Month: May 2019

2019 Private Care Guides to Help Families Find Home Care

Now in its 13th edition, the Guide to Private Home Care Services has connected tens of thousands of families with the home care agencies that best meet their needs. While our Resource Directory is intended for professionals who make regular referrals, the Private Care Guides are designed for consumers and are always available at no charge. Choose from among three regional editions:

(Click one of the thumbnails to place your free order).

The Guides contains county-by-county cross-references, as well as short essays about:

  • What home care is;
  • How to pay for it;
  • How to choose an agency, and;
  • What the advantages are of working with an agency over other options.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

New Emergency Prep 4-Part Webinar Series

Agencies continue to struggle with the development of a disaster preparedness plan that will not only be in compliance, but realistic in an event. Areas of weaknesses in the process have been identified by CMS and accrediting bodies. On top of that, there were changes made to regulations at the end of 2018 and appeared in the 2019 interpretive guidelines. This series of one-hour webinars will provide in-depth knowledge of the requirements that home health and hospice organizations are subject to, with specific focus on: an overview of the regulations, starting the agency-specific plan, building the plan, development of policies and procedures, communication, and testing and training.

Program Goals: Through attendance in this web series, participants will increase their understanding of the newly updated federal emergency preparedness requirements that are part of the home health and hospice
Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and become knowledgeable in how to apply the federal requirements for disaster preparedness in their own specific agencies. Enhance disaster plan development for all community based agencies.

Following is the planned content and schedule for the live webinar sessions; for those who are unable to attend the live sessions, recorded sessions will be available.
Please note there is limited seating in the live sessions so please register early.

Part 1: OVERVIEW OF THE REGULATIONS – June 4, 2019, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT
Including Lessons Learned, Home Health and Hospice’s Role in an Event, All-Hazards Approach, Regulatory changes since 2018 and survey findings from the first year under the disaster preparedness CoPs.
Part 2: STARTING AND BUILDING THE PLAN, – June 11, 2019, 1:00-2:00pm EDT
Including Four Phases of Emergency Management, Incident Command System, and Hazard Vulnerability Assessment , Infection control and prevention, Continuity of Operations (Defining Essential Function, Succession Planning, Human Resources, Alternate Location, Defining Patient Populations, and Data Management)
Part 3: DEVELOPMENT OF POLICIES AND PROCEDURES – June 18, 2019, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT
Patient Classification Systems, Transportation Classifications, Surge Capacity, HIPAA/IT, Tracking Patients and Staff, and Roles and Definitions., Organizing the plan.
Part 4: COMMUNICATION/TESTING AND TRAINING – June 25, 2019, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT
Health Care Coalitions; Specific Hospice Requirements; MOUs; Government Emergency Telecommunications System; Collaborative Relationships with Local, State, Federal, and Indian Tribe Nations; Annual/Orientation Requirements, Documentation of Training, Types of Exercises (Tabletop, Functional, Full-scale), After Action Report, Revising and Updating the Plan

REGISTER AT:
https://www.rbclimited.com/product/edp-4-part-series/

DISCOUNT CODE: RBCEDP

Good for all community-based, home care, hospice & Medicare certified home health agencies

Report on the Massachusetts Serious Illness Coalition

The MA Serious Illness Coalition pushes to bring awareness and focus on end-of-life issues.

“It is my goal that every nursing school in MA embrace that a nursing student must see a dying patient with the same fervor that they embrace that every nurse must see a baby being born.”
— Susan Lysaght Hurley, PhD, RN
Director of Research, Care Dimensions, Inc

Last week, the Massachusetts Serious Illness Coalition hosted its annual meeting welcoming more than 100 attendees to the JFK Library in Boston. The message from the Coalition’s leadership – as articulated by Blue Cross Blue Shield MA President and CEO – is that “the momentum is building.” From the Coalition’s beginnings less than five years ago, Dreyfus has focused on a long-term strategy to achieve the Coalition’s six goals. These include the ideas that everyone in Massachusetts 18 years or older has a designated health care decision-maker and that all Massachusetts clinicians have appropriate training to communicate comfortably with patients around advanced care planning and serious illness. Dreyfus has likened the work to that done in years past on smoking and on car seats, where steady force and public messaging achieved near-universal changes in public thinking.

The progress on clinician education – from a provider association perspective – is perhaps the most engaging and encouraging news. Dr Atul Gwande, as eloquent as ever, declared that the work to date has shown that: “People have priorities in life beyond just surviving, but you must ask them. Suffering happens when care doesn’t match our priorities.”

In addition to a public education campaign about engaging in advanced care planning conversations, Dr. Gwande announced that the Coalition is in talks with all four Massachusetts medical schools about a cooperative effort to require training of med students in serious illness communication as a graduation requirement.

But it was Dr, Hurley’s remarks that struck home for the home health and hospice agencies in the Coalition. In addition to the above comment, Dr. Hurley spoke of being a young nurse “totally unprepared as to how to talk to the dying.” Along with her subcommittee co-chair Anne Marie Barron of Simmons College, she is working on recommendations on core competencies for nursing education related to serious illness care. These are to be presented in the near future to the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing. What a great achievement that would be!

