at 11:00 AM CST


Join the American Heart Association for this very special Heart Failure Awareness Week Webinar, State of GWTG-Heart Failure 2019. You will hear from experts in heart failure as they review the ongoing challenge to optimize medical therapy for heart failure, guideline derived care, best practices, safely reducing readmissions, the treatment of special populations, quality of life in HF and more.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Women In Action
Stories that lead people to take action for some greater good are often memorable – you can’t get them out of your head. Three stories from IHI’s recent National Forum promise to stay with you: in one, a pediatrician exposes the water contamination in Flint, Michigan; in another, a persistent dancer wins over skeptics in order to introduce the  healing power of dance  to hospitalized children; and in a third tale, an immigrant father’s life story becomes the backdrop and motivator to his daughter’s career treating infectious diseases globally while raising awareness through journalism. Enjoy this free WIHI podcast from the National Forum:  Women in Action: Paving the Way for Better Care.
Excellence   Expertise   Experience
That’s how we make a Direct Difference!
Mandy Budny, RN, MSN, CPHQ | Direct Difference, Inc | 520-442-0016 mandy.budny@directdifference.com