April 2024 | Issue 37

NEW FROM PATH

Alcohol-related Diagnoses Contribute to Readmissions | Read article

The Partnership to Advance Tribal Health (PATH) Patient Safety and Data Analytics teams recently examined Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inpatient claims data to gain a better understanding of the conditions that contribute to hospital readmissions. Read this brief article for more information.

PATH Team Shares Stories and Successes at 2024 CMS Quality Conference | Learn more

CMS hosted their annual quality conference, and for the first time since the COVID outbreak started, participants could attend in person. The conference agenda included presentations from CMS, its partners and its many contractors, including PATH. Read this short article to take a peak at what PATH shared with health care quality improvement stakeholders and leaders.

IHS PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

How to Build and Sustain a Facility PFAC

Patient and family advisory councils, or PFACs, have many benefits, including boosting cooperation and understanding between patients, family and facility staff; improving quality and patient safety; building connections with the community and promoting a patient-centered culture.

PATH, quality improvement experts and an IHS facility executive worked together to support the development and sustainment of PFACs in one of our partnering IHS areas. Learn more and get some tips for establishing and supporting a successful PFAC.

TAKE 5 FOR SAFETY

Tools to Support High Reliability

A high reliability organization operates in complex, high-hazard domains over time without serious accidents or failures. The PATH team focuses on technical assistance that supports health care facilities in their pursuit of providing safer care to the communities they serve and aligns these efforts with the IHS 2024 Strategic Priority goal to improve safety and reduce risk.

Learn about foundational concepts and tools for high reliability and improving patient safety in this month's edition of "Take 5 for Safety."

PATH EVENTS

IHS Opioid Surveillance Dashboard Office Hours | Register now

Every third Wednesday, February through May

2-3 p.m. ET | 1-2 p.m. CT | 1-12 p.m. MT | 11 a.m.-12 p.m. PT

Join the IHS National Committee on Heroin Opioids and Pain Efforts (HOPE Committee) and PATH for open office hours sessions on the use of IHS Opioid Surveillance Dashboards (OSD). This call will support IHS users of the IHS OSD through

• discussing dashboard functionality and use cases;  
• responding to dashboard questions; 
• providing a forum to discuss requests, recommendations or enhancements;  
• highlighting techniques to get the most out of this dashboard. 

This event is free and open to IHS staff only. Registration is required to receive the call-in information.

National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN): Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) Module

Register now

Tuesday, June 18

12-1:30 p.m. EDT | 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CDT | 10-11:30 a.m. MDT | 9-10:30 a.m. PDT

Experts from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), IHS and PATH come together to discuss the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR)  Module and reporting options. We encourage staff who have reporting responsibilities to join us. This may include quality managers, information technology, lab, pharmacists, clinical application coordinators, infection prevention and control leads. This event is free, but registration is required. Please contact PATH@Comagine.org with any questions. 

Leading a Culture of Safety (1.5 CEUs available)  

Learn about the basic components of Culture of Safety, the IHS Total System Safety strategy and leaders’ role in a Culture of Safety and get additional resources and support for leading a Culture of Safety. 

Well-being at Work: A Nursing Leader’s Role in Building and Retaining Strong Teams (1.5 CEUs available) 

Better understand the nursing leader’s role in building and retaining strong teams, including the importance of onboarding, the power of delegation, team building, professional development and more. 

Infection Prevention and Control for Nursing Leaders (3 CEUs available) 

This two-session training defines the important requirements of infection prevention and control (IPC), IPC basics, how to integrate IPC into quality, risk and safety processes, how to support the nursing leader’s role in IPC education, the cultural impacts and challenges of IPC and more!

This material was prepared by Comagine Health for the American Indian Alaska Native Healthcare Quality Initiative under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of CMS or HHS, and any reference to a specific product or entity herein does not constitute endorsement of that product or entity by CMS or HHS. NQIIC-AIHQI-545-04/19/2024