Best Practices Toolkit Skilled Nursing Facilities

This study from the Department of Health and Human Services found an estimated 22 percent of Medicare beneficiaries experienced temporary harm events during their skilled nursing facility stays, with 59 percent of these events being preventable.

These new standardized instructions to improve patients' understanding of when to take medications, reduce errors and improve adherence are available in six languages.

This guide from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Partnership for Patients program offers resources, tools and suggestions for implementing a readmission reduction program in your facility.

The TMF Quality Innovation Network developed this document to assist health care professionals to increase patient safety by reducing C. diff rates and improving antibiotic stewardship in health care facilities serving high-risk fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has developed trigger tools for health care professionals to use to help identify adverse events that could cause harm to patients.

Now available with two new drug groups: COPD medications and antipsychotics. Clinicians in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, pharmacies and physician offices will find this tool useful for teaching their Medicare and elderly patients about their medications. Included in the tool are a cover reminder card, and eleven medication cards, including: Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) -inhibitors, Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs), beta blockers, antiarrhythmic agents, aldosterone blockers, diuretics, nitrates (vasodilators), potassium, blood thinners (anticoagulants), antidiabetic agents, opioid medications, COPD medications and antipsychotics. Each medication card includes: 1) How the class of drug works, 2) What problems to report to the clinician, and 3) The brand or generic drug names by class.

The Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (MATCH) toolkit was developed to help facilities improve their medication reconciliation process. This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to help health care providers ensure patients are properly educated about the medications they have been prescribed to help avoid medication errors and patient harm.

Internists/primary care physicians and nurses: Provide this document to your patients, which includes more information to help them ascertain when to call your office for help or when to go to the emergency room for a range of conditions, including shortness of breath, heart failure, complications with diabetes and more. Patients: Use this document to help determine when to call your physician for help or when to go to the emergency department for assistance.

Physicians and nurses at hospitals can use this document to help ensure patients being discharged from the hospital are appropriately led through the discharge process. Hospital staff can also use this survey to help document their own internal patient discharge processes to ensure all of the proper steps were followed.

Download this handout, created by the TMF Quality Innovation Network, which provides a quick-and-easy reference of readmissions measures for the hospital, skilled nursing facility and home health settings.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network provides long-term care facilities with a customized system to track infections in a streamlined and systematic way.

This website provides training and resources for skilled nursing facilities to understand and use their PEPPER (Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report).

Now available with two new drug groups: COPD medications and antipsychotics. Clinicians in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, pharmacies and physician offices will find this tool useful for teaching their Medicare and elderly patients about their medications. Included in the tool are a cover reminder card, and eleven medication cards, including: Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) -inhibitors, Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs), beta blockers, antiarrhythmic agents, aldosterone blockers, diuretics, nitrates (vasodilators), potassium, blood thinners (anticoagulants), antidiabetic agents and opioid medications. Each medication card includes: 1) How the class of drug works, 2) What problems to report to the clinician, and 3) The brand or generic drug names by class.

Clinicians in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, pharmacies and physician offices will find this tool useful for teaching their Medicare and elderly patients about their medications. Included in the tool are a cover reminder card, and eleven medication cards, including: Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) -inhibitors, Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs), beta blockers, antiarrhythmic agents, aldosterone blockers, diuretics, nitrates (vasodilators), potassium, blood thinners (anticoagulants), antidiabetic agents and opioid medications. Each medication card includes: 1) How the class of drug works, 2) What problems to report to the clinician, and 3) The brand or generic drug names by class.

Internists/primary care physicians and nurses: Provide this document to your patients, which includes more information to help them ascertain when to call your office for help or when to go to the emergency room for a range of conditions, including shortness of breath, heart failure, complications with diabetes and more. Patients: Use this document to help determine when to call your physician for help or when to go to the emergency department for assistance.

Physicians and nurses at hospitals can use this document to help ensure patients being discharged from the hospital are appropriately led through the discharge process. Hospital staff can also use this survey to help document their own internal patient discharge processes to ensure all of the proper steps were followed.