Your Resource for HQIC News and Learning Opportunities | March 2022
Pressure Injury Prevention During the COVID-19 Era

The COVID-19 pandemic has put further strain on the ability to prevent and treat HAPIs for hospitals already challenged in this area. Healthcare professionals must not only adapt their HAPI prevention practices for hospitalized patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who are placed prone for prolonged periods, but they must also pursue early implementation of measures to prevent medical device-related HAPIs, as well as HAPIs commonly observed in the sacral region.
It Figures—Data and Performance
Data indicate that HSAG HQIC HAPI rates have worsened since the baseline period of 2019. Visit the HSAG HQIC Quality Improvement Innovation Portal (QIIP) to view your hospital's HAPI data by selecting the “Measure Category” of “Other Harms” and “Measures of HAPI Stage 3 or Greater (PSI-3) and Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcer (HAPU)—All Stages.”
Rates are per 1,000 admissions. Source: Medicare Fee-for-Service claims data. For additional details on measure specifications, please reference the HSAG HQIC Compendium of Measures. The baseline time period is 01/01/2019–12/31/2019, and current time period is 10/01/2020–09/30/2021.
The Flash: Resources
The following resources are available to assist hospitals with HAPI prevention and quality and safety initiatives, including education on early identification, a pressure injury post-event analysis form, posters, and prevention tips.
NPIAP Best Practices Posters
The National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP) has created four posters based on the best practices of Medical Device-Related Pressure Injury (MDRPI) prevention.
Joint Commission: Medical Device-Related HAPIs
This handout outlines seven safety actions: assessment, education, positioning, device care, documentation and communication, teamwork, and continuous monitoring.
NPIAP Pressure Injury Prevention Tips for Prone Positioning
This handout offers several prevention tips and special considerations for patients requiring prone positioning.
HSAG HQIC Pressure Injury Post-Event Form
This fillable form is a first step to identify which strategies and/or actions might contribute the most to improve the care provided to patients.
Critical Communication
Health Equity Organizational Assessment (HEOA)
To align with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) focus on improving health equity, HSAG HQIC designed a change package to assist your hospital in the journey to identify and address disparities in care. This change package will be launched with a webinar on March 9, 2022. Part of the change package includes an HEOA, which will be rolled out to HSAG HQIC hospitals to assist in identifying areas of focus for your facility around health equity. Your quality advisor will be in contact soon with more details. Register for the webinar below.
Events and Education
HSAG HQIC has scheduled the following two educational webinars that offer continuing education (CE) credit in nursing at no cost to attendees. Note that you must attend the live event to receive credit. Each webinar is worth one CE.*
Advancing Health Equity:
A Foundation for the Future of Healthcare
Wednesday, March 9, 2022, 1–2 p.m. ET 
Health equity is everyone’s responsibility. Learn how to easily integrate and improve health equity in your existing quality and patient initiatives.
Medication Safety: Preventing Anticoagulant Adverse Drug Events (ADEs)
Tuesday, March 29, 2022, 2–3 p.m. ET 
Continuing Education (CE): Health Services Advisory Group, Inc., is the CE provider for this event. Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 16578, for 1 contact hour. There is no charge to attend this event. You must attend the live event to earn CE credit.
Upcoming Education Quickinars
HSAG HQIC Quality and Safety Series
Offered on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month, these bite-size learning presentations review the key skills necessary for you to function in quality improvement and are intended as a basic foundation for the novice or as a skills refresher for the expert.
HSAG Care Coordination Series
This series will walk you through the steps for managing avoidable hospital readmissions. Offered on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month.
HSAG Opioid Stewardship Program
Join HSAG in an action-based quickinar series to provide tactics, strategies, and information needed to implement a successful opioid stewardship program.
References
1. National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP), European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance. Prevention and Treatment of pressure ulcers/injuries: Clinical practice guideline. http://www.internationalguideline.com/
2. Padula WV, Delarmente BA. The national Cost of Hospital-acquired Pressure Injuries in the United States. International Wound Journal – Wiley. Dec 2018. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/iwj.13071
3. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). AHRQ preventing pressure ulcers in hospitals. A toolkit for improving quality of care. Publication: 11-0053- EF. https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/publications/files/putoolkit.pdf. 
This material was prepared by Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), a Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor (HQIC) under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of CMS or HHS, and any reference to a specific product or entity herein does not constitute endorsement of that product or entity by CMS or HHS. Publication No XS-HQIC-XT-03022022-01