September 2022 | Issue 18
OCTOBER HEALTH EVENTS: Tools and Resource for You!
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On average, one in eight women in the U.S. will develop cancer at some point during her life. This fact highlights the importance of screening to detect breast cancer early and prevent complications and even death. While American Indian/Alaska Native women have the lowest rates of developing breast cancer, October's annual awareness campaign offers the opportunity to educate women about their possible risks and share resources.

For health care providers:
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National Healthcare Quality Week | October 16-22
National Healthcare Quality Week was established in 1985 by the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) to recognize outstanding achievements in health care quality improvement and has since become one of the largest annual events celebrating quality improvement in health care.
The Partnership to Advance Tribal Health (PATH) encourages you to think about how to best recognize and celebrate the contributions of health care quality experts. Here are some ideas to promote and celebrate National Healthcare Quality Week:
  • Recognize your quality staff in your hospital newsletter or through social media.
  • Recognize contributions of health care professionals in your hospital.
  • Host a celebration event for staff.
  • Provide quality training using PATH free on-demand training videos on a variety of quality topics from What is QAPI to How to structure a performance improvement project. There are 14 short videos that can be viewed and discussed as part of staff meetings or for individual viewing.
  • Enhance your team’s Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) knowledge and strengthen your QAPI program by using the PATH QAPI Program Toolkit.
  • Identify and highlight areas of success within your QAPI program by evaluating using the PATH QAPI Review worksheet.
  • Access a free planning guide for additional ideas to support National Healthcare Quality Week by the National Association for Healthcare Quality.

Contact your PATH quality improvement advisor for more information about PATH resources and support.
WHAT'S NEW
Emergency Department (ED) Measure Tool | Access instructions document
This document explains and instructs on the function and use of the emergency department
(ED) measure tool for collecting and monitoring the PATH Care Coordination ED measures. 
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Re-visiting Screening Strategies in a New Era of Evidence-based Treatment for
Substance Use Disorder (SUD) | Get more information
If you missed last week’s event, there is still time to receive continuing education credits!
This event was presented by PATH and the Indian Health Service (IHS)
National Committee on Heroin, Opioids and Pain Efforts (HOPE Committee)
in collaboration with accredited provider IHS Clinical Support Center.
Dr. Kathryn Hawk, Yale New Haven Hospital Emergency Department, Yale School of Public Health
and the Program in Addiction Medicine; Dr. Kristin Alamaras, IHS HOPE Committee and
Dr. Jane Brock, PATH, discussed SUD screening.
Continuing education credits are available for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, social workers and psychologists. To receive continuing education credits, watch the recording
and then complete the survey at the end.
IN THE KNOW
What is CDC's Recommendation for Getting a Flu Vaccine for the 2022-2023 Flu Season? | Read FAQs
For this flu season, three flu vaccines are preferentially recommended for people 65 years and older:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states September and October
are generally good times to get vaccinated.
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Support for 988 Tribal Response Cooperative Agreements | Learn more
These cooperative agreements provide resources to improve response to 988 contacts
(including calls, chats, texts) originating in Tribal communities and/or activated by American Indians/Alaska Natives. This program aims to
  • ensure American Indians/Alaska Natives have access to culturally competent, trained 988 crisis center support;
  • improve integration and support of 988 crisis centers, Tribal nations and Tribal organizations to ensure navigation and follow-up care;
  • facilitate collaborations with Tribal, state and territory health providers, Urban Indian Organizations, law enforcement and other first responders in a manner that respects Tribal sovereignty.
IHS PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Complying with HIPAA Security: A Security Risk Assessment Success
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule includes an annual security risk assessment (SRA). While one Tribal health care community knew they were conducting SRAs, they were not quite sure they were meeting all the requirements. PATH quality improvement advisors offered their help.

How did an Area Office and two hospitals find out if they were on the right track? Find out how in this month's partner spotlight.
PATH EVENTS
Workplace Violence II: From Agitation to Aggression: Responses to Take with Patients and Visitors | Register
Thursday, Sept. 29
3-4 p.m. ET | 2-3 p.m. CT | 1-2 p.m. MT | 12-1 p.m. PT
Health care workers have long been championed as heroes and praised for their dedication to patients, as seen at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, frontline workers are often the recipients of workplace violence through agitation and aggression led by patients and visitors.
In fact, health care and social service industries are five times as likely to suffer an injury due to workplace violence than workers overall. Moreover, many violence incidents are left unreported by staff, with some repeating the phrase, “It’s just another part of the job." A patient or visitor’s act of violence against a health care worker has a scope of intensity ranging from minor to serious physical injuries, emotional and psychological trauma and death in the most severe cases. Health care workers deserve a safe environment that is free from violence.

Join the PATH Learning Circle to learn from subject matter experts about common trigger events for patients and visitors who display escalating behaviors, signs and symptoms of increasing agitation and movement towards possible aggression, appropriate responses for staff addressing highly emotional incidents, and post incident debrief steps and reporting.

Resources:
HOPE Committee and PATH Office Hours | Registration is required.
Every first and third Friday (Sept. 16 - Nov. 18) | 2 p.m. ET | 1 p.m. CT | 12 p.m. MT | 11 a.m. PT
Join IHS HOPE Committee and PATH for an office hours call on the IHS Opioid Prescribing Dashboard. This call will support IHS users of the IHS Opioid Prescribing Dashboard though
  • discussing dashboard functionality and use cases;
  • responding to dashboard questions;
  • providing a forum to discuss enhancement requests;
  • highlighting techniques to get the most out of this dashboard.
(This event is free and open to IHS staff only. Registration is required to receive the call-in information.)
PARTNERSHIP TO ADVANCE TRIBAL HEALTH (PATH) | Visit the PATH website
This material was prepared by Comagine Health for the American Indian Alaska Native Healthcare Quality Initiative under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 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. NQIIC-AIHQI-265-09/20/2022