Today’s skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) track literally dozens of clinical, financial standards and quality measures for internal benchmarking, as well as for reporting to and compliance with governmental agencies. Given the large volume of data generated by SNFs of all sizes, and the myriad ways such data could be utilized, Richter’s clinical consulting services team recently undertook a process to create performance initiatives that target five high-risk areas in the SNF setting and provide proactive mitigation of those risks.

In this blog, we highlight the ways that optimizing your QAPI program can benefit your facility, and we offer selected strategies for optimizing QAPI processes.

QAPI is the coordinated application of two mutually-reinforcing aspects of a quality management system: Quality Assurance (QA) and Performance Improvement (PI). QAPI takes a systematic, comprehensive and data-driven approach to maintaining and improving safety and quality in nursing homes and home care agencies while involving all caregivers in practical and creative problem solving.

Establishing and maintaining a strategic QAPI program can empower you to achieve the next level of quality assurance and rectify issues throughout your facility without having to endure a negative patient outcome or survey citation. It can also guide your organization toward achieving high quality measures and positively impact its Five-Star rating.

Benefits of optimizing QAPI in your SNF:

• Identify, address and resolve issues through the smart and tactical use of data
• Clearly understand where your facility may fall short, which enables you to establish a plan that better positions your facility moving forward
• Identify additional opportunities for improvement with an eye toward developing an appropriate action plan to address each one
• Decrease survey citations

Selected strategies for optimizing QAPI processes:

• Identify specific areas for Performance Improvement Projects (PIPs) to decrease the scope and severity of survey citations
• Identify strategies to improve overall resident outcomes
• Identify strategies to improve the customer experience/satisfaction

Contact Richter

Do you have questions about establishing and maintaining a strategic QAPI program in your facility, the five SNF target areas identified by Richter, or other clinical challenges? Read our e-book, “Optimizing Five Target Areas in Skilled Nursing Facilities – Your Key to Success” or call Richter’s skilled nursing facility consultants at 866-806-0799 to schedule a free consultation.

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