Challenging its membership to "hold itself accountable in ensuring a higher-quality, lower cost health care system," the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) today announced a new, three-year quality initiative to be unveiled tomorrow during its 4th Annual Quality Symposium in Houston, Texas.
With the twin objectives of improving "the health of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities, while at the same time driving down health care costs," The Quality Initiative is aimed at helping nursing homes and assisted living communities improve person-centered care for their residents, the association said.
At the center of the three-year initiative are four "specific, measurable" goals (see box) "that will meaningfully affect the lives of the residents in our facilities," said Gov. Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of AHCA/NCAL. "If we can accomplish this, what we will have done as a sector is improve the lives of millions of people.”
Noting that the effort builds upon existing work the profession is doing to advance quality, AHCA Chair Neil Pruitt Jr. said the association is "looking at the future of how our care delivery system will evolve, and we’re capitalizing on the enormous opportunity to affect how individuals are cared for in this country,”
Driven By Members
“AHCA and its members have said loud and clear that they really want to improve quality, and we want to do it in a systematic way that really has an impact on the organization as a whole,” David Gifford, MD, senior vice president of quality and regulatory affairs for AHCA, said in an interview with Provider recently.
“Among the four basic areas of focus is improving the management of patients with dementia using nonpharmacological approaches, which is more than just reducing antipsychotics,” says Gifford, who is spearheading the initiative. “If we approach it purely from getting them off the drugs, we can do that, but that could have a negative impact, so we want to put it in a broader framework. What we care about is the quality of care and the quality of life of the residents in our centers, and we care about it across the whole spectrum of conditions and the residents we take care of.”
Gifford says the logic behind choosing the four areas is the fact that “quality improvements won’t be sustainable if you don’t have stable staff or effective communication between nurses, hospitals, and physicians. Without these, you’re going to have high rehospitalization rates, high use of antipsychotics, and you’re going to have families and residents dissatisfied with care.”
He notes that the initiative “really builds on the past 10 years or more of efforts that AHCA has been working on, from Quality First to Advancing Excellence, which we’ve been fully behind,” he says, adding, “We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work as we go forward.”
Tools Available
Also part of The Quality Initiative are tools that AHCA/NCAL has made available to assist member facilities in achieving the goals. The group’s LTC Trend Tracker and the AHCA/NCAL Quality Award program are both available to help members reach goals in each or all of the core areas. Additional resources and materials, as well as testimony from members that are already achieving quality goals, can be found at qualityinitiative/ahcancal.org.
In addition, says Gifford, the Quality Symposium, to be held Feb. 23 and 24, includes an entire track devoted to reducing rehospitalizations through a proven tool known as INTERACT II (Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers).
“INTERACT has been shown to reduce hospitalizations 15 to 25 percent overall,” Gifford says. “We’re also going to be working closely with Advancing Excellence, and we want members to work toward achieving the Silver and Gold Quality Awards.”
Implementation A Key Component
According to Gifford, the real challenge is not just about providing tools, “it’s about how these tools are implemented and used. This is where members need to work closely together, learn from each other,” he says.
Gifford points to AHCA’s LTC TrendTracker software as another effective tool for members to utilize in attaining the goals set forth by The Quality Initiative.
“We’re going to be adding a lot more information to it on rehospitalizations, antipsychotic drug use, staff turnover and retention, and customer satisfaction results, so facilities can see how they’re doing and how they’re doing in comparison to their peers as well.”
Gifford reports that AHCA’s state affiliates are excited about the new endeavor. “Many have started their own quality symposiums, and a number are eager and excited to participate in these efforts,” he says. “I am overwhelmed with the enthusiasm and passion all of our members have in achieving excellence in quality.
"Everyone’s been very supportive and excited. There’s no one magic bullet, it’s going to be trying different things and learning from each other. But we’re encouraged that our members are excited.”
AHCA/NCAL has created a volunteer-led Quality Cabinet to coordinate and monitor the progress of The Quality Initiative.