California Nursing Homes—Improving Individual
Resident Care

HSAG-California has been funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help a limited number of nursing homes target improvement in high-prevalence, high-cost clinical topics, such as healthcare-acquired conditions (HACs). As of November 1, 2011, HSAG-California has entered into agreements with 142 nursing homes to provide technical assistance and other services to reduce HACs.

HSAG-California supports nursing homes with evidence-based clinical interventions and objective expertise to improve resident care. Providers who collaborate with us have realized significant improvements in quality measures. For example, nursing homes who worked with HSAG-California from 2009 to 2011 reduced physical restraints by a relative improvement rate of 61.42 percent—double the statewide relative improvement rate of 30.23 percent and more than double the nationwide relative improvement rate of 23.81 percent.

Our nursing home improvement activities include on-site consultations with skilled HSAG-California quality specialists, collaborative projects, online interaction, and peer-to-peer education. Through large-scale learning and action networks where everyone teaches and learns, HSAG-California works to accelerate the pace of change and rapidly spread best practices. We also support providers in meeting the requirements of CMS value-based purchasing programs by providing technical assistance, sharing best practices, assisting with data analysis, and conducting improvement activities. We include the voice of the beneficiary in all of our activities, leading the way to patient-centered care.

Areas in which we focus our nursing home improvement efforts include:

• Reducing HACs.
  • Pressure Ulcers
  • Physical Restraints
  • Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs)
  • Falls
• Improving the Overall Quality of Care Provided to Residents.
  • Consistent Staff Assignment
  • Reduction in Staff Turnover
• Participating in the "Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes" Campaign.

In addition to our collaborations with nursing homes, HSAG-California works with other providers to facilitate broad improvements in health care quality. Our initiatives include:

• Improving Care Transitions and Reducing Hospital Readmissions.
• Reducing Adverse Drug Events.
• Facilitating Quality Reporting and Improvement.
• Improving Prevention and Early Diagnosis.
• Conducting Medical Case Review.

If you are interested in working with us, please contact Thomas E. Carter, MA, MSPH, CPHQ, RAC-CT, Program Director, Nursing Home, Patient Safety, at (818) 265-4643 or tcarter@hsag.com.