Quality and Clinical Conference
NRHA Quality and Clinical Conference
“Dynamics of Rural Health Care”
An interactive conference for quality improvement coordinators, performance improvement coordinators, rural clinicians, quality improvement organizations and nurses practicing on the front lines in rural health care.
A hearty "thank you!" to all speakers, attendees, and exhibitors who helped make the 2008 Quality and Clinical such a success! We had a great time in San Diego, and hope to see everyone at the 2009 Quality and Clinical Conference, July 21-24 in Park City, Utah!
2008 Conference handouts
Extension for Community Health Outcomes
Keynote speaker: Sanjeev Arora, MD, Executive Vice Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2010 was one of the first programs to identify the elimination of health disparities as a national health goal. Rural, uninsured and underserved populations represent three of the most significant sectors of inequality in the provision of health care in the U.S. system. Additionally, many patients in rural and underserved areas with chronic complex diseases such as HCV, substance use and mental health disorders face difficulties in accessing the specialty treatment they need. This special keynote presentation will detail the ECHO model which addresses this problem by giving physicians who specialize in treating complex and chronic conditions like HCV access to technology, enabling them to share knowledge about best practice protocols using a case-based learning approach to co-manage patients with primary caregivers in rural communities and prisons in New Mexico. Click here to download handouts.
Leveraging QIO Rural Hospital Success into Future Opportunities
Jennifer P. Lundblad, PhD, MBA, President and CEO, Stratis Health
Karla Weng, MPH, CPHQ, Project Manager/Rural Hospital Interventions Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (HIQIOSC), Stratis Health
The QIO Program, as directed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, serves to assist consumers, physicians, hospitals and other caregivers in refining care delivery systems to ensure patients are receiving quality care at the right time. This session will provide information on how QIOs and hospitals in rural areas focus on rural-specific quality. Click here to download handouts.
10:45 am - noon
Rural Safety Culture
Katherine Jones, PT, PhD, Assistant Professor Physical Therapy Education, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Anne Skinner, RHIA, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center
This session will provide an overview of lessons learned from conducting the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in 29 Critical Access Hospitals. These lessons include: the need to use a rural-adapted version of the survey, which ensures that even the smallest hospitals can identify differences in culture within job titles and work areas; a working definition of safety culture that facilitates a strategy for organizational change; and identification of specific tools that provide front-line staff with the behaviors needed to support the four components of an informed, safe culture. Click here to download handouts.
Rural HIV/AIDS Care
Ricardo Nimo, MD, Internal Medicine, Field Memorial Community Hospital, Centreville, Mississippi
Hear the emerging issues and approaches in rural HIV/AIDS care from a physician with a firsthand account of how this disease and its impact are playing out in rural Mississippi. Click here to download handouts.
NRHA and Nebraska Center for Rural Health Research Culture of Quality Survey Pilot Program
Katherine Jones, PhD, PT, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Anne Skinner, RHIA, University of Nebraska Medical Center
This session will highlight hospitals participating in the pilot program and will allow the surveyors an opportunity to highlight survey analysis and receive feedback from hospitals currently in the program. Click here to download handouts.
Rural Mental Health
Dennis Mohatt, MA, Deputy Director WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Workforce shortages abound in rural areas, but mental health services are almost routinely absent in comparison to other specialties. This concurrent session will get you up to speed on what you need to know about these shortages and will include information on the latest rural mental health regulatory impacts. Click here to download handouts.
Quality of Care in the Rural Environment
Dale Bratzler, DO, MPH, Medical Director, Hospital Interventions Quality Improvement Organization Support center and the Hospital Quality of Care Measures Special Study
This session will provide a review of rural quality measures and the clinical lessons learned about providing quality care in the rural environment.
9:15-10:30 a.m.
Decreasing Potential for Inpatient Decubitus Ulcers through Performance Improvement
Mary Guyot, RN, Senior Consultant, Stroudwater Associates
This session will provide a review of the use of root-cause-analysis to identify opportunities for improvement with end result of preventing decubitus ulcers. Click here to download handouts.
Keynote speaker: Joe McCannon, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) helps accelerate change in health care by cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care and turning those ideas into action. The IHI also serves as one of the NRHA's leading partners for ensuring clinical quality and safety in rural facilities. Join us as Mr. McCannon sets the stage by discussing the challenge of improving quality and the vision of the IHI toward helping those in the field to meet those challenges. Click here to download handouts.
Health Cost, Quality, and Access Have the Same Solutions
Robert C. Bowman, MD, A.T. Still University, Arizona
65% of the US population is left behind in health, education, economics, and other important quality-of-life areas. Learn about the solutions to these persistent issues and how to structure health policy to serve the entire nation. Click here to download handouts.
Medical Students Billing 101
Brock Slabach, MPH, FACHE NRHA Senior Vice President of Membership Services
In medical school, most future doctors are never exposed to the billing and coding procedures that are an integral part of day-to-day life in any medical practice. This primer course gives medical students some exposure to the basics of billing and coding, including an overview of the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition (ICD-9), which will offer future rural doctors the basic knowledge necessary to oversee the submission of insurance claims and keep their practices financially viable.
Geriatric Nutrition Assessment Training for Primary Care Providers
Esther Forti, PhD, RN, Consultant
Vicky J. Ott, MS., RD, Consultant
This session is sponsored by the Health Resources & Services Administration's Bureau of Primary Health Care.
Nutrition assessment is not a component of the routine health screening of the elderly, despite the important role that nutrition plays in the health status of the aging population. The "Determine Your Nutritional Health" tool consists of 10 items and is used in assessing geriatric nutrition. This tool was developed and distributed by the Nutrition Screening Initiative, a project of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Dietetic Association and the National Council on Aging. The presenters will conduct this special training on how to use and interpret the nutrition screening tool. Click here to download handouts.
9-10:15 a.m.
The Pharmacist, a Vital Component to Medication Safety
Patricia Kienle, Cardinal Health Foundation & Consultant for the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners
This session will discuss the pharmacist's role in medication safety. Data will be shared on the impact that pharmacists can make, and case examples of innovative pharmacists' services. Click here to download handouts.
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Washington Update
Tim Fry, NRHA Government Affairs and Policy Manager
The NRHA has set three major legislative priorities for 2008: a Medicare package that is sensitive to the rural delivery system, a spending bill that invests in the future of rural health, and workforce solutions to the looming workforce crisis. Hear how these priorities are currently being addressed on Capitol Hill as well as the latest regulatory information surrounds quality and clinical related issues. Click here to download handouts.
This conference was sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.
**This conference has been awarded 13.5 CPHQ continiuing education credit hours by the National Association for Healthcare Quality.
**This activity has been reviewed and is acceptable for up to 12.25 credits from the American Academy of Family Physicians.
**This CNE activity was approved for 13.5 credit hours by the Virginia Nurses Association Continuing Education Approval Committee, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Education Approval Committee, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