For those following the Coalition’s work, these may also be of interest:

  1. End Games, an Academy Award-nominated short documentary on hospice and palliative care executive produced by Shoshana Ungerleider, MD. It premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and was acquired by Netflix.

2. The Coalition’s public message research and draft public facing marketing approaches.

Commendable progress!

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Lunch & Learn Series Continues with Discussion on Connecting Care for Patients

There’s a reason for the saying: “It’s lonely at the top.” Being a leader can sometimes become a very isolating experience. With this new “Lunch and Learn” series, HCA of MA is encouraging our industry leaders to ease that executive isolation by joining with a peer group whose responsibilities and challenges mirror your own. Each session features an “expert” talk on a topic of relevance to you as an industry leader. There will also be lunch and plenty of time to talk. Step away from the office, and the phone for a few hours to connect because sometimes “what you know is who you know.”

Connecting Care for Patients: Interdisciplinary Care Transitions and Collaboration
Friday, June 14th, 12:00-2:00PM

Spotty communication, task‐oriented case management, inadequate teamwork and work silos all conspire to fuel poor outcomes, higher costs and staff and patient dissatisfaction. The recently published book Connecting Care for Patients: Interdisciplinary Care Transitions and Collaboration is a powerful system of evidence‐based strategies for reducing fragmentation and achieving quadruple‐aim goals. Come out to hear a high level look at techniques for implementing truly connected care.

Speaker: Barbara Katz, RN, MSN, President, BK Health Care Consulting, LLC

Additional upcoming sessions include:

Gas Explosions in Lawrence MA: Emergency Preparedness, Management and Lessons Learned
Wednesday, July 17

In September, 2018, a series of gas explosions rocked the towns surrounding Home Health Foundation’s corporate office. Thousands of residents, including HHF staff, patients and families were impacted, and HHF was plunged into rapid implementation of their emergency plan. What followed was a testament to the importance of preplanning and how a creative, nimble and dedicated team can make all the difference in the face of an unprecedented emergency. As the fires receded and life began to return to normal, the emergency team moved into after-action analysis in order to continously improve the quality and scope of its emergency preparedness. This presentation will describe in detail the pre-, inter-, and post-emergency activities employed, and lessons learned.

Speakers: Donna Beaudin, OTR/L, MBA, CHC, NHA, Corporate Compliance Officer, Karen Gomes, RN, MS, CPHQ, President and CEO

Medicare Advantage’s New Supplemental Benefit: Plan Views And Next Steps
Monday, August 26

As part of the Chronic Care Act of 2018, Medicare Advantage (MA) plans were allowed greater flexibility in structuring and targeting supplemental benefits, so that plans could offer benefits to “maintain the health or function of chronically ill enrollees” that are not “primarily health-related.” A small percentage of plans added some services in 2019 (primarily nicotine replace therapy) In the only report of its kind, the Long term Quality Alliance interviewed Medicare plans to identify challenges that they face in including a supplemental benefit in their MA bid and preparing to launch it. Hear about LTQA’s findings as well as their recommendations for statutory, regulatory or CMS Guidance they are looking toward to move this important change forward.

Speaker: G. Lawrence Atkins, Executive Director, Long-Term Quality Alliance in Washington, DC.

Registration is just $40/Person!

Get “Woke” on Sepsis

Several new resources are available to members to help them combat one of the most dangerous health conditions in the Commonwealth: Sepsis.

Massachusetts Sepsis ConsortiumSepsis: A public health challenge of enormous proportions, a top driver of health care costs, and a condition that kills more people each year than cancer. But when recognized and treated swiftly, sepsis can be stopped before it causes significant health damage.

The statistics are sobering: Approximately 42,000 Massachusetts residents are diagnosed with sepsis every year and an estimated 5,000-7,000 of them die from the condition. Sepsis is consistently among the top causes for 30-day hospital re-admissions in all regions of Massachusetts and is the third-leading cause of hospital inpatient deaths in the state. And yet, Massachusetts is only a middling performer on sepsis indicators, ranked 25th in mortality in 2017 and at the national average in providing timely care for patients with sepsis.

Providers and policy makers have come together as the Massachusetts Sepsis Coalition – under the umbrella of the Betsey Lehman Center for Patient Safety – to bring more resources to bear in terms of understanding, identifying, and treating sepsis. The Coalition’s initial task force assessed the current state of sepsis response in hospital emergency departments and just recently released their extensive report, with recommendations.

Because 80% of sepsis cases are thought to originate outside the hospital, the home care community is beginning to examine our own understanding of, and training around, sepsis identification. A year or so ago, the Home Care Association of New York State developed their “Stop Sepsis at Home” campaign and tool kit. The Home Care Alliance of MA presented this to our members on several occasions, including at last year’s annual Spring Conference and Trade show.

On May 14th, 2019, the Alliance will host – along with Healthcentric Advisors – a free Train the Trainer session on Sepsis Awareness in the home setting. All members are encouraged to send someone. Agencies who cannot attend can find sepsis resources below.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.