Utilizing Attributes to Improve Care

All Quality Improvement Activities (QIAs) led by the Network incorporate the following six attributes, as directed by CMS, to support and improve QIA initiatives.  The six attributes are:

  1. Rapid Cycle Improvement:The Network regularly assesses the value of interventions and technical assistance used our QIAs. Interim adjustments are made based on feedback received from participating facility staff and patients/family members/care partners as well as from ongoing monitoring of performance.
  2. Customer Focus:Patients representing the diversity of the population in the Network’s service area, as well as other stakeholders, are involved in all aspects of Network QIAs. This “customer” input helps to shape the design and the ongoing operations of activities.
  3. Ability to prepare the field to Sustain the Improvement: The Network provides a framework and education for participating facility staff that will support them insustaining or continuing improvement once the formal Network QIA is completed.
  4. Valued placed on Innovation: The Network encourages ideas and suggestions from the community we serve, and we strive to create an environment that nurtures and promotes suggestions that would enhance the value of our work with the facilities in our service area. In this way we solicit and/or create of new ideas that maximize improvement.
  5. Commitment to Boundarilessness: The Network strives to identify and engage all members of the care team, patients, care partners and other representatives of stakeholder that can contribution to the success of QIAs. .
  6. Unconditional Teamwork: The Network is committed to work with all stakeholders to share best practices and spread effective improvement activities.

The Network encourages dialysis facility staff members to incorporate these attributes in all aspects of your day to day practices. Commitment to activities that support these attributes will help identify gaps in care, assist in engaging patients to embrace change, and achieve improvement goals.

National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Reporting Requirements

To meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) reporting requirements for Payment Year 2019, outpatient hemodialysis clinics must submit first quarter 2017 Dialysis Event data collected from January 1, 2017 through March 31, 2017, by Friday, June 30, 2017. New or revised first quarter data entered into NHSN after June 30, 2017 will not be received by CMS. Therefore, please be aware that any changes or corrections to first quarter 2017 data should be made prior to the reporting deadline.

 

The following steps are recommended to review your data before the deadline. Additional resources can be found on the Dialysis Event homepage:

Please contact the NHSN Helpdesk  at nhsn@cdc.gov include ‘Dialysis’ in the subject line) with any questions.

ESRD New England 2016 Fall Meeting

4th Annual Meeting

This meeting is open to all members of the ESRD community: administrators, dietitians, nurses, patient-consumers, pharmacists, physicians, social workers, surveyors, technicians, and other interested health care professionals. The meeting provides an opportunity for you and your colleagues to network, share ideas, and celebrate community successes.

On October 27, 2016 the ANNA Southern New England Chapter, along with the IPRO ESRD Network of New England will host an Educational Meeting at the Mohegan Sun Hotel & Conference Center in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Attendee Information

Registration will open on August 8, 2016

  • Early Registration: August 8-September 5 ($83)
  • Registration: September 6-October 3 ($93)
  • Late Registration: October 4-Ocotber 20 ($103)
  • On-Site Registration: October 27 ($113)

Hotel Accommodations

If you require hotel arrangements for this meeting, there are a limited number of rooms available for $159 plus taxes and fees. This rate is available through October 5, 2016. Please call the Mohegan Sun Hotel & Conference Center at (888) 226-7711,  use ANNA16A as the code for registration. Click here to book a room at the discounted rate.

Additional information to follow. Parking is free.

 Exhibitor Information

Registration Details

  • Early Registration: June 6-July 8 ($800)
  • Registration: Jul 9-August 11 ($875)
  • Late Registration: After August 11 ($950)

 

** Please note if payment is not received by September 1, 2016 booth registration will be cancelled**

 

IPRO Wins Four Regional Dialysis Quality Improvement Contracts

 (Lake Success, NY) December 9, 2015 – IPRO has won four regional End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network quality improvement contracts to support dialysis patients, families and providers in 13  states across the U.S.

Last week the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced it was awarding five-year contracts totaling $110 million in Medicare funding to seven entities nationwide.

IPRO will be responsible for Network 1 (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts); Network 2 (New York); Network 6 (North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia); and Network 9 (Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky). IPRO was the incumbent ESRD Network contractor in New England and New York but is a first-time awardee in Networks 6 and 9.

“We’re pleased and grateful that CMS has renewed our contracts in New York and New England while extending our Network leadership responsibilities to two other regions of the U.S.,” says IPRO Chief Executive Officer Theodore O. Will.

”With the assistance of our large volunteer community, our organization will be responsible for supporting 117,000 patients, 1684 facilities and 52 transplant facilities, across the four regions,” says IPRO ESRD Network CEO Susan Caponi, RN, MBA. “That translates to one-quarter of our nation’s ESRD patient population.”

For more information please see full  Press Release

Five Ways for Healthcare Providers to Get Ready for New Medicare Cards

Medicare is taking steps to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. Through this initiative CMS seeks to prevent fraud, fight identity theft and protect essential program funding and the private healthcare and financial information of Medicare beneficiaries.

CMS will issue new Medicare cards with a new unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) to replace the existing Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) both on the cards and in various CMS systems we use now. CMS will start mailing new cards to people with Medicare benefits in April 2018. All Medicare cards will be replaced by April 2019.

Please click here to read the full article and learn the five steps to prepare your facility to get ready.