What’s on the GPQIN Calendar?
The Great Plains QIN offers several educational opportunities for healthcare partners. The topics are diverse; there is something for everyone! Check out the Great Plains QIN calendar for upcoming webinar’s and conferences.
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Compare Hospice Providers on Measures of Care Quality
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is sharing information about hospice providers to permit the public to compare hospice providers on measures of care quality. The Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) was established at section 1814(i)(5)...
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CMS Changes the Scope of Select Payment Models
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule to reduce the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in the CMS Innovation’s (Innovation Center) Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model from 67 to 34. In...
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Online Course – QPP 2017 MIPS: Quality Performance Category
An online and self-paced overview course on the Quality Payment Program is now available through the MLN Learning Management System. Learners will receive information on: The Quality Performance Category requirements, and how this category fits into the larger Quality...
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Can you Identify the 13 Prediabetes Risk Factors?
According to a recent study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. only 6 percent of Primary Care Practitioners (PCPs) were able to identify 11 prediabetes risk factors (there are actually 13) that would prompt them to screen patients under the American Diabetes...
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Bite-Sized Nursing Home Training Sessions; CEs
To support nursing homes in tracking, preventing and managing Clostridium difficile infections and promoting antibiotic stewardship, the QIN National Coordinating Center and CMS developed a series of online training sessions. These six sessions and accompanying...
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Building a Strong Vaccine Referral for All
August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), encouraging the importance of vaccines for people of all ages. NIAM collaborates with the CDC to assist in the communication regarding vaccines for various audiences; this week, August 7-13, the focus is...
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What’s on the GPQIN Calendar?
The Great Plains QIN offers several educational opportunities for healthcare partners. The topics are diverse; there is something for everyone! Check out the Great Plains QIN calendar for upcoming webinar’s and conferences.
read more
Improving Blood Pressure Control Rates – A Team Approach
The Grand Island Clinic in Grand Island, Nebraska is a multi-specialty group practice with 18 providers. The team at the Grand Island Clinic set out to improve the Blood Pressure (BP) control rates of their patients. The clinic team had been monitoring performance of...
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Study Finds Many Avoid End-of-Life Care Planning
Kaiser Health News recently reported that despite promotion to encourage end-of-life advance directives, only about a third of U.S. adults have them, according to a recent study published in Health Affairs. That number is higher with people over 65 making advance...
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Spread the Love…Not the Disease
August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). NIAM highlights the need for improving national immunization levels and encourages all people to protect their health by getting immunized against infectious diseases. The observance is a great way to promote...
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Toolkit Helps Drive Community Health in Rural Areas
The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently released a toolkit to improve community health and patient outreach in rural areas and vulnerable urban areas. Access the toolkit As value-based care continues to take hold, health systems are making more of a concerted...
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Study Shows Lowering Readmission Rates Does Not Reduce Quality or Safety
As hospitals continue to lower readmission rates and satisfy new value-based incentives, mortality rates have also dropped, signaling improvement in care quality. A new study published in JAMA analyzed about 5 million Medicare fee-for-service hospitalizations between...
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What’s on the GPQIN Calendar?
The Great Plains QIN offers several educational opportunities for healthcare partners. The topics are diverse; there is something for everyone! Check out the Great Plains QIN calendar for upcoming webinar’s and conferences.
read more
The Opioid Epidemic – How Does Your State Fare?
A new interactive map from AHRQ allows users to explore state-specific information about opioid-related hospital stays. Users may find, for example: Between 2005 and 2014, the national rate of opioid-related inpatient stays increased 64.1 percent and the national rate...
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GOOD News for Skilled Nursing Facilities
The new payment rule posted Monday by CMS has skilled nursing facilities obtaining a 1% federal payment rise; an increase of $370 million. This increase is for all post-acute providers and was mandated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. The...
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Which Hospital Metrics Should We Give Our Attention?
