Fourth, Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) offer community-based quality improvement assistance programs to nursing home providers seeking to improve their performance on the Quality Measures.
Third, the lessons learned by QIOs in the pilot of this Initiative indicate that certain approaches to providing quality improvement assistance are key to guiding nursing home providers' desire and enthusiasm to improve towards a using a systematic approach to quality improvement.
The local planning process has begun, even though details such as progress measures and a promised new system of improvement assistance are not yet fully in place.
Through this Initiative, QIOs are identifying key lessons learned about approaches to providing quality improvement assistance to nursing home providers.
The lessons learned were entered into an Access database and categorized by state, category of intervention (such as partnerships, recruitment, workshops, quality improvement assistance, etc).
Once QIOs in the pilot states began to provide quality improvement assistance to individual nursing home providers, they received requests for assistance in involving physicians in quality improvement efforts.
QIOs found that they should regularly communicate to the SSA the kinds of quality improvement assistance they were planning to offer to nursing home providers, and if possible, obtain an endorsement of that assistance.
QIO quality improvement activities during the pilot included collaborating with nursing home stakeholders on all aspects of the initiative, educating all nursing home providers on the Quality Measures, and offering quality improvement assistance to nursing home providers.
In the pilot, QIOs provided quality improvement assistance related to two of the clinical topics covered by the publicly reported Quality Measures, pain management and pressure ulcer prevention and treatment.
In November 2002, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMSS) launched a Nursing Home Quality Initiative that included publicly reporting a set of Quality Measures for all nursing homes in the country, and providing quality improvement assistance to nursing homes nationwide.
