Columbia, MO —Quality Improvement Program for Missouri (QIPMO), has been recognized as a 2020 Health Quality Innovator of the Year. The Health Quality Innovator Awards are sponsored by the Health Quality Innovators’/Health Quality Innovation Network’s (HQIN) during their annual recognition program. This year, health care providers and organizations receiving this award are being honored for their innovative approaches or technologies to address COVID-19.

QIPMO quickly responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by helping nursing homes in Missouri understand volumes of information as it was disseminated about the virus and help nursing homes implement actions to keep residents and staff safe. The group immediately went virtual, increasing the frequency of its statewide Administrator Support Group and DON Support Group meetings to understand and assimilate new guidance and regulations regarding COVID-19. The QIPMO team distilled information into manageable learning sessions and held open forums for nursing homes to ask questions and share experiences. These statewide virtual meetings focus not just on regulation but also on broader aspects affected by the pandemic such as staff and residents’ health and safety, both physically and mentally. “It’s an honor and a privilege to serve the caregivers of this state,” replied QIPMO Leader Nicky Martin MPA, LNHA about the impact the team is making on the state.

The QIPMO team has been at the educational and informational forefront of this fight, doing whatever it takes to get information where it needs to go. The weekly webinars have, since March 2020, had over 10,000 attendees. QIPMO nurses and coaches have created assessment tools recommended in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Toolkit on State Actions to Mitigate COVID-19 Prevalence in Nursing Homes, reporting algorithms, tools for practical clinical management of COVID-19, mental and emotional staff support, and a variety of other resources available for free at www.nursinghomehelp.org. To date, the QIPMO team has fielded nearly 10,000 phone calls and emails from nursing homes since COVID-19 hit our state, providing answers and reassurance.

The team currently consists of five registered nurses and three licensed administrator coaches employed to assist in nursing home consultations throughout Missouri. Nurses and coaches field calls and emails, provide educational in-services to disseminate best practices, and do on-site visits, creating connections that go beyond regulatory compliance while also serving as colleagues and experts in long-term nursing care. In 2019, the QIPMO program provided over 750 site visits to over 400 skilled nursing facilities in the state and made over 600 different facility contacts.

“Our 2020 Health Quality Innovators are on the front lines of COVID-19,” said Donald A. Glozer, MHA, FACHE, President & CEO of Health Quality Innovators (HQI). “They are finding innovative solutions to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus while ensuring the safety and well-being of their patients, residents, staff and communities.”

For administrators and directors of nursing, QIPMO has been called their “ace in the hole.” Exhausted, afraid, bogged down with regulations and a shortage of PPE, staff in our long-term care homes know they can always call on QIPMO to provide clarity, emotional support, and whatever PPE can be located to be delivered to their door. Nursing homes are not like hospitals or clinics—they don’t have vast support systems for staff or logistics—they are all-in-one businesses who literally have lives depending on them. QIPMO gives those caregivers someone to depend on. During the past few months, QIPMO staff have delivered everything from goodie bags and PPE to virtual hugs via texts and numerous hours of simply listening.

“We’re incredibly proud for the QIPMO Program to be recognized as a Health Quality Innovator of the Year. This is truly a collaborative effort among an incredible team of people working to provide answers and reassurance to long-term care providers in Missouri which facilitates improved quality care and outcomes for long-term care residents in Missouri’s nursing homes,” says QIPMO’s founder Dr. Marilyn Rantz, RN, PhD, FAAN, Curators’ Professor Emerita at the Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri.

To learn more, please visit https://hqin.org/hqi-announces-2020-health-quality-innovators-of-the-year/ 

For More information about the Quality Improvement Program of Missouri, visit, https://nursinghomehelp.org/qipmo-program/

About HQIN

Led by Health Quality Innovators and its quality improvement partners, the Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, Kansas Foundation for Medical Care and the Kansas Healthcare Collaborative, HQIN is the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina and Virginia. To learn more visit https://www.hqin.org.