Taking Action
We’re all about action! This page provides the latest information about our current pilot projects, promising projects in need of your support, and new policy resources.
Pilot Projects
Our committees and partners are currently working on four key projects aimed at empowering residents and CNAs.
Addressing Residents’ Goals, Preferences & Priorities (GPP)
One of the top 10 citations on nursing home surveys is F-tag: F656 – Comprehensive Care Plans. That suggests that many nursing homes lack the bandwidth or resources to address residents’ full set of goals, preferences, and priorities (or GPPs). But, it doesn’t need to be hard to meet GPPs. Our guide offers accessible, easy-to-use strategies and steps to talk to residents about what matters to them and realize them in every-day care. We’re working with Kansas State University to pilot the guide with a small number of nursing homes.
Thanks to our partner:
Kansas State University
Strengthening Resident Councils
Nursing homes aren’t just sites of care. They are people’s homes. To make nursing homes live up to that name, residents need to not only direct their own care, but have a say in the function and communal life of the nursing home as a whole. Empowering resident councils is a vital step to ensuring residents have that voice. Under the direction of Mairead Painter, Connecticut’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman, we’re working in one state to create a resident council movement.
Expanding CNA Career Pathways
When asked what it would take for an employer to hire them back if they chose to quit, 40% of CNA respondents indicated better training opportunities (NAHCA).
One big issue with CNA training is that credentials are not standardized between or even within states – as a result, CNAs can’t carry their hard-earned credentials with them. The network of Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Programs (or GWEP) is a great opportunity to begin developing those nationally recognized standards, so we can work together to inspire CNAs to stay in long-term care wherever they go.
Thanks to our partner:
American Geriatrics Society,
GWEP Coordinating Center
Leadership Training
As emphasized throughout the 2022 NASEM Report, strong leadership is essential to building and growing effective nursing home teams in order to promote each resident’s quality of life. The Coalition is collaborating with four Michigan nursing homes, a team of Michigan coaches, and national content developers to implement leadership and quality improvement programs over the next 18 months. There is a focus on communication, trusting relationships, diversity, coaching, and teamwork.
We are generously funded by:
Michigan Health Endowment Fund
Promising Projects
We are actively seeking partners to help finance, resource, and lead promising projects to improve nursing home quality. If you have ideas or think your organization could support one of these projects, send us an email by clicking on the “Interested in Sponsoring” button.
Our work spans a lot of issues and needs. Our Education Sessions are to present a range of issues tied into reform – and hopefully help make the complex issues easier to understand.
New to the Coalition? Curious about what’s on the next horizon? These big picture sessions are about the latest in and around the Coalition.
Each of our seven committees has an Action Plan guiding their work. These sessions are a good way for you to stay abreast of specific committee work, ask questions, and find ways to get involved.
Our work is based on listening to a wide range of interests – from providers to advocates, and legislators. Whether a focus group or group discussion, our goal is to get participants to do the talking so we can learn from you.
HIT Readiness Guide
The HITECH Act of 2009 incentivized acute care providers to adopt powerful health information technology to revolutionize patient care. It left out nursing homes.
Now, as CMS guides the health care system toward a more integrated and value-focused future, nursing homes desperately need that technology. But, according to one study by Coalition leader Greg Alexander, 68% lack the technology to communicate with staff in other care settings.
⭐ Help us develop resources to support nursing home leaders in adopting the technology they need to be part of a 21st-century healthcare system and provide patients with the care they deserve.
Addressing GPPs: Tech Enabled GPP Collection Tool
Nursing homes cannot collect residents’ goals, priorities, and preferences (or GPPs) in a vacuum. As residents move between sites of care or receive care from different providers, everyone needs to know what matters most to them. As a result, information about residents’ goals needs to be digital, interoperable, and universally usable.
⭐ Help us develop the foundational tools, data standards, and cross-sector buy-in to make goal concordant care for all nursing home residents a reality.
Surveyor Training on Person Centered Care
As we empower nursing homes to address what matters most to nursing home residents, we also need to empower surveyors to identify when nursing homes are achieving that goal, and help guide them toward more person-centered practices. Truly person-centered care looks a lot different than what we’re used to in nursing homes, and surveyors need to be able to recognize that.
⭐ In Michigan, we piloted a powerful one-day curriculum for training state surveyors on how to identify and encourage person-centered care. Could your state be next?
Policy Resources
The Coalition is committed to advancing nursing home quality through practice and policy. Picking up where the NASEM report left off, members of the Moving Forward Coalition prioritized three of federal policy recommendations and worked together to develop the consensus and specificity to make them actionable for federal policymakers.
Monthly Events
Coalition Conversations are monthly virtual events. They are a great way to gain insight into what the Coalition and others are doing to promote meaningful change, dive into nursing home quality issues, and share ideas so we all can move forward together. All are welcome!
Miss a conversation? Check our YouTube channel.
