by | Dec 27, 2023 | Featured, Great Plains QIN, Health Equity, Home Health, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Patient Safety, Q Tip Podcast, Quality Care Coalition
Health equity is not only a moral necessity, but also a strategic and operational must for healthcare leaders and organizations. Health equity aligns with legal and ethical obligations, enhances an organization’s reputation, contributes to the long-term success and...
by | Dec 27, 2023 | Care Coordination, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Home Health, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Quality Care Coalition
The purpose of this new Implementation Guide is to provide South Dakota Cardiovascular Collaborative partners with premade and brand-approved promotional social media tools and materials about Better Choices, Better Health® SD, pharmacy programs available in South...
by | Dec 11, 2023 | Events, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Home Health, Nursing Home Quality, Public Observances, Quality Care Coalition
Advance care planning (ACP) is a process that involves making decisions about your future health care. ACP typically involves discussions between individuals, family members and the healthcare provider team to understand and document a person’s values,...
by | Dec 11, 2023 | Care Coordination, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Health Equity, Home Health, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Patient Safety, Quality Care Coalition
What to say when, how to positively respond to behaviors, how to join their reality, validate their feelings and then distract? This is always a challenge with persons living with dementia. Because of what is physically happening to their brain from the disease, they...
by | Dec 8, 2023 | Care Coordination, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Health Equity, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Patient Safety, Q Tip Podcast
During this Series, we discussed TeamSTEPPS, an evidenced-based set of teamwork tools that are aimed at optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among healthcare teams, including patients and family caregivers. Below are all of the...
by | Dec 8, 2023 | Featured, Great Plains QIN, Health Equity, Home Health, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Patient Safety, Q Tip Podcast, Quality Care Coalition
Research shows that many hospital readmissions are avoidable. Yet, in 2022, about 75% of hospitals still incurred readmission penalties. In 2021, only 1 in 5 Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) were awarded payments from the SNF VBP (Value-Based Purchasing) Program...
by | Dec 6, 2023 | CMS News, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Health Equity, Home Health, Nursing Home Quality, Quality Care Coalition
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced its second annual CMS Health Equity Conference on May 29-30, 2024. The free, hybrid conference will be held in person at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Bethesda, Maryland, and available online for...
by | Dec 5, 2023 | Featured, Great Plains QIN, Immunizations, Nursing Home Quality, Quality Care Coalition
COVID-19 cases are rising across the country as health officials prepare for another winter season of fighting respiratory diseases. Kudos to nursing homes in South Dakota and North Dakota for having the highest and second highest rate, respectively, of COVID-19...
by | Nov 30, 2023 | Antibiotic Stewardship, Care Coordination, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Healthcare-Associated Infections, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Patient Safety, Q Tip Podcast, Quality Care Coalition
Clostridioides difficile is formerly known as Clostridium difficile – and often called C. difficile or C. diff. – is a germ (bacterium) that causes diarrhea and colitis (an inflammation of the colon). Most cases of C. diff infection occur while an...
by | Nov 30, 2023 | Care Coordination, Featured, Great Plains QIN, Hospitals, Nursing Home Quality, Public Observances, Quality Care Coalition
The Great Plains QIN team strives to improve healthcare quality and patient outcomes. We work with partners and community coalitions to identify areas for improvement, which include reducing avoidable hospital admissions and readmissions, including those caused by...