Featured News Posts
What’s New in Advance Care Planning?
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, preferences and...
Instead of the 12 days of Christmas…Get Ready For 8 Days of Dementia Tips
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...
In Case You Missed It | Focus 4 Health: TeamSTEPPS®
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...
Reducing Readmissions by Improving Communication
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...
Save the Date: CMS Health Equity Conference | May 29 – 30, 2024
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...
Webinar: New Products for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Prevention | NDSU CIRE Program
The North Dakota Center for Immunization Research and Education (CIRE) recently hosted a Webinar, New Products for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Prevention. Monday, December 11, 2023 | 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. CT [button link="https://youtu.be/_xbuWhKuh60"...
South Dakota and North Dakota Nursing Homes: Top Performers for Resident COVID-19 Vaccination Rates
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...
New Project Firstline Micro-Learn Training
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 individual has taken...
Updated Q2 2023 Community Data Reports: Addressing Gaps, Achieving Growth and Quality Improvement
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...
CMS Training for Frontline Nursing Home Staff and Management | Test-Out Option
Reminder for nursing home team members: CMS online training series: CMS Targeted COVID-19 Training for Frontline Nursing Home Staff and Management (also referred to as the CMS Designated Scenario-Based Training [SBT] or CMS Quality, Safety and Education Portal [QSEP]...