Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), your Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), and other local and national experts are working together to reduce infections like C. difficile (CDI)—a germ that causes major colon inflammation and deadly diarrhea. Join HSAG and other local and national experts on a Quality Assurance & Performance Improvement (QAPI) initiative to prevent and reduce CDIs, while improving antibiotic prescribing to enhance the quality of care and life for residents in nursing homes and conceivably save lives from drug-resistant infections.
NNHQCC Clostridium difficile Initiative
The Federal Register, July 16, 2015, provided a proposed rule entitled Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Reform of Requirements for Long-Term Care Facilities. This rule proposed to require nursing homes to establish and implement a QAPI initiative, including having a system for preventing, identifying, reporting, investigating, and controlling infections and communicable diseases. Participating in this NNHQCC Clostridium difficile Initiative will help you network with and learn from other experts in the state and the country working together to establish a culture of resident safety through effective and sustainable infection control and prevention systems.
The NNHQCC Clostridium difficile Initiative aims to:
- Drive the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Long-Term Care enrollment and consistent data reporting;
- Implement prevention through learning, focused on CDI management, antibiotic stewardship principles and practices, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) TeamSTEPPS® Long-Term Care Communications Module for uniform communication within and across nursing homes; and
- Identify a national baseline for Clostridium difficle infections in nursing homes.