There is much data to help patients decide on a hospital. But, which data is valuable and worth your attention? How do we compare two hospitals with different patient demographics in different locations? Are we making fair comparisons? A recent study by health...
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Nebraska Critical Access Hospital Program Receives National Recognition
The Critical Access Hospital (CAH) program in Nebraska was recently recognized for outstanding quality performance. Ten states, including Nebraska, were identified as ‘top-performing’ states; others included Wisconsin, Maine, Utah, Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania...
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Million Hearts Resources and Upcoming Educational Opportunity
Million Hearts® 2022 recently launched three new webpages: 1) Physical Activity, 2) Particle Pollution and Heart Disease, and 3) Tobacco Use, to inform and optimize implementation of evidence-based strategies to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The Tobacco Use...
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CDC Reports Half of Americans Have Diabetes or Are at High Risk
100 million people in the United States have diabetes or prediabetes and this number is growing. The CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT) recently released the newest National Diabetes Statistics Report, which highlights current data on diabetes incidence and...
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Preventing Hospitalization, Disease and Death through Vaccines
Every year tens of thousands of adults needlessly suffer, are hospitalized and even die as a result of diseases that could be prevented by vaccines¹. While adults believe immunization is important, a recent national survey showed that most adults are not aware that...
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APIC Training Offered in Kansas
Great Plains Quality Innovation Network (QIN) is partnering with nursing homes across the region to prepare them for future quality reporting requirements, improve infection control practices and improve resident outcomes. The Association for Professionals in...
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What’s on the GPQIN Calendar?
The Great Plains QIN offers several educational opportunities for healthcare partners. The topics are diverse; there is something for everyone! Check out the Great Plains QIN calendar for upcoming webinar’s and conferences.
read more
Home-Based Primary Care – Improving Access, Quality and Satisfaction
Through implementation of their House Calls Program, Methodist Physician’s Clinic in Omaha, Nebraska set out to help patients access the right care in the right place at the right time -- whether they are at home, at an assisted living or at a Skilled Nursing Facility...
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Promoting the Importance of Immunizations
August is National Adult Immunization Awareness Month August is right around the corner. Be sure to access the 2017 National Adult Immunization Awareness toolkit to devise a plan to promote the importance of immunizations with your staff, patients and family...
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Online Course – QPP 2017 MIPS: Improvement Activities Performance Category
New: Accredited Online Course – QPP 2017 Merit-based Incentive Payment System: Improvement Activities Performance Category A new, online and self-paced overview course on the Quality Payment is now available through the MLN Learning Management System. Learners...
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Crosswalk Between MTM and Health Literacy Tools Now Available
Medication Therapy Management (MTM) is a patient-centric and comprehensive approach to improve medication use, reduce the risk of adverse events and improve medication adherence. A new tool in the AHRQ Pharmacy Health Literacy Center – Health Literacy Tools for...
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What’s on the GPQIN Calendar?
The Great Plains QIN offers several educational opportunities for healthcare partners. The topics are diverse; there is something for everyone! Check out the Great Plains QIN calendar for upcoming webinar’s and conferences.
read more
WebEx Opportunity: Mastering Hypertension to Achieve Heart Health
Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:00 - 3:30 pm (CDT) Join the QIN National Coordinating Center for their next National Learning & Action Network (LAN) Event, focusing on “Mastering Hypertension to Achieve Heart Health.” This LAN event will review the Million Hearts®...
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New Medicare Cards with New Numbers: 3 Changes You May Need to Make
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 requires CMS to remove Social Security Numbers (SSNs) from all Medicare cards by April 2019. CMS will begin mailing new Medicare cards with a new Medicare number (currently called the Medicare Claim Number on...
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Medicare Blog
- Finding a hospice provider just got easier August 16, 2017
- Protecting yourself from pneumonia is easy August 1, 2017
- Medicare helps protect you from hepatitis July 28, 2017
- Manage your chronic conditions with connected care June 29, 2017
- Take charge, take the test for HIV June 27, 2017