Beverley Laubert, State Long-Term Care Ombudsman for Ohio and past president of the National Association of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs, was installed as Chair of the Advancing Excellence in Long-Term Care Collaborative Board of Directors for the 2014-2015 term at the January Board meeting. Marilyn Reierson, Program Manager of Stratis Health, was installed as Vice Chair for the same term.  

"It is a great honor to play a leadership role in a national initiative that has had a major impact on how states and individual providers make progress toward quality aims," said Beverley Laubert. "Through the Campaign's initiatives, we are seeing real and meaningful quality improvement in nursing homes throughout the country."

"I am honored to accept this appointment to support an organization that does such meaningful work," said Marilyn Reierson. "I look forward to upholding the Campaign's ongoing commitment to make nursing homes better places to live, work and visit."

Beverley Laubert has been the Ohio State Long-Term Care Ombudsman since 1994. Her office includes 12 regional ombudsman programs, 80 staff members and over 300 volunteers. Among her accomplishments are the development of Ohio's Long-Term Care Consumer Guide, person-centered strategies projects to improve quality of life for consumers, and influencing public policy focused on quality and consumer rights. She has served as president of the National Association of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs and chair of the organization's Federal Policy Committee.    

Marilyn Reierson is a program manager for Stratis Health, a nonprofit based in Bloomington, MN, that leads collaboration and innovation in health care quality and safety, and serves as a trusted expert in facilitating improvement for people and communities. She currently works with Quality Improvement Organizations and nursing homes throughout the country in support of the National Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative and QAPI implementation. 

CDC recently launched a new website dedicated to infection prevention in long-term care facilities. The site has information for both clinicians and consumers and highlights Advancing Excellence's infection prevention tools and resources throughout the site.

"We are very excited to release a new and updated website on infection prevention, with numerous links to AE's website," said Nimalie Stone, MD, Medical Epidemiologist for Long-term Care in CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. "We are aligning our efforts and working together as partners to promote these innovative new materials designed to prevent infections in nursing homes."

Nursing home residents are at increased risk of infections for many reasons. As more people enter nursing homes following hospital stays, nursing homes are providing more hands-on, complex medical care (such as wound care and maintenance of medical devices) to residents, which can lead to increased exposure to bacteria and infection.

CDC's website will be useful for long-term care clinical staff, family members, and residents who want more information about infection prevention. CDC and AE have a long-standing relationship, and AE's infection goal was created as a joint effort between the two organizations. Their partnership evolved through that effort and continues to grow as AE participants can now utilize the new website, which CDC hopes to expand to include even more resources from AE.

Current AE resources featured on the site include:

• C. difficile infection tracking tool
• Questions to evaluate current processes and provide improvement guidance
• Infection prevention assessment checklists
• Factsheets on C. difficile

"There is growing awareness around the need for safe healthcare to extend to long-term care, making the launch of this website very timely," said Dr. Stone. "This website bundles a lot of important information in one place making it easy for facilities to find the CDC and AE resources to improve patient safety in long-term care."

Read more from Dr. Stone and join the conversation at:  http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare/  

Visit CDC's Long-term Care Infection Prevention page at:  http://www.cdc.gov/longtermcare/   

We're here to help! Please don't struggle -- send an email to your AE HelpDesk early to save time and complications.

Problem with your on-sheet counts? Remember, the first three fields must be complete for each pressure ulcer to be counted correctly. Enter the resident's name for each pressure ulcer recorded. To remove data entered in error: Select the cell, right-click and choose Clear Contents. If the pressure ulcer healed, or the resident died or was discharged, close the record using the Compared To Last Week column.

 If an individual is discharged from the hospital in December 2013, but was admitted to my home in January 2014, where should this event be recorded? This is an event that needs to be recorded on the AdmittedWithRecentDischarge tab. The date of discharge occurred in 2013, so it belongs in your 2013 workbook.

AE HOSPITALIZATIONS TRACKING TOOL BRIDGING 2013-2014 

Don't forget the instructions! When you download your 2014 version of the Hospitalization Tracking Tool, don't forget the instructions for how to bridge the two years.

DID YOU KNOW?  AE HelpDesk now offers consultations via GoToMeeting! WIth GoToMeeting, there is no need to de-identify your workbook because we can look at your screen without sending files or collecting screenshots. This is a great way to troubleshoot, discuss data-entry questions, and get a quick consult on interpreting your data and next steps for your project. Contact the AE HelpDesk to schedule an appointment at help@NHQualityCampaign.org. 

The Connecticut LANE represents over 130 not-for-profit, mission-driven provider organizations serving elderly and disabled individuals across the continuum of care, including nursing homes, residential care homes, housing for the elderly, continuing care retirement communities, adult day centers, home care agencies and assisted living. 

The Connecticut LANE is a partnership comprised of:

• Connecticut Department of Public Health 
• LeadingAge Connecticut 
• Connecticut Association of Healthcare Facilities
• Connecticut Culture Change Coalition 
• Connecticut Long Term Care Ombudsman Program 

The Connecticut LANE works hard to encourage nursing homes to submit data by:

• Encouraging all nursing homes to register with AE and seizing every opportunity (conferences, educational sessions, conference calls/webinars, and individual technical support) to talk about AE, and the advantages of registering and using the resources
• Teaching INTERACT (Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers) and promoting AE as another tool to help support nursing homes' efforts for tracking/trending their improvement
• Conducting in-person learning and action network educational sessions to discuss AE initiatives to increase data submission and how it benefits nursing homes. Presentations include instructional flyers on how to submit data. AE is a standard agenda item for these sessions, where discussions includes state performance and standings.
• Partnering with nursing home trade associations to communicate to their members, especially nursing home chains, about AE data submission
• Engaging corporate entities to encourage their individual members to submit data 

PERSON-CENTERED CARE 

Person-centered care promotes choice, purpose and meaning in daily life. It provides better delivery of services to frail and vulnerable people, particularly the elderly, and supports advocacy and public awareness of their needs, through a program of cross-disciplinary research, education and practice development.

Advancing Excellence's person-centered care goal honors the importance of keeping the person at the center of the care planning and decision-making process. Care plans are living documents that are revised to reflect a person's changing needs. In person-centered care, staff places a premium on active listening and observing, so staff can adapt to each resident's changing needs regardless of cognitive abilities.

Person-centered care benefits residents in many ways:

• Residents have autonomy and are able to direct care and services.
• Resident choice fosters engagement and improves quality of life.
• Residents live in an environment of trust and respect.
• Residents are in a close relationship with staff who are attuned to their changes and can respond appropriately.
• Residents continue to live in a way that is meaningful to them.

It also benefits nursing home staff as:

• Staff members are more comfortable caring for people they know.
• Staff form a strong partnership with residents and their families.
• Staff know a person's preferences, can anticipate the person's needs and adapt accordingly.
• Staff are highly valued in person-centered care organizations.
• Staff work more efficiently in person-centered care environments and can devote time where it is most needed.

Person-centered care includes the valuable input of care partners and integrates all aspects of daily life creating environments where people can truly thrive and grow.

Our staff often speaks to interested organizations about our goals and the support tools we offer. Upcoming speeches:

• Conference call, Feb. 2: Alice Bonner will be speaking to the NGNA LTC-AE Special Interest Group

Email us or check our website for the next webinar series.