Integrating Patients and Families on Quality Improvement (QI) Teams

Tom Workman, AIR

This resource offers guidance to HQIC hospitals and QI coaches on how to include patient and family advisors on hospital quality improvement (QI) teams. The resource will help hospital leaders and staff: (1) understand how patient and family members can contribute to a QI team as an advisor; (2) how to recruit patient and family advisors for a QI team; and (3) how to prepare patient and family advisors to contribute to a QI team.

Patient Safety & Behavioral Health: Antipsychotic Medication Adverse Drug Events (ADE’s)

This material was prepared by Alliant Quality, and adapted by the IPRO QIN-QIO, a collaboration of Healthcentric Advisors, Qlarant and IPRO, serving as the Medicare Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization.

This resource discusses the common effects of antipsychotic ADE’s, and provides links to other resources and interventions that support the prevention of adverse events. Adverse drug events cause approximately 1.3 million emergency department visits each year. About 350,000 patients each year need to be hospitalized for further treatment after emergency visits for adverse drug events. People typically take more medicines as they age, and the risk of adverse events may increase as more people take more medicines.

Person and Family Engagement and Health Equity

Developed by American Institute of Research (AIR) in partnership with IPRO HQIC

Person and family engagement (PFE) is recognized by the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a promising way to
address health and health care disparities and achieve equity in
quality and safety
. Applying PFE equitably means including
patients and families from all backgrounds as equal and active
partners in their health care. Doing so can help ensure that all
patients reap the benefits of engagement in their healthcare.

Opioid Overdose Prevention TOOLKIT & Opioid Use Disorder Facts

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

This toolkit offers strategies to health care providers, communities, and local governments for developing practices and policies to help prevent opioid-related overdoses and deaths. Access reports for community members, prescribers, patients and families, and those recovering from opioid overdose.

  • Scope of the Problem
  • Strategies to Prevent Overdose Deaths
  • Resources for Communities

Sepsis and Health Equity Fact Sheet

Sepsis Alliance

Highlights many racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities related to sepsis. The fact sheet includes the following sepsis disparities:

  • Black and other nonwhite people have nearly twice the incidence of sepsis as whites
  • Non-Hispanic black children admitted to an emergency room are less likely to be treated for sepsis than non-Hispanic white children
  • Native Hawaiians have almost twice the burden of sepsis mortality compared to whites
  • Black children are 30% more likely than white children to develop sepsis after surgery
  • Children with severe sepsis or septic shock who are black or Hispanic are about 25% more likely to die than non-Hispanic white children
  • Adults below the poverty line have more than three to four times the risk of dying of sepsis compared to adults whose family income is at least five times the poverty line

Preventing Falls in Hospitals

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Each year, somewhere between 700,000 and 1,000,000 people in the United States fall in the hospital. A fall may result in fractures, lacerations, or internal bleeding, leading to increased health care utilization. Research shows that close to one-third of falls can be prevented. Fall prevention involves managing a patient’s underlying fall risk factors and optimizing the hospital’s physical design and environment. This toolkit focuses on overcoming the challenges associated with developing, implementing, and sustaining a fall prevention program.