The Biden Administration has launched a six-week campaign urging Americans to get their updated COVID-19 vaccine. Encouraging Americans to get their updated bivalent vaccine will help avoid thousands of preventable COVID-19 deaths, even as people gather together for the winter holidays. 


Visit our dedicated webpage to learn how nursing homes can participate in this nationwide campaign to boost booster rates and protect the health of our most vulnerable populations. And stay tuned for updates on upcoming educational offerings, a podcast just for medical directors, a toll-free number where you can direct questions, new tools and resources, and more.

Upcoming Education

2022-2023 Influenza Season Vaccination: What's New? Who's Involved? And Why?


Join our team to hear the latest updates on one of the most active influenza seasons in recent memory.


December 13 1 pm ET

Vax Chat


Join Vax Chat every other Thursday morning from 7:45 - 8 am for a brief but impactful conversation about the latest topics in vaccines. A single registration allows you to join us, whenever it works best for you.


Register:


December 15

IP3: Infection Prevention for Infection Preventionists by an Infection Preventionist (Office Hours)


Our weekly sessions, offered Thursdays from 11 - 11:30 am ET, provide a forum for peer support, questions and answers, and best practices around infection prevention. Join our IP3 Facebook Group to keep the conversation going.


Register:


December 15

December 22



Boosters and Beyond: Rethinking Readmissions

This series reviews factors that can contribute to readmissions and strategies to help. Among the topics discussed are C.Diff, Sepsis, UTIs, Dementia, Falls, Wound Care, and CHF. The series guides participants through the processes of nursing home quality improvement. Register for upcoming sessions:


Advanced Directives

December 13 - 12 Noon

December 14 - 3 pm Live Replay


Bringing it Together – Facilitating Hospital & Nursing Home Communication

December 20 - 12 Noon

December 21 - 3 pm Live Replay

IPRO QIN-QIO High-Risk Medication Safety Monthly Learning Circle


January 4 from 2 - 3 pm ET and continuing on the first Wednesday of each month.


Email [email protected] to receive a calendar invitation for the Medication Safety Monthly Learning Circle. 

Prevention, Management & Care Coordination

December 5 - 9 is National Influenza Vaccination week, a critical time to remind everyone that there is still time to protect themselves and their loved ones from flu this season. The best way is to get an annual flu vaccine. Currently, flu activity is elevated across the country. Our Resource Library includes Influenza: What You Need to Know. Or, help spread the word by visiting the CDC for this Digital Media Toolkit.

Resource Library

Curated by our experts, the IPRO QIN-QIO resource library contains tools, links and information on everything from care coordination to COVID-19 and CKD to social determinants of health. Use the Resource Picker to find what you need, or check out this month's featured resources:


PDSA Steps and Tools is a new quality improvement guide that outlines the 11 steps in the Plan Do Study Act Cycle.


Our new Guide to Screening Patients for Transportation Barriers and Guide to Screening Patients for Social Isolation and Loneliness help us sharpen our health equity focus by offering information and best practices, including validated two-question assessments that can be used at point-of-care to screen patients. They also include resources for patients who screen positive.

Opioid, Pain Management, and Behavioral Health

The CDC has a new Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain. This guideline provides recommendations for clinicians providing pain care, including those prescribing opioids, for outpatients aged ≥18 years. It updates the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain — United States, 2016 (MMWR Recomm Rep 2016;65[No. RR-1]:1–49) and includes recommendations for managing acute (duration of <1 month), subacute (duration of 1–3 months), and chronic (duration of >3 months) pain.

Immunizations

Join our bi-weekly Vax Chat, a 15-minute, early morning call that tackles a range of topics related to vaccines (see description above). Drop in on December 15 and every other Thursday morning for a discussion on the vaccine best practices.

Health Equity

Don't miss our December Health Equity Newsletter, packed with the latest information on how you can work to eliminate healthcare disparities. This month, read about racial and ethnic differences in bystander CPR, strategies to reduce bias in healthcare delivery, food as medicine, the business case for social needs intervention, and more.


Strategies to Incorporate Cultural and Linguistic Competency into Long Term Care is a new resource that provides strategies for making long term care more culturally and linguistically appropriate for residents, especially racial/ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, those who identify as LGBTQ+, and individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP).


HHS National CLAS Standards Assessment

CLAS means culturally and linguistically appropriate services. CLAS improves the ability of organizations to successfully communicate and provide care to patients with diverse beliefs, backgrounds, and values. IPRO is working with hospitals and providers to update their health education, communication and beneficiary-engagement products to ensure that CLAS considerations are included to advance health equity. The first step is to take the Assessment of Cultural and Linguistic Services to identify the CLAS services your organization is already providing and where there are opportunities for improvement. IPRO will launch an educational series in January to help organizations develop a CLAS implementation plan, discuss evidence-based interventions to improve CLAS, and share best practices.

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The IPRO QIN-QIO works to ensure high-quality, safe health care in New England, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
This material was prepared by the IPRO QIN-QIO, a Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization, 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 document 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. 12SOW-IPRO-QIN-T1-AA-21-435