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MOQI Corner – Year Three (3)
J. Keith Hampton, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC
We are now in the midst of year three (3) of our four (4) year intervention. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
(CMS) Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Home Facility Residents has four (4) major
goals. These goals are to reduce avoidable hospitalizations, improve resident health outcomes, improve transitions
between hospitals, and reduce overall healthcare spending.
Within the last two (2) years, the CMS intervention at Delmar Gardens of O’Fallon has led to:
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Partnerships with nursing staff to implement preventive services and improve recognition, assessment, and
management of conditions such as pneumonia, congestive heart failure, urinary tract infections, and
dehydration.
Working cooperatively with physicians, nursing staff, and families to implement best practices to improve
overall quality of nursing facility care, focusing on quality improvement activities such as reducing the use
of anti-psychotropic medications.
Coordinating and improving management and monitoring of prescription drugs to reduce the risk of
polypharmacy and adverse drugs events for residents.
Provision of direct services by an Advance Practice Registered Nurse to residents while mentoring, rolemodeling, and educating the nursing staff about early symptom/illness recognition, assessment, and
management of health conditions commonly affecting nursing home residents.
Enhanced end-of-life discussions and what goals residents and their families hope to achieve.
Year Three (3) and Four (4) of the CMS Intervention look promising as we improve resident outcomes and reduce
the number of hospitalizations of our residents to between four and five (4 & 5) per month. Please feel free to stop
by my office. I am located with the MDS Coordinators on the Division 500 Hall.